Paul Merson has sounded an ominous note for Liverpool in the Premier League title race, which right now he believes is only going one way.
The Reds are still top of the table, although Manchester City and Arsenal both cut the gap to two points following the most recent gameweek, and the champions have a game in hand on Jurgen Klopp’s side.
In his latest column for Sky Sports, the pundit claimed that the recent returns of two major players for Pep Guardiola’s team will make it a tall order for any of the other contenders to prevent them from winning a fourth consecutive title this year.
Merson wrote: “I don’t see who beats Man City to the title. They have missed probably the best player in the league [in] Kevin De Bruyne, and Erling Haaland has also been out. That’s a worry at best for the others. City are on for the treble again.”
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Liverpool’s defeat at Arsenal, combined with City continuing their perfect start to 2023 with victory at Brentford, has come as a blow to our hopes of dethroning the Manchester club, who’ll no doubt be strengthened by having De Bruyne and Haaland back.
However, the onus is still on Guardiola’s side to win their game in hand; and even if they do, the Reds have a chance to take matters into their own hands and land a direct blow on their rivals if they can beat the champions at Anfield on 10 March.
We also have two of our biggest players to return from injury in Mo Salah and Dominik Szoboszlai, and even though most of our regular starters have had spells on the sidelines so far this season, we’ve still managed to set the pace at the Premier League summit up to now.
With our next four top-flight games coming against teams currently in the bottom six, that should provide an ideal platform to quickly put Sunday’s disappointment behind us and build momentum once more prior to the City showdown in 32 days’ time.
Liverpool have proven more capable than anyone of taking Guardiola’s team to the wire, and they can do so again in Klopp’s final campaign in charge, except hopefully with a different outcome this time to our last two title races against the Manchester outfit.
#Ep100 of The Empire of the Kop Podcast: EOTK Insider with Neil Jones🎙️