Can anyone challenge Liverpool this season?

Can anyone challenge Liverpool this season?  

Despite a somewhat slower start to the 2020/21 season and numerous unexpected injury woes, Jurgen Klopp has managed to get the reigning champions back at the winning track.  

Harsh times in October 

Back in early-October, when the Reds suffered a shocking 7-2 loss to Aston Villa in Birmingham, they seemed to be in for a couple of tough months with almost the entire back line sidelined through injuries. Virgil van Dijk was lost for a big part of the season after a brutal challenge from Everton’s keeper Jordan Pickford in the Merseyside derby. Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joel Matip, and Joe Gomez have all been struggling with injuries of their own as well. The Reds’ clean sheets were almost non-existent as a consequence. 

The rise of competitors 

At the same time, we’ve seen decent starts from the likes of Chelsea, Tottenham, Leicester City, and even Everton. London rivals, Chelsea and Spurs, seemed like genuine threats to Liverpool’s crown at the time. Frank Lampard looked to have gathered a star-studded squad following the arrivals of Bundesliga stars Kai Havertz and Timo Werner. Hakim Ziyech also came in a huge move from Ajax. When Edouard Mendy replaced Kepa in goal, Chelsea looked to have gotten the much-needed breakthrough at the back, followed by phenomenal displays from Ben Chilwell and Reece James at full-backs. Lampard’s troops went unbeaten from late-September to mid-December keeping five clean sheets in the process. However, as stressed by the betting experts at Bettingtips4you.com, the team’s obvious lack of the winning mentality caused surprising back-to-back losses to the likes of Everton and Wolves in a three-day span in mid-December. The defeats have seriously hurt Lampard’s ambitions of challenging the very top of the standings. 

Similarly to Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur were on their way to cause real damage at the very top of the Premier League standings. Jose Mourinho has found the superb formula by pulling his talisman Harry Kane back to the playmaker position and allowing Son Heung-Min to strike from counters. This duo has been lethal so far in the season. The Korean winger is the most efficient man in the competition. He has notched 11 goals in the opening 14 rounds and currently sits third on the Premier League goalscoring charts. Kane has provided as many as 10 assists and leads the league’s assist charts by a mile, being followed only by Man City’s magician Kevin De Bruyne with 7 deliveries. The Spurs enjoyed the very top of the ladder led by the two stars, but they quickly dropped down to sixth place after back-to-back losses to Liverpool and Leicester City.  

Manchester City are still looking for the right form  

Besides Liverpool, Manchester City have probably been the only serious title contenders before the season kicked off. However, Pep Guardiola’s frequent rotations, sometimes caused by injury woes (Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus) and sometimes a consequence of his plans, have prevented the team’s strong start. Man City have won only 6 of their opening 13 Premier League affairs and are already eight points shy of the Reds at the top of the standings (with a game in hand, though) after 14 rounds.  

We still consider them as the only significant threat to Klopp’s ambitions of defending the silverware. It is only a matter of time before Kevin de Bruyne, Raheem Sterling, Sergio Aguero (who could finally be fully fit in a couple of weeks), Riyad Mahrez & the company start producing goals in the final third. The Citizens showed they are well capable of doing it in the 5-0 thrashing of Burnley a month ago. However, they looked uninspired in back-to-back draws to Manchester United and West Bromwich Albion and they need to step it up as soon as possible before it’s too late.  

Mo Salah is unstoppable 

We’ll finish the article by getting back to Liverpool. Their back-to-back wins over Tottenham Hotspur and Crystal Palace left them alone at the very top of the league ladder. Mohamed Salah took his competition tally to 13 goals with a brace in the 0-7 hammering of the Glaziers at Selhurst Park. He did so despite playing no more than 30 minutes after coming on from the bench to replace Sadio Mane who had a contribution of his own in the game.  

Alexander-Arnold is also back after the injury, as well as Joel Matip and Alisson in goal. Virgil van Dijk is thus the only serious absence for Klopp’s machinery at the moment. However, the Reds have already proved to have what it takes to destroy their domestic rivals even with so many sidelined players.  

Considering everything mentioned about the likes of Tottenham, Chelsea, and Manchester City above, we just can’t see how Liverpool could potentially fail to win the second Premier League trophy in a row at this stage.