Ex-Red makes ‘deja vu’ title race prediction and challenges the rest of the league to ‘bridge the gap’ on last season’s top two

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Danny Murphy is expecting Liverpool and Manchester City to once again go ‘toe-to-toe’ at the top of the Premier League next season.

The ex-Red applauded the two sides for the ‘tremendous football’ that they so often play and has challenged the rest of the league to ‘bridge the gap’ between last season’s top-two.

The Sky Blues pipped Jurgen Klopp’s side to the league title by a single point last term and have strengthened their attacking options this window with the signing of Erling Haaland from Borussia Dortmund.

Liverpool, meanwhile, have signed Fabio Carvalho, Darwin Nunez and Calvin Ramsay so far this window and Murphy is therefore expecting another fierce battle between the two sides in the new campaign.

I think it’s going to be a little deja vu,” Murphy told the Mirror.

I think we’re going to see them go toe-to-toe, I think we’re going to see more tremendous football, more on the front foot, creative, attacking football that we love to see these two teams play. 

“I would think that people would automatically assume that City are now better because of Haaland. I think he does give them more firepower and more options, but it also changes the dynamic of how they play and how they have been used to playing.

“I think Liverpool will probably need a little bit of time to find the right way to play for Nunez because he is a young guy and he is adapting to a new league and he hasn’t quite got the goals record that Haaland has got, so there is a few more question marks over him maybe but I don’t see it affecting the end game, which is points and wins because of Liverpool’s confidence, the strength and depth they have got now, especially defensively which was a problem of course two seasons ago.

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“I think it will be tight again. You could toss a coin for me at the beginning of each season. The big question more for me is can Chelsea, with the new owners and investment there, bridge the gap? My gut feeling is that it would probably be too soon or too difficult to bring in too many new players and then settle quickly to coattail Liverpool and City.

“I think Tottenham have made some great additions. The likes of Bissouma, he was a terrific signing. When you try and play Champions League football, cup competitions and Premier League, then that’s difficult. They haven’t done it for a while so it will be interesting to see how they cope with so many games and how they rotate the squad.

“The bigger question is can the teams below, the likes of United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham, bridge the gap. My gut feeling is no, they can’t and no, they won’t. I think we will see Liverpool and City go toe-to-toe again.

We do look all set for more of the same in the upcoming campaign.

Both Liverpool and City set the standard last term and the rest of the league simply couldn’t compete.

Chelsea, who finished third last term, ended the campaign a whopping 18 points behind the Reds so will therefore be hungry to ensure the same doesn’t happen this time around.

Sadio Mane may have departed Anfield, but Nunez has arrived and if last season is anything to go off, Klopp’s side have signed a top quality forward.

The 23-year-old netted 34 goals in 41 appearances for Benfica, including two goals against his new side in the Champions League quarter-finals.

We challenged Pep Guardiola’s side right until the final minutes of last season, but eventually experienced a quite disappointing end to the campaign, especially when you consider our Champions League final defeat to Real Madrid as well.

Hopefully the lads will be hungrier than ever to pick up more silverware this season and we can’t wait to experience it all over again!

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