We’re in for an epic title race...shaded by Liverpool

BELIEVE it or not, much good could come out of the Covid outbreak at the Leeds training ground.

For a start, it can only help Marcelo Bielsa, given the dangerous position he finds himself in so close to relegation trouble.

I discuss that separately (on the left), but, for the Premier League in general, I think it can have major implications for the title race… making it more competitive and exciting.

For a fair few weeks now, I’ve seen the ominous menace of Manchester City grow and regular readers of this column will know that I have never doubted them or their quality.

Yet I’ve also had this feeling for a few weeks that Liverpool have something, too, possibly something a tiny bit more, if they have a healthy squad.

The Covid outbreak at Anfield threatened all that, though. Without four regulars and with sickness and injuries in the camp, too, they dropped points at Tottenham they wouldn’t have otherwise, I’m sure of that.

And I feared that, with two games in three days over Christmas, and still without all those players, they could have lost too much ground to City to make a real fight of the title race.

Now, though, today’s game is off, and Liverpool will surely get most of their players back for the 28th.

I’m also hearing it may be possible for them to keep Mo Salah and Sadio Mane for the game against

Chelsea before they depart for the Africa Cup of Nations… if that still goes ahead.

In fact, with that mini-break in January, the fixtures have now fallen kindly for Liverpool and it means they will lose their two best players for only a couple of important matches.

We saw enough from Diogo Jota (above) against Leicester to believe

Liverpool can cope without them both for a few matches.

And I’ve seen enough to believe they can put enough pressure on City to make them crack. I use that term lightly, because I know how good Pep Guardiola’s side are and they will not fall apart.

But City dropping any points at all is them ‘cracking’ as such, because, honestly, you look at them sometimes and think they’ll never slip up again. So why do I think Liverpool can still beat them?

Well, simply because they are a brilliant team. A compelling team, who have a mentality that forces them to never give up.

I’d compare it to the great Manchester United sides Sir Alex Ferguson built when I was playing. They never know when they’re beaten. They had no right to beat Leicester, but did.

They had no right to get anything at Spurs with so much disruption before the game, but still got a point and, in all honesty, should have had three.

If they can get through this current Covid wave without losing any more players, then I think they will have a virtually full squad, going into the second half of the season, and can do what they did when they became champions.

The fact that they know how to put together a winning run under pressure is a huge factor. In that sense, they are more compelling than City.

A lot will depend on the Africa Cup of Nations, but if Salah and Mane only miss cup matches and Brentford and Crystal Palace, then Liverpool will cope, no problem.

I hope I’m right, not because I’m a Liverpool fan – though there is that, too – but because it will give us a real title race. The last two years have been a procession, one long coronation for City and Liverpool apiece.

Three seasons ago, though, it was epic, the greatest title race of all time.

City won by a single point, with the second-highest top-flight total of all time.

Surely that’s what we all want again – and it would probably be even better if Chelsea could make it a three-way race, too.

So that’s my prediction, an epic title race, shaded by Liverpool.

I’ve seen the menace City grow of Manchester have ... but Liverpool possibly something, too, a tiny bit more