MAC HAPPY TO DO IT FROM THE FRONT
LIVERPOOL may find this unusual ground despite being in their fourth proper title tussle with Manchester City.
Yes, this time there is also Arsenal. A third team in the race as the season goes into single figures for games remaining. But Liverpool have, under Jurgen Klopp, only been in front at this stage when they won the title in the 2019-20 season. After 29 games, they were 22 points clear then.
They’d run away with it.
The hard work had long been done.
But in their two titanic battles with City for top spot, in 2019 and 2022, it was Pep Guardiola’s side who had their noses just in front.
City showed great resilience in both seasons to keep Liverpool at bay despite the
Reds putting on serious pressure.
But this time, Liverpool head into the final nine games with a slender lead in a tight title race.
So when Klopp and Co roll out the old cliche that they are only focused on their own results, this time they can be believed.
If Liverpool win their remaining nine games – no easy feat of course – they will be champions of England for the 20th time thanks to the goalless draw between their rivals on Sunday.
This is a new test for Klopp’s side in his final season with the Reds as it is them who need to hold their nerve in the tensest of title races, as they lead Arsenal by two points and City by a further one. “We need to go game by game,” said midfielder Alexis Mac Allister.
“We need to focus on ourselves and not on other teams. “The team is there, we want to win trophies this season because we want to make it special for Jurgen as well.
“We are in a good way and we want to keep it like that.”
The Argentina star believes the Reds showed the right mentality against Brighton, as they didn’t panic when going behind early on and ran out 2-1 winners in the end. Mac Allister said: “In the first 15-20 minutes, you could see maybe the fans were in a little bit of a rush.
“But we kept calm and did the things we had to do, we kept the ball and kept playing.
“That mentality will help us. At the same time, I would rather we didn’t start the game by going behind, but that’s just part of football.”