Three months in and it has already been a season of highs and lows for Liverpool.A run of five straight wins to start the team’s Premier League title defense. Then a streak of four consecutive losses.Before the international break, an impressive 1-0 victory over Real Madrid in the Champions League was celebrated as some sort of revival. That was immediately shot down in a dispiriting 3-0 defeat at Manchester City — a result Arne Slot has had to stew over for the past two weeks.An eight-point deficit to league leader Arsenal certainly isn’t insurmountable, yet — on current form — the gap is more likely to widen than close.It apears to be time for the English champions to start playing like one, beginning with a home match against Nottingham Forest on Saturday.That kicks off a benign run of end-of-year fixtures for Liverpool, with matches against West Ham, Sunderland, Leeds, Brighton, Tottenham, Wolves and Leeds again to come up to Jan. 1.If the Reds cannot find some form over the next six weeks, then hopes of retaining the league title for the first time since 1984 might be over.The standout game sees Arsenal host Tottenham in the north London derby on Sunday.Arsenal’s run of 10 straight wins — and eight successive clean sheets — was brought to an end with a 2-2 draw at Sunderland before the break …
