Gary Neville has claimed that Liverpool are the only team that have proven in recent years that they can compete with Manchester City and the former Manchester United man has suggested that the Reds may return to their best again next season.
Despite winning seven of their last 10 games Jurgen Klopp’s side struggled for consistency earlier this term which has left them looking likely to miss out on a top four finish.
City were crowned champions yesterday after Arsenal suffered defeat against Nottingham Forest and Neville is already looking ahead to next season’s title race.
The 48-year-old told Sky Sports (as quoted by Metro) when asked what team can challenge Manchester City next term: “The team that got the alignment of quality and mentality.
“Manchester City’s players here have real quality, that goes without saying. But in the most difficult moments of the season in the Premier League they’re able to put a run together and come through difficult challenges. That takes a lot. It takes a manager who can guide them through moments and bring them that stability. The other clubs have got to look at that same model.
“It happened for many years under Sir Alex Ferguson. It happened with Liverpool under Bob Paisley and Bill Shankly, under great managers like Arsene Wenger at Arsenal. You’ve got to be a great manager and you’ve got to have a great bunch of players to be able to do it consistently like they have. The other teams have got to aspire to that.
“At this moment in time the one who have proven it over the last six years is Liverpool. I know Arsenal have run City close this year but the only team that I can say at the moment that have demonstrated that they can go close to Guardiola’s City is Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool.
“I know they’ve dropped well below their standards this season but you don’t know whether they will get back to those standards next season, because they’ve proven they can do that before.”
City have now won four of the last five league titles with Liverpool winning the other during the 2019/20 campaign.
We’ve ran the Sky Blues close on two other occasions with them pipping us to the title by a single point both last year and four years ago.
Arsenal put up a good fight this season but they’ve tailed off in recent weeks.
If we can complete some quality business in the transfer market this summer there’s no reason why we can’t compete with Pep Guardiola’s side and prevent them from winning four league titles in a row – even if they do spend more money on strengthening their own squad even further ahead of next season.
With our performances in recent weeks looking a lot more assured and Trent Alexander-Arnold thriving in his new inverted role there’s plenty of reasons for Kopites to be optimistic about what lies ahead.