Alan Shearer has claimed that the Premier League title is now Liverpool’s ‘to chuck away’ after a potentially season-defining week in the race for ultimate glory.
It was little over a week ago that the Reds faced the prospect of being temporarily overtaken by Chelsea in the table, but while the west Londoners duly took just one point from their subsequent two games, Arne Slot’s team have won three in a row to go eight points clear at the summit.
Even with Nottingham Forest and Arsenal (second and third respectively) both winning their final two matches of 2024, they’re reliant on the Merseysiders slipping up in several matches in order to reel them in.
Along with Gary Lineker and Micah Ricards, Shearer was reviewing Sunday’s Premier League action on The Rest Is Football when he heaped praise on a rampant Liverpool.
The BBC pundit said: “They’re brilliant. They’re so strong. We keep saying it every single week, the energy in every position. Even the players they bring on, it’s like ‘goodness me!’
“They’ve got so many options. Gomez is gone off injured so that may be a slight worry for them, but they’re really, really strong and it’s hard to look at anyone else but Liverpool [for the Premier League title]. It’s theirs to chuck away.”
Even the most cautious Reds fan might allow themselves to admit that the odds are very much stacked in their favour in this season’s title race, especially with the usually indomitable Manchester City having 14 points to make up on the leaders and one match fewer in which to do so.
Liverpool’s results in December illustrate just why they’re in such a dominant position. The fearsome ruthlessness they showed against Tottenham and West Ham has been matched by a resilience to recover from positions of difficulty in the draw against Fulham (when we were down to 10 men for most of the game) and the Boxing Day win over Leicester.
Shearer also rightly points to the depth of quality at Slot’s disposal. Dominik Szoboszlai was outstanding against Spurs but wasn’t missed at all yesterday, having been suspended.
Darwin Nunez didn’t get on the pitch at the London Stadium, while the head coach had the luxury of substiuting Ryan Gravenberch and Cody Gakpo with less than an hour gone in order to prevent them from getitng booked and duly being banned for the Manchester United game next weekend.
Liverpool won’t have too many matches as stress-free as Sunday’s romp against West Ham, and there will be some stumbles in the second half of the season, but right now it’d require something special from the chasing pack to overhaul them in the title race.
Once the Reds abide by Mo Salah’s plea to ‘stay humble‘ and not succumb to complacency, there’s a Premier League trophy well within their reach!
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