THIS LEAGUE IS BRILLIANT ...BUT BRUTAL

Forget Liverpool’s unbeaten run... lose today and Arsenal leapfrog them into the top four and Klopp admits that is exactly what makes the Prem the most exciting and difficult league in world football

THEY recorded the longest unbeaten run in club history yet defeat this weekend will see Liverpool plunge out of the top four.

For Jurgen Klopp, that means only one thing: “The Premier League is the toughest in world football.”

The Liverpool boss laughed out loud when he was reminded that, even after the best run in 128 years of stirring Anfield deeds, his team will be out of the Champions League places if Arsenal win there tomorrow.

“This league is unbelievable. Very exciting, absolutely, but of course, it increases the pressure as well,” he said. “Here you have to break records to win things. When I was in Germany people spoke about the best league in the world and said it might be Germany. No, it’s not.

“It used to be Spain, and maybe there were times when it was Italy, but for a few years now it has been the Premier League.

“There is no doubt about that. The number of world-class players in this league is absolutely incredible.”

Yet Klopp is entitled to think it is also brutal – two defeats by the end of November can banish a team from the top four.

Back in 2018-19 Liverpool recorded the then third highest points total in Premier League history (97) – and still didn’t win it. It was also, in terms of points per game, the highest in the club’s illustrious history.

He admits such cut-throat competition brings real pressure but he says that there is still some real satisfaction to be taken from competing against the very best. “I can see this league will get stronger and stronger and stronger,” the German said.

“The English clubs came through a very difficult pandemic in the best way, I mean from an economic point of view. The managers get better and the players get better, so it is indeed a tough race. Unbelievable.

“When you have momentum you have to treat it really carefully and sensitively and when you don’t have it you have to fight with all you have to get it back.”

Arsenal’s Invincibles reached 90 points when they won the title in 2004. Yet that total for a team that went unbeaten all season would have been good enough to lift only one of the last five Premier League crowns.

Liverpool’s first defeat of their entire campaign, their first defeat in 26 matches in fact, came at West Ham before the international break. And Klopp says the task now is simple: bounce back with real intent.

That means beating buoyant Arsenal at Anfield this evening to maintain their position behind table-topping Chelsea and