Title defence? Big-spending Liverpool need a miracle

"We are in early November and you cannot win the title. You can lose it, but you cannot win it."

- RICHARD JOLLY

Pep Guardiola may have spoken on Friday with the wisdom of a manager who has won 12 league titles, many of them as a frontrunner. Or perhaps it was a warning to a Manchester City side who were threatened with a nine-point deficit to Arsenal in the international break. If so, they responded. After their demolition of Liverpool, they are only four behind.

And it is Liverpool who, eight adrift, in eighth place, feel out of the reckoning. A week that brought a wonderful win over Real Madrid has lent itself to contrasting conclusions: that Liverpool are back, and then that they are back in the pack, distanced by Arsenal and City. Given a £450m spend, theirs is the most expensive title defence ever. It may have come to one of the earliest ends. “The last thing I should think about now is the title race,” said Arne Slot. “The reality is we are eighth now.”

A five-point lead has disappeared, replaced by five defeats in six league games. “Too many,” said Slot. In every respect, too. The last champions to lose five of their first 11 games were Leicester in 2016-17, yet they were an extraordinary anomaly in winning the league. Chelsea lost six of their opening 11 matches in 2015-16, but that, in Antonio Conte’s immortal phrase, was the “Mourinho season”.