The Reds go to City on Sunday outright Premier League leaders and with the hosts reeling after last night's Champions League defeat at Real Madrid. Liverpool sit eight points clear of second-place Arsenal and 17 from fourth-place City.
But Slot insists: "Biggest question to ask is for Man City because we face a strong team again, like Villa. Arsenal play before us but it doesn't make our game easier or harder. We have 12, Arsenal have 13 to play. We cannot look at other teams, we know it is hard to go the Etihad, so we don't need Arsenal to be involved even more.
"What I always expect from City since Pep is there: a great team who can play so well. He's had a few months in so many years now where they are not at their best. I can see them coming back now with their result v Newcastle. We will have to suffer and work hard to keep them away from our goal, but they face a strong team who haven't lost for 22 games."
On City's injury problems, with Erling Haaland having missed last night's defeat in Madrid, Slot warned Pep Guardiola's squad remains as strong as ever.
He continued: "The players are available and the style is the same. I liked this, if they wear different shirts you know it is a Pep Guardiola side. We saw that even when they drop points and even he needs quality players. If he has players out and only has 10, 11, 12 players, in this league, it is so hard. The players are back, same style, the results are better."
Slot also discussed the confidence of Darwin Nunez, who fluffed a chance to win last night's 2-2 draw at Aston Villa. The Uruguay striker has been heavily criticised by pundits for the miss, with Slot admitting in the aftermath that Nunez "was quite down".
This morning, the Dutchman said: "I can accept every miss, especially from a player who scored 2 very important goals v Brentford. I would prefer him to score but the word 'chance' says it all. I can accept it but what was harder was his behaviour after that chance, it got too much in his head and he wasn't the usual Darwin that works his backside off.
"He was too disappointed after missing it and that is why he was a fraction short. It is always best to have Endo's mindset and he keeps going and is always ready, not many can do this. It's not about the chance, it is the 20 mins after it I want to talk to Darwin about.
"Going 2-1 down v Villa was which was against the run of play. I said at HT i can show them the chances they created, I told them it wasn't logical, so I said keep going and we will have chances. Too many times this season we have missed so many chances. We haven't stolen many points, most of the time we've got what we deserve.
"I am not learning anything but I see mostly the same things, these players can play every three days. Yesterday again, (Dominik) Szoboszlai, what a work rate, his first game in row til the last second up and down and that is all I can ask for and the fans can ask for. We were unlucky not to score and that is football.
"We cannot accept they don't give maximum effort but they do and that is what I assume they will Sunday. The fixture list for us now is difficult but the good thing is we're still No.1 and that's the good thing."
Slot also urged Nunez to take a leaf out of teammate Wataru Endo's attitude. The Dutchman concedes Nunez is now low on confidence. He has six goals in 35 appearances so far this season.
Slot added, "I always truly believe it's the best to have Wataru Endo's mindset. And what I mean by that is for the whole season he just keeps on going, keeps on going and whenever we need him, he is ready.
"And that is difficult because there are not many players that can do this. So it's not about the chance for me, it's more about the 20 minutes afterwards that I want to talk to him about than about him missing a chance."