Gary Neville has admitted to being surprised by the form Liverpool have shown since the start of the season.
The Sky Sports pundit was reflecting on the performances of the big-name Premier League sides over the first two months of the campaign, which is just under a quarter of the way through and now on hold until 21 October with an international break in the meantime.
The ex-Manchester United defender stuck by his pre-season prediction of Arsenal to lift the title but has reassessed his verdicts on other teams, including his former club and Jurgen Klopp’s outfit.
Speaking on his eponymous podcast (via Liverpool Echo), Neville said: “I’m not changing my predictions by the way for those of you who think I’m flip-flopping, I always keep my predictions the same.
“But off what I’ve seen in eight to 10 weeks, Manchester United are a lot worse than I thought they were, Tottenham are a lot better than I thought they were, Liverpool are better than I thought they would be. That’s probably the same as most people.”
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Liverpool fans may well be wearing a wry grin over Neville’s comments on the Reds, and also his withering verdict on United, who he went on to state would struggle to finish even fifth (Sky Sports).
Despite failing to win at Tottenham and Brighton in our last two matches, we still find ourselves in fourth place with 17 points from a possible 24, just three off the summit.
At the equivalent stage last season, we were 10th in the table with 10 points, a whopping 14 behind pace-setters Arsenal following their win over us at the Emirates Stadium (BBC Sport).
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Had it not been for Joel Matip’s wholly unlucky stoppage time own goal at north London’s other top-flight venue nine days ago, we’d be one position better off and one point closer to first place, a scenario that virtually any Liverpool fan would’ve taken at this juncture if offered it on the eve of the campaign.
With our next four league matches all against teams currently placed 13th or lower, and three of them at Anfield, that’s the period where we’ll need to take full advantage of relatively kind fixtures as far as the Premier League goes.
If we can extract maximum points from those amid slip-ups for the teams around us, talk of the Reds as title contenders might gather a bit more pace.
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