Paul Merson rejects Liverpool’s title hopes in pre-Cardiff prediction

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Paul Merson insists Manchester City’s dominance against so-called lesser teams with see them cruise to the Premier League title ahead of Liverpool.

The Sky Sports pundit has played down the Reds’ title credentials on the belief they are prone to slip-ups in contests such as Saturday’s meeting with Cardiff City.

Jurgen Klopp’s men resume their league campaign at Anfield this weekend on the back of Wednesday night’s 4-0 win over Red Star Belgrade in the Champions League.

Their latest triumph follows on from a 1-0 win away to Huddersfield Town in marking a more favourable run following a winless streak of four across all competitions in late September and early October.

It also served up a welcomed teaser that a misfiring front three of Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane may be starting to click again.

That said, Merson remains unconvinced.

Discussing his predictions for the weekend, he told Sky Sports: “Cardiff will be looking to get out of Anfield without any injures. It’s a case of concentrating on their next game. However, Neil Warnock’s side are a threat from set-pieces and have it in them to frustrate Liverpool.”

“These are the games where Liverpool can slip up, which is why Manchester City will win the league easily – they ease past these teams. Sometimes these games are a grind for Liverpool.”

“They will win this one but Cardiff will make it difficult.”

Jurgen Klopp – image by Liverpoolfc.com

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Merson’s views can be deemed somewhat misguided when considering an unbeaten start to the league season for Liverpool that includes wins over each of their six bottom-half opponents so far.
This follows a 2017/2018 campaign in which the Reds won eight and drew two of their 10 home matches against bottom-half sides on their way towards a top-four finish.
Liverpool also lost just one game against the 14 clubs that finished outside of the top six last season and won 15 of their 20 meetings with those sides that finished in the bottom-half.
Suggestions of an infamous struggle against teams further down the table seems slightly dated, with Klopp having undoubtedly turned a corner since seeing his side drop 19 points against bottom-half opponents across the 2016/2017 season.
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