Liverpool have burst out of the traps in title race – can they keep it going?

TOP SLOT

While Football Daily only has two hands and needs both of them to type this drivel every day, we can’t help but feel the pair of them would have been snapped or bitten off if we’d offered Liverpool fans a five-point lead at the top after 11 games before a ball had been kicked in this season’s Premier League. While the denizens of Anfield had no particular reason to believe Arne Slot wouldn’t do a decent job as successor to Jürgen Klopp, the managerial shoes into which he was stepping were undeniably huge. And if they needed proof that follicly-challenged Dutchmen are capable of making a pig’s ear of managing an elite English club in their first big job outside of the Netherlands, well … let’s just say they didn’t have to travel too far to seek it out.

While Slot was the lucky beneficiary of solid foundations on which to build his dream team, there was no guarantee he wouldn’t begin constructing the kind of heinously over-budget eyesore that would make Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud a little sick in his mouth. But after a summer in which he spent a little over the bare minimum on materials, work is already well ahead of schedule. On Match of the Day 2, Mark Chapman noted that in the Premier League era only six teams have ever had a lead of five points or more after 11 games and pointed out that the other five have gone on to win the title. So while some might say that talk of this one already being Liverpool’s to lose might be wildly premature, there’s a fair bit of historic precedent to suggest that, actually, it is not.

“I haven’t thought about where we [would be] after 10 games, 15 games, 20 games,” soothed Slot after his side’s latest victory, a fairly stern test against Aston Villa under the Saturday night Anfield lights. “The only thing I did think about was: ‘How can we implement our playing style and how can we make sure the players work as hard as they do at the moment?’” While things could scarcely be going more swimmingly for a manager whose team barely featured in the pre-season conversation on the subject of potential title winners, those in charge of the two teams who completely dominated it find themselves in far more choppy waters as Slot’s dark horses threaten to canter away into the distance in this increasingly tortured analogy. Or is it a mixed metaphor?

Anyway, with their team already nine points adrift of Liverpool, Arsenal fans now have a lengthy interlude to decide whether or not the draw at Chelsea was a decent result, while their Manchester City counterparts are four points better off but have an unprecedented-under-Pep run of four consecutive defeats in three different competitions to contemplate over the next fortnight. Has Arsenal’s expected tilt ended before it even got started? Have the wheels come off Guardiola’s all-conquering juggernaut? The only obvious answer, with which pretty much every theoretical question can be answered, is: let’s wait and see.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

REFFING HELL!

Premier League referee David Coote has been suspended after video footage emerged apparently showing him calling Jürgen Klopp a “German [cee]” and Liverpool “[sh!t]”. According to the clip that surfaced on various social media disgraces on Monday, Coote claims that Klopp was “arrogant” and had accused him of lying after a match between Liverpool and Burnley in 2020. Coote took charge of the Reds’ 2-0 win against Villa on Saturday. Professional Game Match Officials Ltd said: “David Coote has been suspended with immediate effect pending a full investigation. PGMOL will be making no further comment until that process is complete.”

Asked by a friend for his opinion of Klopp, the person alleged to be Coote says: “Aside from having a right pop at me when I reffed them against Burnley in lockdown, then he accused me of lying and then just had a right [effing] pop at me. I’ve got no interest at speaking to someone who’s [effing] arrogant. So I do my best not to speak to him … My God, German [cee], [eff] me.” The derogatory remark about Liverpool refers to the team’s performance in a game at which Coote was the fourth official. The friend, who appears to be recording the conversation on his phone in a sitting room, goes on to clarify what he feels to be the takeaway from the conversation: “Long story short: Jürgen Klopp’s a [cee], Liverpool are all [effing b€llends] and we hate Scousers.”

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