It has been common knowledge for a while now that Liverpool and Manchester City are the two best teams in England right now, whilst also posing a big threat to other big teams in Europe too.
Last season saw Pep Guardiola’s City dominate every domestic competition they appeared in. While Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool blew away every team they faced in the Champions League to secure their sixth European title.
Now, three weeks into the new season, it looks like these two clubs are still at the top of their game. They are in completely different leagues to every other Premier League club.
Liverpool’s 3-1 victory over Arsenal at the weekend further showed how dominant the Merseyside club are over the supposed top six teams.
Liverpool bombarded Arsenal’s defence from the get-go. But the real dominance was portrayed when it was Arsenal’s turn to attack.
Liverpool are fine to allow the Arsenal backline to pass the ball around between themselves because the front three of Salah, Firmino and Mane have mastered the art of applying pressure on a backline.
But in the rare occasions when the Arsenal midfield did have possession, the surrounding onslaught of Liverpool players charging at all angles made the likes of Xhaka and Ceballos panic and eventually lose the ball.
A large part of Arsenal’s game was to play long passes through the channels. Where the likes of Robertson and Alexander-Arnold push so high up the pitch, Arsenal used this to let the wide players Pepe and Aubameyang have a chase to retain the ball in the attacking areas.
When this happened, more often or not, the full circle of Liverpool’s on-field dominance became whole. Virgil Van Dijk seemed unfazed by these efforts from Arsenal. However, it is worth mentioning that Pepe was the first player to dribble past Van Dijk for a long time.
Now despite Liverpool looking to have picked up where they left off last season, there’s still one thing stood in their way of their first-ever Premier League title: Manchester City.
Although having dropped two points in their first home game of the season against Spurs, City have made a blistering start to their hunt for a hat trick of League titles.
Now I’m sure this wouldn’t really come as a shock to anyone, especially to Jurgen Klopp. No one was really expecting City to collapse under their own greatness and fall apart.
Quite the opposite in fact. They have become stronger, finding a much-needed extra option in central midfield with Rodri. Giving Kyle Walker the toughest competition possible for the right-back position with the capture of Joao Cancelo from Juventus.
But it’s not just who came in during the summer, it’s also important to note who didn’t leave. Despite suffering a long-term injury in the Charity Shield. It was a big positive that City managed to keep Leroy Sane out of the clutches of Bayern Munich.
The worrying thing for Liverpool is that City have a lot more in the tank now than they did last year. An impressive record points total of 97 but still couldn’t win the league.
But as we’re only three weeks into the new season, nothing is set in stone. Especially with VAR becoming the biggest talking point of the season so far.
My prediction is that while without a doubt the title race will be between both of those two teams. City are looking more likely to run away with the title again this year.
