´Not in the title race´ – Klopp´s verdict as Liverpool´s Premier League hopes look forlorn

Jurgen Klopp admitted his Liverpool team are out of the Premier League title race after just eight games.

A 3-2 defeat to Arsenal on Sunday saw Liverpool slide 14 points behind the Gunners, who lead the way by one point from Manchester City.

The top two have both played a game more than the Reds, who have won just twice and must tackle City next Sunday in a daunting Anfield test.

Manager Klopp had suggested before the Arsenal game that a title push was looking increasingly unlikely, given the unsure start.

But to not even be a factor in the race at this stage is a crushing blow considering how Liverpool performed last season, winning both domestic cups before losing out on the last day of the Premier League season and falling to Real Madrid in the Champions League final.

Assessing Liverpool’s place in this season’s pursuit of league honours, Klopp said: “We are not in the title race.”

He said his team caused Arsenal “real problems, so that’s the truth as well”, but the former Borussia Dortmund boss knows points on the board are what matters.

Liverpool have begun the season by failing to win any of their first four Premier League away games (D2 L2), the first time they have endured such a start since 2010-11 under Roy Hodgson.

They stand a strong chance of going through to the Champions League knockout rounds again, having gathered six points from three group games so far, ahead of a trip to face Rangers on Wednesday.

That competition may become the priority if Klopp’s side cannot make up significant ground on Arsenal and City.

“Of course, in a situation like ours, we play Arsenal, now we play Rangers obviously, and then we play Man City. Is that the perfect opponent for finding confidence back? Probably not,” Klopp said.

“But we will go out there and fight and that’s what we have to do and that’s what we will do. And we are not here for being happy with the situation we are in and stuff like this, and thinking about last year and nearly there and nearly there – not at all, nobody of us is like that.

“But it is always like this, in a situation like this: you can ask all the questions, but my answers, I cannot change really a lot.”

A huge @Arsenal win #ARSLIV pic.twitter.com/if55cZ9mkC

— Premier League (@premierleague) October 9, 2022

Klopp added: “If you are winning, there are five million things we could talk about, ‘He’s great, he’s great and he’s super, and the goals were outstanding’.

“Losing is always the same, the conversations are a bit more rusty. We work on solutions – today I saw some of them. But what you build with your hand you knock down with your backside. That’s not helpful and that’s what we did today.”

He said Liverpool were “neither in the mood for jokes, nor happy”.

“We are in a tough moment, and we want to get through this together,” he said, “and that’s what we are working on.”