If there are two sides at the moment that have whetted their appetite the most for the Premier League title this season, it has to be Liverpool and Chelsea, two sides sitting at the summit of the league with only a point in between. Justifying the current positions in the league, bite has been louder than bark, unlike the previous season, where Liverpool finished 8th and the London side cascaded two spots lower.
In the previous Premier League weekend, Klopp and Conte continued their rich vein of form. The Blues clinched the top spot by trashing Ronald Koeman’s Everton 5-0 at home while the following day saw the Merseyside team leapfrogged to the top spot with a 6-1 demolition over Watford at Anfield. In short, it’s a joy to watch these teams play on the pitch, each with their respective tactics and compendium of talents in the squad. Despite being a little patchy in defence, the Reds have netted 30 goals in 11 Premier League matches. Chelsea, on the other hand, are teaching other teams how to defend with 5 clean sheets in the last 5 matches after a shaky start to the season.
However, Liverpool legend Stan Collymore begs to differ from the current hype as he predicts that both Chelsea and Liverpool will finish anywhere between the top four but not at the peak of the roughly brawled league. His two cents has raised plenty of eyebrows, especially ones in the red jersey.
“I know the Festive season is still a few weeks away but Chelsea and Liverpool fans be warned: I’m going to sound a bit like Scrooge here,” the former Nottingham Forest striker told The Daily Mirror.
“Because despite two fantastic performances from your sides over the weekend, I still think you’ll be battling it out for a Champions League spot come May but not for the Premier League crown.
“I hear some pundits saying, ‘Oh, well last week I thought Manchester City were going to win the league but this week I’m going to say Liverpool’.
“And that’s rubbish, it winds me up, because things don’t just change over a weekend or two.
“You have to look at the strength of a club’s first XI, squad depth, whether or not they have a 25-goal-season striker and an ability to keep clean sheets.”
Like it or not, the 45-year old makes a considerable point here. This league is rather unpredictable, there are surprising upsets every weekend, while Arsenal and Manchester City are not too far behind and writing off Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur is nothing but naive.
Looking at the bigger picture, what has kept Liverpool and Chelsea performing like genuine Premier League contenders is absence from the Champions League, where players have more time to prepare for the next league match. It’s a much-needed break as both managers demand physical strength from the players to orchestrate their attack-minded ideology on the pitch. During Conte’s first season at Juventus, the fanatical Italian made most out of the advantage and secured his first league title.
Collymore, being a Liverpool fan and former player himself, is unexpectedly not tempted with the sudden surge in title chances as everyone in the club knows that Klopp’s stamp on the team is rather a long-term vision and if the German lifts his first and Liverpool’s 19th title, it would be a dream come true. On contrary, time is not on Conte’s side as the club’s expectations are rather now or never.
In a nutshell, if both teams continue to gain from the absence of European football and upkeep their sublime run of form, they both face a stiff-neck battle among each other. Better still, it could all go down when they go head to head at Anfield in January!