Can Liverpool be caught? Neville assesses Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City hopes

Gary Neville says Liverpool are now “strong favourites” to win this season’s Premier League title after a 2-0 win in Sunday’s showdown with champions Manchester City, who he believes must now undergo a rebuild under Pep Guardiola.

Arne Slot’s side are nine points clear at the top and 11 ahead of champions City, who have now lost four successive league games in the same campaign for the first time since August 2008.

Liverpool were straight out of the blocks to dominate and Cody Gakpo turned in Mohamed Salah’s cross for a 12th-minute lead. City were fortunate not to concede more before Salah – who had missed his last spot-kick against Real Madrid in midweek – converted a 78th-minute penalty.

Arsenal and Chelsea trail Liverpool by nine points, while City have now gone seven games without a win in all competitions and have lost six of those.

Speaking on his latest podcast, Neville assesses the title picture…

‘Liverpool must slip up four times for City to have chance’

It’s an unbelievable performance from Liverpool. The people who have appointed [Slot], the people who’ve created the stability, the players, most of all, in the sense of getting behind him. It’s really incredible what we’re watching.

None of us expected it. I think Liverpool fans expected it. They may have expected them to finish in the top four but it’s absolutely brilliant what Arne Slot’s done and it gets really serious. It’s gone from being a honeymoon period, a great start to hang on a minute.

There’s a real expectation but they’ll be very, very strong favourites. Nine points clear of Arsenal, 11 points clear of Manchester City and there’s still four or five months to go. The title race doesn’t start till April. We’re in just early December.

These are unusual things for me to be able to say because I would never ordinarily say it.

I’m not saying Liverpool are going to win the league. I still think there’s a long way to go. But there is no doubt that now there’ll be an expectation.

I wouldn’t ever say if they don’t win it from this position they’ll have bottled it. I don’t believe that’ll be the case. I think they will have a difficult patch at some point in the season.

I still think there’s a long way to go. But there is no doubt that now there’ll be an expectation from 11 points clear.

They’ll drop points and it’s up to whether the others, Arsenal and City can resurrect themselves and get on a run. Arsenal have got to go and win four, five, six games on the bounce.

They’ve got winnable games, but they’ve got Man Utd on Wednesday, Fulham away and they’ve got teams that are in the bottom half of the table.

If they win five or six games and Liverpool just draw two games, they’re within five points all of a sudden and that’s not Liverpool bottling it, it’s just the fact you’ve drawn two games.

There’s a long way to go but the others have got some real hard work to do because Liverpool have to lose four games and City win every single game for them to win the title and that’s not looking realistic.

What’s changed for Man City?

Rodri, we’ll keep on mentioning it until the cows come home, but then all of a sudden the weariness, the fatigue, you get a couple of bad results, then the confidence starts to go.

From weariness and fatigue, losing players, injuries, confidence, belief, before you know it, everything looks like it’s gone, and that’s why I don’t think anybody at this moment is really ploughing into Pep Guardiola or Manchester City.

These are proven serial winners, these guys that we’re watching out on the pitch in those blue shirts today, don’t have anything to prove in respect to the fact they’ve got five and six Premier League titles some of them.

There just comes a point where you’ve climbed mountain after mountain after mountain, and it just hits you, and that’s what’s happening, we’re just seeing a group of players who just, at this moment, can’t do any more than what they’re doing, and it looks humbling.

They look so vulnerable, they look broken out on the pitch, the defenders are broken, the midfield players look weak, they look like they’re being overrun, outworked, the forwards don’t look like they’re ever going to score. They just don’t look as dangerous, the patterns that we’ve always seen in City have gone.

Pep Guardiola’s built two sensational football teams whilst he’s been at the club, and he’s going to have to go and build a third. That doesn’t mean rebuild as in, change 10 players, you’re talking probably two or three, four players max in, and two or three, four players out. They only usually use about 16 to 18 players City, so you talk about changing a quarter of your squad in and out.

The Kevin De Bruyne thing is unusual, bizarre, strange. Why is probably the best player that the Premier League has had in the last 10 years, why is he not out there? We know he’s had injuries, but why is he not out there, because he’s a leader, he’s got authority, he’s got confidence, he’s got brilliance. So something’s going on, something’s definitely going on in the dressing room, there’s something happening.

But Pep Guardiola’s got control, he’s got complete control of the club, he’s extended his contract and I think he’s probably waiting for that January transfer window, and the June-July transfer window, for it to get to a point whereby he can rebuild and shape a new team in the next couple of seasons.

You saw him at the end there with the six up, I quite like it. I think that people may say, oh look, Pep’s sort of snapped, but actually he’s entitled to smirk, he’s entitled to say we’ve won six. He’ll not feel great about it, but he’s got to a point where he thinks, he realises, right okay, I’m here, I’ve got to take my hits, I’m getting a clip round the ear type thing in front of everybody, and he has to pull his way out of it.

I’m sure he’ll be thinking already about how he moulds a new team. Firstly he’ll be thinking about how can they from this position win a Premier League title. I don’t think they can. This would be Pep Guardiola’s greatest ever title if they won it after today. It would be beyond ridiculous if they were to win it from being 11 points behind. Liverpool would have had to have completely folded, and City would have had to have arrested this, what looks like a decline of this team at this moment in time.

Can Arsenal stop Liverpool?

Arsenal are still it in, definitely. Arne Slot will be saying Arsenal are still in it and they’ll be saying that City are but what bugged me about Arsenal’s game last night and it’ll bug Mikel Arteta. He was furious before half-time.

He was so angry when they conceded those two goals because they’d been absolutely wonderful that first half an hour. They were brilliant. It was a perfect performance and then just sloppiness and giving teams encouragement. Other clubs look at this and think hang in there.

Little things like that that Arsenal just need to sort out and obviously they’ve had a good week. They’ve got back on track. But there was a little just a little bit of a niggle last night.

They’ve had a stop-start beginning to the season. The sendings off, the injuries, dropping points, but they look like they’re now getting into a position. It’s a big week. They have to go and beat Manchester United. They have to go and beat Fulham.

Then they have to look at Liverpool and think are they going to win at St. James’ Park? Are you going to go and win at Goodison Park in the last Merseyside Derby? And obviously if Liverpool do they’ll still be nine points clear. But they might be thinking if they win their two games they could be seven points behind at the end of the week and that’s a lot more achievable.

‘Still too early for Chelsea to be title contenders’

It feels too early for Chelsea. Even though they’re level on points, it doesn’t feel like Chelsea will go on and win it. I still feel it’s going be Arsenal if anybody can catch Liverpool at this moment.

Chelsea are having a fantastic season. Enzo Maresca has got a stability there that’s been difficult to find in the last couple of seasons so well done to them. The Cole Palmer goal was absolutely brilliant.

Nicolas Jackson, I’m happy for him. I never thought the problem was Nicolas Jackson. I thought he might have to sign another forward, but I thought he was a really good second.

If he was your man to come on you’d think what a good striker to come on. He’s now actually pushing to the point where you thinking do we actually need that first striker? Could he be the first striker even though he’s erratic? He’s young and made mistakes. We’re now seeing a real handful up there.

Chelsea are doing really well and well done to their manager for just bringing that level of calmness to their club because it’s been mad and chaotic the last couple of seasons. A lot of money spent, a lot of players coming in and out. Now for the first time it feels like it’s settled down. The owners will feel a little bit more calm.

‘Man Utd still long way off’

Obviously it was a good win [against Everton]. Coming back in midweek and winning, Ruben Amorim will be happy. They’re a long way off, no doubt about that, but they’ve gone up into the top half of the table.

They’re only four or five points off the top four, which is mad really but I don’t think they’re quite at that level yet to give anybody confidence that they can get there.

The teams that are above them, particularly in the top six are well ahead of them in terms of performance levels. But he’ll be happy at the end of his first week of matches.