Liverpool Premier League title race: Why Arne Slot cannot catch Mikel Arteta's Arsenal after Manchester City defeat

Liverpool will not win the Premier League title as the gap to first-placed Arsenal means they have to be close to perfect in order to retain their crown, Reds expert David Lynch has lamented.

Following the club's 3-0 defeat against Manchester City last weekend, the Merseysiders fell eight points behind league-leaders Arsenal after 11 matchweeks, as well as four points behind City.

Virgil van Dijk spoke in the aftermath of the loss and refused to be drawn on the title race given the points gap, and his sentiment is widely shared amongst the Liverpool fanbase.

Speaking to Sports Mole, Lynch expressed his belief that the Reds' disastrous start to the season means they are already out of contention for the title, saying: "I would go as far as to say that it is over for Liverpool. People might get a bit of a stick for saying that this early because there's still 27 games to go.

"But last season, you could be bullish early on and say that Liverpool were going to win the title because they built up a lead. Eight points is so much bigger than people realise. The points per game you have to go at, versus the points per game Arsenal and City have to go at, is immense.

"Once it starts to get to eight, nine, 10, you are pretty much out of it, and if you look at how many defeats a champion tends to have, well Liverpool have already got five. We're talking about getting to the end of the season where they can afford one more defeat at most, and they've got to go to Arsenal.

"The underlying numbers are terrible. It would require a complete U-turn in performance level and not having a single game where even if they play well, things go against them and they lose. But that will happen again at some point. Add all that together and there's absolutely no chance Liverpool win the league."

Liverpool were at one stage five points ahead of Arsenal having won their opening five league matches, but they have since lost five and won one once in the top flight, effectively ruling them out of the hunt for the title.

Manchester City 3-0 Liverpool: What went wrong for Arne Slot?

Manchester City led 2-0 at the half-time interval, though they were arguably fortunate to have scored twice given both strikes came about due to deflections off of Liverpool players.

Both teams produced near identical non-penalty xG totals (0.72 vs 0.61), but Arne Slot admitted that his side were outplayed between both boxes.

Though Lynch insisted that City enjoyed an element of fortune, he also accepted that the Reds were outclassed, when he told Sports Mole: "Of course, Liverpool have a goal ruled out themselves, and you could say that Liverpool were unlucky, but we all watched the game and saw City's dominance.

"Liverpool couldn't build up, they couldn't get the ball into City's final third consistently and City were getting into attacking positions very consistently. City had the rub of the green in terms of how the goals came about, but they deserved them because they were playing football far better.

"Liverpool cannot afford to be coming away from this thinking they've been unlucky. Even if there is some element of truth to that, they've got to look at the fundamental issues they had when trying to play football. They've got to play miles better than that to beat Manchester City and not just be relying on luck."

The Reds have struggled away from home for some time, with the club having been beaten in 11 of their 22 away matches in 2025, and the Reds must address their frailties on their travels.

What went wrong for Liverpool in the summer transfer window?

Liverpool spent in the region of £450m in the summer transfer window, signing stars such as Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz, both of whom cost in excess of £100m each.

The club's expenditure saw many label them as favourites for the title, but the Merseysiders have struggled to integrate so many new players.

Lynch argued that such an outlay has inevitably led to problems, making the summer's business a mistake, telling Sports Mole: "I've got a bee in my bonnet about this because the spending needs to be stopped being spoken about in this way, which is that the expectation should be higher on Liverpool because they spent so much.

"Spending so much in one summer is not a good thing - you don't get good outcomes. How many times do we have to see this to learn that this is the case? Completely changing your squad in one summer, you will suffer from that. This is not to say that Liverpool's signings will all be bad in the long term. I truly don't believe that.

"But it has massively hurt them that they've spent so much. Perhaps Liverpool should be judged in the next two, three years in terms of what they achieve off the back of that spending. We also have to note that they sold so many players and they clawed half of that expenditure back."

Liverpool have failed to replace the impact of stars such as Luis Diaz and Trent Alexander-Arnold, though it should always be remembered that the squad are in the unique position of having to deal with the tragic death of Diogo Jota.

> Click here to listen to the full discussion on whether Liverpool can win the Premier League title