Roy Keane has dismissed Liverpool’s Premier League title chances after a 3-0 defeat to Manchester City.
The former Manchester United midfielder gave his thoughts on the Reds’ title credentials during his punditry with Sky Sports.
Goals from Erling Haaland, Nico Gonzalez and Jeremy Doku saw the Merseysiders consigned to a fifth league defeat in the 2025/26 season.
Did Man City end Liverpool’s Premier League title defence?
Keane, who had earlier labelled Liverpool ‘dreadful’, was very much of the mind that the result had ended their title defence.
“You can’t be considering Liverpool for the title,” the Irishman said on Sky Sports.
“That was a sore defeat.
“But this reminded me of City of old. They were outstanding. They are back in the mix.”
On paper, one can understand the ex-Premier League star’s point of view, given that we now lag eight points behind Arsenal at the top of the table.
We should consider ourselves fortunate that the Gunners’ 2-2 draw with Sunderland on Saturday means that we head into the international break less than 10 points behind!
It’s a big lead to take with 11 games played – though not a totally unassailable one in our view.
That said, Liverpool need to find some consistency after the break and win their upcoming winnable run of games.
Who do Liverpool play after the international break?
Liverpool’s run of Premier League games after the international break sees them face:
- November 22: Nottingham Forest (H)
- November 30: West Ham (A)
- December 3: Sunderland (H)
- December 6: Leeds (A)
- December 13: Brighton (H)
What does Arne Slot think about Liverpool’s title hopes?
Speaking after the full-time whistle, Arne Slot refused to rule Liverpool out of the title race.
The Dutch head coach told reporters (via Lewis Steele on X): “The last thing I should speak about now is the title race.
“We should focus on getting results. We are eighth.”
Arne Slot: "The last thing I should speak about now is the title race. We should focus on getting results. We are eighth."
— Lewis Steele (@LewisSteele_) November 9, 2025
It’s a fair response from the manager at a time when the league table simply does not present Liverpool at their best heading into the November international break.
Yes, we were subject to some pretty questionable officiating and VAR calls during the defeat at the Etihad, but the Reds looked clearly sub-par compared to Guardiola’s men throughout the 90 minutes.
Is the Premier League table misleading?
It’s worth pointing out that, beyond the eight-point gap from Arsenal in first and the Reds in eighth, things are looking quite tight from second to tenth.
| Position | Team | Points |
| 2nd | Man City | 22 |
| 3rd | Chelsea | 20 |
| 4th | Sunderland | 19 |
| 5th | Tottenham | 18 |
| 6th | Aston Villa | 18 |
| 7th | Manchester United | 18 |
| 8th | Liverpool | 18 |
| 9th | Bournemouth | 18 |
| 10th | Crystal Palace | 17 |
Fifth to ninth in the table, including Arne Slot’s Liverpool, are level on 18 points.
Remarkably, only five points separate second place in the Premier League (Man City) from Crystal Palace in tenth place.
Is it still disappointing that we’ve fallen outside of the top four spots with a 3-0 defeat in Manchester? Of course.
But to suggest Liverpool have a full-blown crisis on their hands would also be disingenuous.
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It’s not a crisis, but a transition. There is no need to think about the title. Sort out the stability and consistency and get new players to understand how to play with existing ones. With the quality we have, we should have no problems getting top 4 at the end of the season. We also have a chance at UCL where every game can be like a final.
The concern will be the away performances in the premier league. This Liverpool team has no defensive spine, far too open, too easy to score against we’ve got no chance of winning anything being this poor without the ball. That’s four consecutive defeats away from home and you can this Liverpool team losing another five before the end of the season. You are not going to win the champions league if you are this poor away from home, especially when you play the best teams. If Liverpool don’t get champions league football next season then slot will be gone. It’s not transition, it’s decline, decline after spending 45 million, on the wrong players. Wirtz was a mistake and the biggest mistake was selling Diaz. Unfortunately the manager will get the blame. We won’t win anything unless the defence and the midfield improves. Last season was klopps team it’s why we won the league, this is slots team and it’s a team going backwards.