Liverpool expert David Lynch tells Sports Mole that it would be “madness” and “foolhardy” to rule Arne Slot’s side out of the title race, particularly after Rodri’s injury.
Liverpool expert David Lynch has claimed that it would be “madness” to count Arne Slot‘s team out of the Premier League title race at this early stage of the season.
The 19-time champions sit top of the table after six games of the campaign having won all but one of their matches under Slot so far, with last season’s winners Manchester City and runners-up Arsenal both just a point behind.
Those three teams were tipped by most to occupy those positions at the end of this season too, although four-time defending champions Man City once again entered the campaign as favourites to lift the trophy.
However, the picture has been changed somewhat by Pep Guardiola‘s side losing key midfielder Rodri to a season-ending injury, and Lynch believes that opens the door for either Arsenal or Liverpool to dethrone the recent dominant force in the Premier League.
“It creates a real opportunity for Arsenal. They must be licking their lips now, thinking this is a real, real chance for us. Maybe it’s madness to put them as favourites given City just win it every year, but I really think they’ve got a great chance this year,” he told Sports Mole.
“And for Liverpool, my only question mark around them is, how does the new manager cope? If there are a few more bumps in the road to come, some teething problems, some challenges he doesn’t expect because he’s in a new league… we’ve got to find all that out. They’re up there as the title favorites, but it’s interesting because maybe they’re kind of going under the radar a little bit.
“You get a couple of good results coming into this big testing fixtures they’ve got coming up on the other side of the international break, maybe we start to think they are in title contention, and they’ve got a lot of players who’ve done it before as well, so that that’s quite helpful. It makes the race more open than it’s been before.
“I wouldn’t write City off, but I think it makes it open, and that’s good for the league. It could be another really interesting title race, and I think the hope for all Liverpool fans is that it’ll be a three-way one, rather than just two way.”
Have Man City already lost the points that could cost them the title?
There was a stark contrast between Man City’s record with and without Rodri last season, with Guardiola’s men remaining unbeaten in the league when the Spanish midfielder featured, but losing all four of the games he missed due to suspension.
Although the champions coped better without him in the early weeks of this season, there has been another drop-off since his withdrawal against Arsenal, with City conceding almost immediately after he went off and going on to draw 2-2 with the Gunners, before sharing the spoils at Newcastle United last weekend too.
Since Rodri’s injury they have therefore already dropped four points, a tally which could prove decisive at the end of the season considering that five of the eight titles they have won since their takeover in 2008 have seen them finish less than four points clear of second place.
When it was suggested that Rodri is Man City’s most important player, Lynch told Sports Mole: “Yeah, I would agree with that. You can maybe focus on [his injury] too much, and I don’t think Manchester City are going to collapse from here – they’ve still got an unbelievable squad, they’ve still got Erling Haaland up front who is just freakish in his goalscoring, and they will win an awful lot of games this season.
“But you look back on some of the recent title races where they’re winning it by a nose, particularly last season, for example, a couple of ones that they’ve just got ahead of Liverpool in recent years as well. It just shows you that the margins are so fine, and if a Rodri injury costs you four points in a season, that can be the difference between winning the title or not.
“City will win an awful lot of games, but it undoubtedly weakens them because he’s so convincingly the best player in the world in that position, and it’s such an important position in the way that Pep teams both build up and then shield counter-attacks, so he can constantly pen the opposition, and he’s just vital in that. There’s nobody in the world like him, so it is a blow.”
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“Foolhardy” to write Liverpool off in title race
The only blip in Liverpool’s season to date was a shock 1-0 loss at home to Nottingham Forest last month, although 10th-placed Forest are the highest-ranked team they have faced this season, as the league table currently stands.
Pundit Gary Neville gave short shrift to talk of a Liverpool title challenge in the wake of their 2-1 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers last weekend, but Lynch believes that ruling them out is “madness”.
“I saw Gary Neville’s comments over the weekend – he didn’t think Liverpool were anywhere near Arsenal and City,” he told Sports Mole.
“Again, play down expectations around Slot – you don’t want to put too much pressure on that and like I say I think there could be bumps in the road for Liverpool – but I think it would be foolhardy to write them off at this stage.
“Last season they were top going into maybe the 32nd game or 31st game, so they’ve got a track record for being there until the death, almost. You can’t think just because they fell away slightly towards those last few games last season, when they had a bit of an injury crisis as well, that they’re not a side who’s got the similar quality and can’t be up there.
“Writing them off completely is kind of madness to me.”
Liverpool will be back in action away to winless Crystal Palace on Saturday lunchtime, when a victory would ensure that they go into the second international break of the season still as league leaders.
The Reds boast the best defensive record and goal difference in the division so far, but their 10 league matches immediately after the international break see them take on every other member of the current top nine, as well as a Merseyside derby against Everton.