Alan Shearer has made an emphatic claim about Liverpool’s Premier League title hopes this season following their most recent victory.
The Reds prevailed 4-2 over the BBC pundit’s beloved Newcastle on Monday night, after which the 53-year-old slammed Diogo Jota for what he construed as an ’embarrassing’ dive for the second-half penalty which Mo Salah converted.
The result moved Jurgen Klopp’s side three points clear at the top of the table, and speaking on the The Rest Is Football podcast, Shearer gave a firm five-word declaration that ‘they are going the distance’.
He added: “There is no doubt about it – they are going the distance. They will be right up there come the last weekend of the season. They are a really good team.
“[Virgil] Van Dijk is back to his best, Trent [Alexander-Arnold] is having a great time. They have an unbelievable goalkeeper and, when you have the brilliance of Mo Salah, you have every chance. They have game-changers which can do that coming off the bench. They have so many options.”
Liverpool are in a very healthy position going into the second half of the season, and as Shearer rightly referenced, we’ve players who can come off the bench to make a telling impact, as Jota and Cody Gakpo have done in our last couple of matches.
The dropped points at home to Manchester United and Arsenal before Christmas had checked the Reds’ momentum, but that’s been rediscovered after two consecutive wins in the past week, along with two defeats for the Gunners and Aston Villa also dropping points.
We’ve still only lost once in the Premier League all season, a last-gasp 2-1 defeat in hugely controversial circumstances, and can claim the division’s best defensive record up to this point.
There are big hurdles to overcome between now and May, for sure, but Liverpool couldn’t be better placed to tackle those head-on. If we can hold our current position beyond Easter, the trophy may well come into view then.
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