• Manager defends club’s spending record in dig at critics

• ‘We need to make sure we qualify for Champions League’

Arne Slot has defended Liverpool’s spending record but admitted the pressure was now on to qualify for the Champions League.

Their chances of making the top five – likely enough to qualify – took a significant hit after they lost 2-1 at Brighton in what has been a disastrous season in the context of a £450m outlay on players in the summer shortly after they had lifted the Premier League trophy.

Danny Welbeck has not given up on making England’s World Cup squad and showed exactly what Thomas Tuchel is missing with two goals to dent Liverpool’s Champions League hopes.

The Brighton striker moved past Dominic Calvert-Lewin – selected ahead of him for England’s upcoming friendlies – with his 11th and 12th league goals of the season, making him the Premier League’s highest-scoring Englishman. At 35, this is the most prolific campaign of his career.