Premier League latest news: Liverpool & Slot talks, Guardiola & De Zerbi updates – BBC

Liverpool to open talks with Feyenoord over Arne Slot as possible Klopp replacement
Latest from Brighton & Man City news conferences
Reaction as Arsenal hammer Chelsea 5-0 in the Premier League
Win moves Arsenal three points clear at the top of the table
Disappointing Chelsea suffer first league defeat since February
Leicester edge towards Premier League return with thumping win over Southampton
Four Premier League matches on Wednesday – including Everton v Liverpool

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Sam Drury, Craig Nelson and Sarah Rendell
We will be back from around 18:30 BST with coverage of tonight's Premier League fixtures.
Before then, you can read the latest on your club by clicking on this index.
And read the key summary points on this page to catch up with the main events of the day.
Thanks…
Simon Stone
BBC Sport
Since the fall-out of the European Super League, the European Clubs' Association has been on a huge recruitment drive under chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi.
Rather than just target the bigger clubs, Al-Khelaifi, who also runs Champions League semi-finalists Paris St-Germain, has been trying to broaden the scope of ECA to make it the real collective driving force of the European club scene.
From 266 clubs at the start of this season, ECA now has 600 members – a remarkable growth rate of 125% – including at least one club from each of Uefa's 55 member countries.
"This is a fantastic moment in our rapid expansion and positive evolution," said Al-Khelaifi.
"This underlines that ECA is a dynamic, democratic, representative, and inclusive organisation – which gives a voice to the many not the few. The message is that we are here for all clubs, no matter their perceived size."
Manchester City
Each time Manchester City are put under pressure, they seem to respond with the answer, but how many times can they keep on doing that?
Statistically speaking, they remain favourites to win the title (55.3%), but Arsenal have put them under scoreboard pressure by opening up a four-point gap.
Timings of matches from now on means that if City and the Gunners continue to win all of their matches, then Pep Guardiola's side will not be able to return to the top of the table until after their early kick-off on 11 May.
Here are City's remaining six matches:
Arsenal
Arsenal's chances of winning the title have risen to 29.9%, based on the latest Opta predictions, following two strong performances this week in victories at Wolves and at home to Chelsea.
Those wins have put the onus on Liverpool and Manchester City to follow suit. If they do, then the pressure will be right back on the Gunners going into Sunday's north London derby at Tottenham.
Here are Arsenal's four remaining fixtures:
Liverpool
Liverpool are rated by Opta as an outside bet for the title, with only a 14.8% chance of gifting departing manager Jurgen Klopp with the best parting gift imaginable.
Here are their remaining five games:
If you want to assess the title run-in for each team, clicking on this BBC Sport feature is a great place to start.
You can find all the remaining matches for the three title challengers – Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City – along with the latest Opta stats showing what the chances are of each side winning the title, as well as their chances of winning each individual game they have left.
For the record, Opta still has Manchester City in pole position, as they will claim a record fourth consecutive title if they win all their remaining matches.
But Arsenal's recent wins against Wolves and Chelsea have given them a four-point cushion over Pep Guardiola's side, albeit having played two games more.
The Gunners have also moved three points clear of second-placed Liverpool, who play their game in hand at Everton tonight.
Jurgen Klopp's side have a vastly inferior goal difference so should not expect to return to the top of the table, even with a win at their Merseyside rivals…
Everton v Liverpool (20:00 BST)
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp says Trent Alexander-Arnold is "world class" and will be a player "people talk about in 40 years".
Klopp, who will leave the Reds at the end of the season, also thinks it will be good for the academy product to have a new managerial influence as he is all Alexander-Arnold knows.
The 25-year-old made his first-team debut in October 2016 and has gone on to make more than 300 appearances for the Reds, winning the Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup, Club World Cup and Super Cup.
"He has been a fantastic player from the first day," said Klopp. "He is an outstanding talent and he has turned into a world-class football player.
"It is rare as a manger you are part of a journey for such a long time. But Trent has never had another manager so it will be good for him to get new influences in the future."
Last week, Alexander-Arnold told The Overlap podcast he "owes everything as a player" to Klopp and how he has encouraged him.
"He can be happy with the steps he has made," added Klopp. "I have nothing bad to say about him and his development.
"He has a story that not many clubs can write."
Brighton v Man City (Thurs, 20:00 BST)
Simon Stone
BBC Sport
Premier League managers are being asked about their attitude to referees in the wake of the storm that erupted around Nottingham Forest's reaction to their defeat at Everton on Sunday.
Although most of them give grief to officials on a regular basis during games, few seem to think the referees are manipulating games.
Pep Guardiola has been known to vent at fourth officials in particular.
But he said this lunchtime that when he sits back and reflects, he knows they are trying their best.
It would be good if managers could just take a breath every now and then and realise what they do in the Premier League filters down to grass roots, where the protection for officials is not as great.
Not every mistake is a conspiracy. In fact, barely any are. They are just mistakes.
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Slot to Liverpool, ifs, buts and maybes. Klopp is still in charge and there's the small matter of a Merseyside derby this evening. Focus people.
Mike
Everton v Liverpool (20:00 BST)
There are some big games there but the Merseyside derby obviously stands out, with implications for both ends of the Premier League table, as well as local bragging rights.
Those in the Everton camp will be breathing easier after Sunday's win over Nottingham Forest moved them five points clear of the relegation zone, with a game in hand over rivals Forest, Luton and Burnley.
Liverpool, meanwhile, can go back level on points with leaders Arsenal with victory at Goodison Park.
There will be plenty of chatter about the Reds' future in the build-up to the game following the news today linking them with a move for Feyenoord manager Arne Slot.
But will that take the club's focus off this season's target – winning a second Premier League title under departing boss Jurgen Klopp?
Click here to read the latest on those Liverpool links with Slot.
All kick-offs 20:00 BST unless stated
Right, let's look ahead to the remaining matches in this latest round of Premier League fixtures:
Wednesday, 24 April
Wolves v Bournemouth (19:45 BST)
Crystal Palace v Newcastle United
Everton v Liverpool
Manchester United v Sheffield United
Thursday, 25 April
Brighton v Manchester City
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Liverpool have a fantastic group of young players, and we don't want to waste a couple of seasons getting used to a completely new system. An attacking, high-press system is what the players know, that is why they have been recruited or promoted from the academy. If the manager suits that system then it's perfect.
Adam H
New Watford manager Tom Cleverley says he is ambitious as a manager but lacked the attribute as a player.
Cleverley has taken over the club after Valerien Ismael was sacked last month.
“There is a lot of unfinished business from my playing career,” he explains in an interview with BBC Sport. “That drives me forward with my coaching. It motivates me every day.
“I didn’t achieve anything in the Champions League with Manchester United. The title we lost to City. I came to Watford when they were in the Premier League. I retired as a player with them in the Championship. None of it sits right.
“I left a few out there as a player. I probably lacked ambition. But as a coach I am very ambitious.”
Read the full interview by Simon Stone here.
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If Liverpool start playing well consistently they’ll be known as the Slot Machine.
Dave
Brighton v Man City (Thu, 20:00 BST)
Brighton & Hove Albion
Brighton manager Roberto de Zerbi on difficult second half of the season: "This season has been very tough, especially after January. We're suffering too many injuries to key players.
"It's not finished yet. I'm sorry because I'm disappointed and wanted to compete in a different way the last three months.
"Next season we will be better because we have experienced – we are experiencing, it's not finished yet – a tough period.
"We try to win games but first we have to start with performances and play better, for sure. We need to be stronger in the last 20 metres and give our best."
Brighton v Man City (Thu, 20:00 BST)
Brighton & Hove Albion
Brighton manager Roberto de Zerbi on Manchester City: "They are tired? I think not. They played Saturday against Chelsea, tomorrow is Thursday and they are used to playing so many games.
"They were unlucky against Real Madrid because they lost on penalties but with Arsenal and Liverpool, one of the best teams in the Premier League. For us it's a very tough game."
On Erling Haaland being ruled out: "Great news because Haaland is a top player. Unfortunately, they will play with [Julian] Alvarez and he is still a big player for them.
"Then Bernardo [Silva], [Jeremy] Doku, [Jack] Grealish on the wing. The level of difficulty for this game is tough but we'd like to play well and get points, for sure."
Brighton v Man City (Thu, 20:00 BST)
Brighton & Hove Albion
Right…first up from Brighton manager Roberto de Zerbi is an update on team news: "The situation is more or less the same as the last game. Adam Webster can be available to play, Julio [Enciso] we will see. [Billy] Gilmour is not available, Tariq [Lamptey] no, James Milner no, [Evan] Ferguson no.
"Pervis [Estupinan] is finished for the season."
Brighton v Man City (Thu, 20:00 BST)
Manchester City
We will have those quotes for you shortly from Brighton manager Roberto de Zerbi.
Thursday's opponent, Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola, held his news conference earlier this lunchtime.
In case you missed it, he said he "never had doubts" about the integrity of Premier League referees, after being asked about Nottingham Forest's angry post on social media criticising officials following their 2-0 defeat at Everton on Sunday.
Forest said they were "considering their options" over "extremely poor" refereeing decisions.
"They do their job as best as possible," Guardiola said on Premier League match officials.
"When they do the job, they want to do it well. The game is so difficult. It is fast and quick. Decisions have to be made in one instant. It's not easy."
Read the full story here.
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The chances of Liverpool "doing a United" post-Klopp are very minimal. United's internal structure has been an absolute disaster since Fergie and Gil left. Remember when Woodward said publicly at their AGM that the owners weren’t bothered about football performance as long as the commercial brand was profitable? If you’ve not heard the Schweinsteiger interview from a couple of weeks ago as well, the way he was treated perfectly encapsulates the terrible culture at United in the past decade. Liverpool and FSG by contrast have done the complete opposite; they've put talented, skilled people in positions of authority whose primary goal is sporting excellence. There will be a tough period of transition but we'll be okay.
Tom
Brighton v Man City (Thu, 20:00 BST)
Brighton & Hove Albion
Brighton manager Roberto de Zerbi has, of course, been linked with a number of jobs.
But his focus, no doubt, will be on helping the Seagulls finish a tough season strongly, starting with a positive result at home to Manchester City on Thursday.
De Zerbi has been speaking with the media. We will bring you the main lines to come out of that news conference shortly.
The big news seems to be a disappointing one, with reports, external suggesting De Zerbi has confirmed that full-back Pervis Estupinan will miss the rest of the season with a calf injury.
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