Slot & Guardiola philosophical about top-flight struggles

Liverpool manager Arne Slot says it is too early to be "jumping to conclusions" about why Premier League clubs struggled in the Champions League this week, while Manchester City counterpart Pep Guardiola insisted the English top-flight was an "incredible league".

None of the six English sides managed to win the first legs of their last-16 ties, with the Reds being beaten 1-0 at Galatasaray.

Arsenal drew 1-1 at Bayer Leverkusen, Newcastle United held Barcelona at home by the same score, Chelsea and Tottenham both lost 5-2 at Paris St-Germain and Atletico Madrid respectively, and Manchester City were on the end of a 3-0 defeat at Real Madrid.

"To jump to a conclusion after one gameday, I think that's such a small sample size, that's never the smartest thing to do," said Slot. "Maybe, after next week, we will have a completely different conclusion.

"In general, it's not helpful for English clubs not to have a winter break. I'm not saying all these teams lost because we don't have a winter break.

"Why [the lack of victories]? Because you are facing, in the last 16 of Europe, some very good teams. And, four of the five [other] teams in the Champions League played away from home.

"That's usually an advantage to play at home or a disadvantage to play away. To jump to conclusions - [whether it is] missing a winter break, [or that] the level of the Premier League is not as high as we expected it to be - that would be, for me at this moment of time, not the right conclusion to make."

Guardiola's side face an uphill task to overturn their deficit against Real Madrid, who have eliminated City from the Champions League knockout stages on four occasions.

The Catalan, like Slot, cited the quality of teams in the Champions League as he cited the example of Norwegian side Bodo/Glimt, who have beaten City, Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan and Sporting in this season's competition.

"Before, we were the best league in the world, right?" said Guardiola. "After what happened this week, we are not.

"I am pretty sure we are an incredible league. The league is fantastic but in this competition [Champions League], with one or two games, anything can happen.

"That means, other leagues, they are good too. Now everybody talks about Bodo/Glimt in Norway, right? Top team.

"Win against Sporting, win against Inter Milan, win against us, Atletico Madrid. Everybody is tough. Everybody is more prepared and has incredible respect for the other one."

The most recent season previously in which no English side won the first leg of their last-16 tie was 2022-23. On that occasion, two of the four - Chelsea and Manchester City - still advanced to the last eight.

And Slot indicated that judgement should be reserved this time too.

"Let's first judge us all after next week and maybe even then it's still too early to jump to conclusions," added Slot, speaking before his side play Tottenham (16:30 GMT) in the league on Sunday.

"If you are in the Champions League last 16 then all the teams are very good and strong teams. The margins were, in all the games I saw and in ours, really small. We didn't deserve to lose.

"Jumping to conclusions about one game is usually not what I would do."