Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp declares Chelsea ‘favorite’ to win Premier League

Frank Lampard’s team have enjoyed an impressive start to the 2020-21 campaign and beat Leeds United 3-1 on Saturday to climb to the top of the table.

Defending champions Liverpool will rise above Chelsea again if they beat Wolves on Sunday, while Tottenham could also take the top spot after the North London derby against Arsenal.

Klopp insists his Liverpool side are not ‘chasing anyone’ in the Premier League, but says he sees Chelsea as ‘favorites’ to clinch the title.

He said: ‘I don’t feel right now that we are chasing anyone or that someone is chasing us.

“If I watch football matches, I see that Tottenham are obviously doing quite well, that Chelsea for me at the moment seems the favorite: a bigger team, great players, playing football.

‘Now they are maxed out and have incredible opportunities to switch between games and from one game to another.

‘That’s. You look at it but we don’t chase them. We play them when we play them and that’s how we saw it last year as well. ”

Klopp’s Liverpool claimed their first English first division title in 30 years last season and finished 18 points clear of second-placed Manchester City.

However, the Reds appear more vulnerable this period, particularly after losing influential defenders Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Trent Alexander-Arnold to injury.

The pressure is there, but it’s all about yourself. The pressure is there to win the game and we want to win against the Wolves, ” Klopp added.

‘We played only Lobos that weekend and no one else, so everyone else can play against each other or not and then they will rack up points. It is always so.

“It is too early to think who is ahead of whom or whatever. It’s just the situation.

“ I said it before, this season is not about setting a goal and chasing it, it is about getting over it with the best possible football you can play, and that’s what we try to do.

“That differs from weekend to midweek sometimes due to some circumstances, but it is still the goal for us all the time.

“Focus completely on the next game, the next opponent, especially not so soon on other results.”

Chelsea came back to beat Leeds 3-1 in front of 2,000 socially estranged fans at Stamford Bridge on Saturday and are now unbeaten in 16 games in all competitions.

The Blues finished fourth last season, but reinforced Lampard’s squad with several summer signings, including Timo Werner, Hakim Ziyech and Thiago Silva.

Despite Chelsea’s form, former England midfielder Owen Hargreaves has ruled out his chances of winning the Premier League this season and says the title race is between Liverpool and Manchester City.

He told Premier League productions: ‘I like Chelsea and I like what Frank Lampard is building, but I think Liverpool and Man City are above them.

‘I don’t think it’s even close. I think it will be those first two and second and a bunch of other teams after that.

‘Frank has finally settled on this team, but those teams [Liverpool and Man City] I’ve been doing it for years and they both know their best teams.

“Chelsea are probably the third best team in England, but I don’t think they are good or consistent enough to compete with the two teams that have been doing it for much longer and have better players.”