LIVERPOOL, England: Liverpool did not have it easy when they beat West Ham 2-1 but the players showed a great mentality to come back and claim three points, manager Arne Slot said as they edged closer to the title.
After Luis Diaz opened the scoring, West Ham equalised in the 86th minute through an Andy Robertson own goal before captain Virgil van Dijk headed in the winner three minutes later.
With a 13-point lead over second-placed Arsenal, Liverpool only need two wins from their last six matches to win their second Premier League (EPL) title after 2020 and their first trophy under Slot after losing the League Cup final last month.
“That’s what we’ve done all season. After the disappointment of being eliminated by PSG (in the Champions League), we came out again, came out every three days with this mentality,” Slot told Sky Sports.
“We didn’t win the game the easy way. The easy way was to have the ball, make five passes and we scored a goal and the next goal and the next goal.
“If we achieved anything this year, it was all because of the mentality the players showed. That’s what you saw today.”
Liverpool have lost just two league games this season, with the second coming last weekend at Fulham.
Slot said he feared they would drop points again when West Ham began to threaten in the second half and praised goalkeeper Alisson Becker for rescuing Liverpool with a number of crucial saves.
“The second half was tough, we needed Alisson because (Lucas) Paqueta and (Mohammed) Kudus were exceptional throughout the game,” said Slot.
“Then we conceded a goal… an own goal. How much more disappointment can you feel after what happened last week? Getting a goal through Virgil shows you how big the mentality of my players is.”