‘The team to beat…’ – Jamie Redknapp gives title race verdict after horror weekend for Liverpool | OneFootball

Jamie Redknapp has issued his verdict on the Premier League title race after a weekend which saw a change of leadership in the table.

Liverpool had been the pace-setters on Saturday morning, but a few hours later they were displaced by Arsenal after the north Londoners beat West Ham and the Reds then lost at Chelsea.

The Gunners sit one point clear of the defending champions and three ahead of Manchester City, who climbed to fifth after beating Brentford in the final top-flight match of the weekend.

Redknapp: Advantage Arsenal but don’t dismiss Liverpool

It’s been the worst possible combination of results for Arne Slot’s side, who’ve now lost three successive games in all competitions, but Redknapp isn’t ruling out the prospect of them retaining their title despite losing the initiative to Mikel Arteta’s team.

The ex-Liverpool midfielder said on Sky Sports on Sunday: “Everything can change. As we talk right now after seven games, an international break upon us, I think Arsenal do look the team to beat, but do not write Liverpool off. They have to find that belief again, because it has been difficult for them, this pre-season.”

(Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)

Far too early to make any definitive title race proclamations

To illustrate how much the narrative has changed over the past two weekends alone, Paul Merson went from proclaiming ahead of our match at Crystal Palace that we could nearly have one hand on the title already, to saying a week later that Arsenal could run away with it by mid-November.

The first seven weeks of the season would suggest that nobody is going to pull hugely clear of the chasing pack any time soon, with each of last term’s top three already experiencing ups and downs in the early stages of the current campaign.

Based on the table right now, 87 points would be enough to win the Premier League. That’s three more than Liverpool earned in 2024/25, albeit with the caveat that Slot’s side eased up after clinching the title with four matches to spare.

There’s no denying that there’s been a significant swing over the past fortnight. From potentially being (temporarily) eight points clear of Arsenal little more than week ago, we now trail the Gunners by one, and they play before us on the next matchday.

If the three leading contenders (by common consensus) were within three points of each other in April it’d be too hard to call, never mind October. Despite the two recent setbacks in London, the champions are more than capable of getting back on course with a couple of wins.

Also, unlike Arteta’s team, we have the experience of winning the league, an intangible yet often crucial factor in a title race.