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Sky Sports experts Roy Keane, Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville have shared their predictions for the 2020-21 Premier League title race.
Defending champions Liverpool escaped from the league last season, emphatically ending their 30-year wait for national success.
Jurgen Klopp finished a whopping 18 points ahead of his predecessors at the top of the Manchester City division, winning 32 of their 38 league games.
City and the rest of the pack, particularly Chelsea, spent a lot in the summer to bolster their respective squads and mount formidable challenges against the rampant Reds.
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However, those wasteful spending have done little to convince Carragher that Liverpool and City will have serious challenges to face.
“I still can’t imagine anyone other than Liverpool or Manchester City winning the league,” said the former Reds defender. “I can not see that.
“I know Tottenham have started very well, I hope they have a great season and there are more rivals, but I can’t see anyone else lifting that league title besides the two greats in recent years.
“There is no doubt, I would be very strong in putting Liverpool as big favorites for the title if it were not for the injury of Virgil van Dijk, who is not only one of the best players in Liverpool, he is one of the best players in the Premier League “.
“I think if something similar had happened to Kevin De Bruyne at Man City, who is the better man, I think we would say the same about City, so I think the race is more interesting.”
Carragher’s sentiment is partly shared by Keane, although the former Manchester United midfielder leans toward his former team’s bitter rivals who retain the title.
“What I enjoyed the most about Liverpool today, as well as their qualities that we know they have and the one or two injuries they have, I always look at the teams that have won the league, they have that mentality, the body language, the desire,” he said. Keane after Liverpool’s 1-1 draw with Manchester City earlier this month.
“I see a lot of that in this Liverpool team and I still think it will take a lot to stop this team.
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“I know they are not at their best, they are getting results, but Jurgen Klopp, in his interview, is delighted and thinks that they have still appeared here today, with their problems and an injury or two, Trent getting injured, Milner enters.
“That’s what winning championships is about, having setbacks, having disappointments but showing a really strong mentality and I saw that today.”
Keane’s former United teammate Gary Neville also appears to be leaning toward keeping the Merseysiders at the top of the heap.
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Speaking of Liverpool’s acquisition of Thiago Alcantara in the summer, he said: “It wouldn’t be ridiculous to suggest that there will be a slight drop, if they don’t somehow stimulate that team by doing something.”
“It’s a huge emotional burden on the group of players for three years. Asking them to come back and reach that same standard would be a superhuman effort.”
“Getting them to do the same without amending the squad to give them that push again, that’s where signing Thiago would give Liverpool a great time, to send a message to the rest of the players that we have signed one of the best players in the world in that position.
“He’s world-class and he would give them a world-class presence in an area of the field where they don’t have a world-class presence. They need that impetus to stay where they are.”
“I could be wrong, they could deliver exactly what they did before, but looking at history, it usually doesn’t work that way.”
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