BBC pundit Martin Keown has highlighted Liverpool’s unbeaten run against their top-six rivals so far this season as something which could carry huge significance over the course of the campaign.
Riyad Mahrez missed a last-gasp penalty for Manchester City at Anfield last weekend to preserve that record, with the two sides playing out a surprising 0-0 draw.
Keown has now highlighted that miss as something which will act as a huge blow for City while boosting Liverpool’s title hopes in the context of the whole season.
In his Daily Mail column ‘Tackle Keown‘, he said: “Liverpool have already beaten Tottenham at Wembley, taken a point from Stamford Bridge and now held the champions. To remain unbeaten after these tricky fixtures will give Liverpool huge belief.
“For Manchester City, failing to win at Anfield could be a huge blow.”
OPINION
This is a pretty simple statement from Keown and one that is obviously hard to disagree with. You would say that Liverpool have had the toughest fixture list so far out of the top three teams in the league, and that will give them an advantage heading towards Christmas. Mahrez’s penalty miss was obviously significant, with it having the potential to come back and bite City hard at some point in the near future. That being said, there are no easy games in this division, and either one of these two teams could end up having their campaign derailed by poor results against the smaller teams. It is far too early to be pinpointing specific moments as title-winning or losing, and both teams must merely focus on the games ahead of them. They are both equal on points at the moment and both will likely have taken their points haul so far if offered at the start of the season.
