Gary Neville: Liverpool have an advantage over Arsenal in the championship chase against Manchester City

According to liverpoolecho, Gary Neville feels Liverpool and Arsenal cannot rely on other clubs and must defeat Manchester City to win the Premier League championship – but acknowledges ‘the Jurgen Klopp factor’ may make a difference. On March 10, the Reds will meet Pep Guardiola’s side at Anfield in a top-flight duel as two in-form sides face off. Jurgen Klopp’s side leads the reigning champions by one point.

City closed the gap at the summit with a comfortable 3-1 victory over Manchester United at the Etihad Stadium, thanks to a double from Phil Foden. Arsenal are five points behind Liverpool and four behind second-placed Manchester United, but they can close the gap on Monday away at struggling Sheffield United.

Neville believes that the forthcoming games between the title contenders are critical if Liverpool and Arsenal are to beat City to the trophy. “I genuinely think that Liverpool and Arsenal have to think they are going to beat Manchester City,” he was quoted as saying. “I believe they must think that way in order to generate the enormous shift in thinking that City will win the league.

“I always think that when we lost titles, whether it was Chelsea with (Carlo) Ancelotti, (Sylvain) Wiltord, or (Mark) Overmars scoring at Old Trafford, the club who went on to win it came to Old Trafford and triumphed. They didn’t come to Old Trafford to grab a point and play well; they came and surprised us.”

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He went on to say, “I believe that is what Liverpool and Arsenal will have to do to shake this Pep Guardiola team’s confidence, because they will see it as ominous at this time.

“Liverpool have momentum, energy, and the Klopp factor. Arsenal are now the finest defensive team, and they have begun to find their stride in attack.City has had the most experience. All three have something. This is where we will learn about all three of them. Can City do it again and cross the queue? Can Arsenal accomplish what they failed to do last season? They utterly collapsed with 10 games remaining. This is it again.

“I’ve always wanted to see Arsenal in the same situation as City, to see how far they’ve come. I believe they have progressed with [William] Saliba and [Declan] Rice. They’re better than they were last year, with more power.

“I can’t wait for the next few games because we’ll find out exactly what these clubs are about. The city is the barometer; that is who they must strive to knock off the perch. That is what you need to beat them; you can’t claim, “Well, City might drop points at that ground,” if you aren’t beating them yourself. You have to defeat them if you’re Liverpool or Arsenal.”