Liverpool Must Avoid Hull City Slip-Up to Back Up Early-Season Title Prospects

With an impressive, world-class manager in place and without European football in 2016/17, Liverpool have been lauded as title contenders in the early stages of the season, with Jurgen Klopp tipped to lead the Reds to a potential first Premier League triumph.

“I think Liverpool have a great chance this year,” Klopp’s predecessor, Brendan Rodgers, told TalkSport in July, adding that “Liverpool and Chelsea don’t have European football and that’s a huge advantage for you, where you can prepare your team all week for just the one game every week.”

This was reinforced by Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger in August, who told Sky Sports (h/t the Star’s Alex Harris) that “they are not in the Europa League so that will be an advantage for them,” and the Frenchman’s view will no doubt have been reinforced following Liverpool’s 4-3 win over the Gunners on the opening day.

More recently, Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola told reporters that both the Reds and Chelsea were “fantastic opponents” in his side’s push for Premier League glory, saying “I know how difficult it will be.”

As reported by the Liverpool Echo’s Andy Kelly, Klopp’s Liverpool are currently bookmakers’ second favourites for the title, after the first five games of the season, with odds as low as 5/1 backing up their bright start.

Arsenal (A): 4-3 win Burnley (A): 2-0 loss Tottenham Hotspur (A): 1-1 draw Leicester City (H): 4-1 win Chelsea (A): 2-1 win

Liverpool currently sit sixth in the table, level with fourth-placed Arsenal and fifth-placed Chelsea, after taking 10 points from their first five games, but as the Mirror’s Jim Boardman argued, their defeat away to Burnley serves as a reminder of their pitfalls.

“Inconsistency is one of the major flaws and it has dogged Liverpool for decades,” Boardman wrote after the Reds’ victory at Stamford Bridge on Friday night, “ironically becoming one of the few constants from 26 years of near-misses and nowhere-nears in the top flight.”

On paper, Burnley stand as the weakest side Liverpool have faced in the league this season so far, but next up are 12th-placed Hull City—and if Klopp is to vindicate Rodgers, Wenger, Guardiola and the bookmakers, avoiding a slip-up against Mike Phelan’s Tigers is essential.

There is tangible evidence behind predictions of a Liverpool title challenge this season, as after their first five Premier League games, Klopp’s side have recorded their best start to a campaign in eight years.

Under Rafa Benitez in 2008/09, the Reds beat Sunderland, Middlesbrough and Manchester United and drew with Aston Villa and Stoke City, taking 11 points from five games—with the only other seasons in which they reached double digits in the same space of time being 2013/14 and 2016/17:

2008/09: WWDWD – Points: 11 – GD: +3 – Finish: 2nd 2009/10: LWLWW – Points: 9 – GD: +6 – Finish: 7th 2010/11: DLWDL – Points: 5 – GD: -3 – Finish: 6th 2011/12: DWWLL – Points: 7 – GD: -1 – Finish: 8th 2012/13: LDLDL – Points: 2 – GD: -6 – Finish: 7th 2013/14: WWWDL – Points: 10 – GD: +2 – Finish: 2nd 2014/15: WLWLL – Points: 6 – GD: -1 – Finish: 6th 2015/16: WWDLL – Points: 7 – GD: -3 – …

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