Jurgen Klopp has insisted Tottenham are still in the Premier League title race and he doesn’t understand why they have been written off so early.
Spurs are nine points behind leaders Liverpool ahead of Wednesday’s fixtures but will close the gap on second-placed Manchester City to two points if they defeat Watford at Wembley.
City failed to reduce the gap between themselves and Klopp’s side on Tuesday with defeat at Newcastle United, which hands the Reds the opportunity to open up a seven-point lead when they host Leicester City.
“It’s not only Manchester City. Again, everybody writes off Tottenham and I know a lot of people said about them after the last week with two cup competitions, but I really don’t get it,” Klopp told BBC Sport.
“City are a similar age group than we are, on the peak of everything, so it will definitely be difficult, but we don’t know where we will end at the end of the season. We don’t think about it really. We only want to win as many football games as possible.
“It looks like it will be more exciting than last year, so that is good for football in general and for the Premier League. We have to be flawless as well, everybody has to be.”
OPINION
Like most managers whose team leading a league, Klopp is aiming to rein in expectations and keep his players’ feet on the ground as title race fever threatens to explode. That has only increased in the wake of City’s shock defeat to Newcastle. Following their brilliant form over the last month, no-one saw that coming, least of all Klopp. When the German claims Pep Guardiola’s team are sensational, he is not playing mind games. They are. But Liverpool can go seven points clear tonight, and that is an awful lot of ground for the champions to make up. Are Spurs seriously in the race? Klopp is polite about the north Londoners, but they are huge outsiders and a string of damaging defeats will have dented morale already suffering from the absences of key trio Harry Kane, Dele Alli and Son Heung-Min. For Spurs to get some momentum going, they will need to beat Watford tonight and hope Liverpool drop some points at Leicester. Otherwise, third place is the best they can hope for.