Gary Neville says Liverpool are now strong favourites to win this seasons Premier League title after a 2-0 win in Sundays showdown with champions Manchester City, who he believes must now undergo a rebuild under Pep Guardiola.
Arne Slots side are nine points clear at the top and 11 ahead of champions City, who have now lost four successive league games in the same campaign for the first time since August 2008. Liverpool were straight out of the blocks to dominate and Cody Gakpo turned in Mohamed Salahs cross for a 12th-minute lead.
City were fortunate not to concede more before Salah – who had missed his last spot-kick against Real Madrid in midweek – converted a 78th-minute penalty. Slick Liverpool show title mettle as Man City crisis deepensLive Premier League table | Watch free PL highlightsGet Sky Sports or stream the Premier League with NOWArsenal and Chelsea trail Liverpool by nine points, while City have now gone seven games without a win in all competitions and have lost six of those.
Speaking on his latest podcast, Neville assesses the title picture… Liverpool must slip up four times for City to have chance Its an unbelievable performance from Liverpool. The people who have appointed [Slot], the people whove created the stability, the players, most of all, in the sense of getting behind him.
Its really incredible what were watching. None of us expected it. I think Liverpool fans expected it. They may have expected them to finish in the top four but its absolutely brilliant what Arne Slots done and it gets really serious.
Its gone from being a honeymoon period, a great start to hang on a minute. Theres a real expectation but theyll be very, very strong favourites. Nine points clear of Arsenal, 11 points clear of Manchester City and theres still four or five months to go.
The title race doesnt start until April. Were just in early December. These are unusual things for me to be able to say because I would never ordinarily say it. Im not saying Liverpool are going to win the league.
I still think theres a long way to go. But there is no doubt that now therell be an expectation. I wouldnt ever say if they dont win it from this position theyll have bottled it. I dont believe thatll be the case.
I think they will have a difficult patch at some point in the season. Theyll drop points and its up to whether the others, Arsenal and City can resurrect themselves and get on a run. Arsenal have got to go and win four, five, six games on the bounce.
Theyve got winnable games, but theyve got Man Utd on Wednesday, Fulham away and theyve got teams that are in the bottom half of the table. If they win five or six games and Liverpool just draw two games, theyre within five points all of a sudden and thats not Liverpool bottling it, its just the fact youve drawn two games.
Theres a long way to go but the others have got some real hard work to do because Liverpool have to lose four games and City win every single game for them to win the title and thats not looking realistic.
Were in a completely different position than we thought we would be at the start of the season. A completely different position than we thought we would be probably about six to eight weeks ago. Its incredible whats happened to Manchester City and Liverpool have been so smooth.
Its gone from being a very good start to putting in real high quality, authoritative performances that are looking really dangerous when you think of a Premier League title. To be 11 points clear of Manchester City and nine points clear of Arsenal is dreamland for Liverpool, for Arne Slot.
And with that comes a level of pressure that now therell be an expectance that they will win the title. It will be a slightly different mentality, but its a big week for Liverpool. Theyve got Newcastle away on Wednesday.
Theyve got the Merseyside Derby next week as well away at Everton, the last ever one at Goodison Park so thatll be quite special. Theres a job still to do. I dont think its a time to get carried away and theres many points to play for, but that was a brilliant performance.
I thought Liverpool would win today. City have been awful. They looked beaten. The team selection of Pep Guardiola…we can say hes a genius, hes amazing, hes one of the greatest minds of all time and say, I dont think he got it right, without being disrespectful.
Just an observation. We saw Rico Lewis play in front of Kyle Walker last weekend at Tottenham. It didnt work. How was Nunes going to work on this left-hand side in a flat midfield four? Again, it didnt work.
He substituted them both after an hour so its obvious it didnt work. There were things that were wrong for City from the very, very start of the game. I was amazed how they set up. But today Liverpool become huge title favourites.
Whats changed for Man City? Rodri, well keep on mentioning it until the cows come home, but then all of a sudden the weariness, the fatigue, you get a couple of bad results, then the confidence starts to go.
From weariness and fatigue, losing players, injuries, confidence, belief, before you know it, everything looks like its gone, and thats why I dont think anybody at this moment is really ploughing into Pep Guardiola or Manchester City.
These are proven serial winners, these guys that were watching out on the pitch in those blue shirts today, dont have anything to prove in respect to the fact theyve got five and six Premier League titles some of them.
There just comes a point where youve climbed mountain after mountain after mountain, and it just hits you, and thats whats happening, were just seeing a group of players who just, at this moment, cant do any more than what theyre doing, and it looks humbling.
Hits and misses: Rashford transformed under Amorim They look so vulnerable, they look broken out on the pitch, the defenders are broken, the midfield players look weak, they look like theyre being overrun, outworked, the forwards dont look like theyre ever going to score.
They just dont look as dangerous, the patterns that weve always seen in City have gone. Pep Guardiolas built two sensational football teams whilst hes been at the club, and hes going to have to go and build a third.
That doesnt mean rebuild as in, change 10 players, youre talking probably two or three, four players max in, and two or three, four players out. They only usually use about 16 to 18 players City, so you talk about changing a quarter of your squad in and out.
The Kevin De Bruyne thing is unusual, bizarre, strange. Why is probably the best player that the Premier League has had in the last 10 years, why is he not out there? We know hes had injuries, but why is he not out there, because hes a leader, hes got authority, hes got confidence, hes got brilliance.
So somethings going on, somethings definitely going on in the dressing room, theres something happening. But Pep Guardiolas got control, hes got complete control of the club, hes extended his contract and I think hes probably waiting for that January transfer window, and the June-July transfer window, for it to get to a point whereby he can rebuild and shape a new team in the next couple of seasons.
You saw him at the end there with the six up, I quite like it. I think that people may say, oh look, Peps sort of snapped, but actually hes entitled to smirk, hes entitled to say weve won six. Hell not feel great about it, but hes got to a point where he thinks, he realises, right okay, Im here, Ive got to take my hits, Im getting a clip round the ear-type thing in front of everybody, and he has to pull his way out of it.
Im sure hell be thinking already about how he moulds a new team. Firstly hell be thinking about how can they, from this position, win a Premier League title. I dont think they can. This would be Pep Guardiolas greatest ever title if they won it after today.
It would be beyond ridiculous if they were to win it from being 11 points behind. Liverpool would have had to have completely folded, and City would have had to have arrested this, what looks like a decline of this team at this moment in time.
Can Arsenal stop Liverpool? Arsenal are still it in, definitely. Arne Slot will be saying Arsenal are still in it and theyll be saying that City are, but what bugged me about Arsenals game last night and itll bug Mikel Arteta, he was furious before half-time.
He was so angry when they conceded those two goals because theyd been absolutely wonderful that first half an hour. They were brilliant. It was a perfect performance and then just sloppiness and giving teams encouragement.
Other clubs look at this and think hang in there. Little things like that that Arsenal just need to sort out and obviously theyve had a good week. Theyve got back on track. But there was a little, just a little bit, of a niggle last night.
Theyve had a stop-start beginning to the season. The sendings off, the injuries, dropping points, but they look like theyre now getting into a position. Its a big week. They have to go and beat Manchester United.
They have to go and beat Fulham. Then they have to look at Liverpool and think are they going to win at St. James Park? Are you going to go and win at Goodison Park in the last Merseyside Derby? And obviously if Liverpool do, theyll still be nine points clear.
But they might be thinking if they win their two games they could be seven points behind at the end of the week and thats a lot more achievable. Still too early for Chelsea to be title contenders It feels too early for Chelsea.
Even though theyre level on points, it doesnt feel like Chelsea will go on and win it. I still feel its going be Arsenal if anybody can catch Liverpool at this moment. Chelsea are having a fantastic season.
Enzo Maresca has got a stability there thats been difficult to find in the last couple of seasons so well done to them. The Cole Palmer goal was absolutely brilliant. Nicolas Jackson, Im happy for him.
I never thought the problem was Jackson. I thought he might have to sign another forward, but I thought he was a really good second. If he was your man to come on, youd think what a good striker to come on.
Hes now actually pushing to the point where youre thinking do we actually need that first striker? Could he be the first striker even though hes erratic? Hes young and made mistakes. Were now seeing a real handful up there.
Chelsea are doing really well and well done to their manager for just bringing that level of calmness to their club because its been mad and chaotic the last couple of seasons. A lot of money spent, a lot of players coming in and out.
Now for the first time it feels like its settled down. The owners will feel a little bit more calm. Man Utd still long way offObviously it was a good win [against Everton]. Coming back in midweek and winning, Ruben Amorim will be happy.
Theyre a long way off, no doubt about that, but theyve gone up into the top half of the table. Theyre only four or five points off the top four, which is mad really but I dont think theyre quite at that level yet to give anybody confidence that they can get there.
The teams that are above them, particularly in the top six are well ahead of them in terms of performance levels. But hell be happy at the end of his first week of matches.
