Phil Jagielka makes Liverpool title race claim immediately after Arsenal beat Leicester | OneFootball

Liverpool will be disappointed to not have maintained a nine-point lead over Premier League title rivals Arsenal after dropping points at Goodison Park.

Mikel Arteta’s Gunners have since taken advantage of the opportunity, securing a hard-fought win against Leicester City to pile on the pressure ahead of the Merseysiders’ hosting of Wolves.

In the Reds’ defence, circumstances did conspire against them on the Blue half of Merseyside, as officiating oversights denied them the lion’s share of the spoils.

Nonetheless, a victory over Vitor Pereira’s outfit would quickly restore the feel-good factor at Anfield – and importantly a seven-point gap ahead of two challenging trips to Villa Park and the Etihad.

Phil Jagielka says Liverpool are still in a good position in title race

(Pictures courtesy of Sky Sports).

Phil Jagielka still rightly emphasised that Liverpool remain in a ‘really healthy position’ regardless of how recent results have fallen.

“It’s going to be a testing period for Arsenal – they’ve lost any sort of striker option they’ve got. They’ve tried a new one out, two goals, a pretty good trial start for him [Mikel Merino],” the former Everton man spoke on Sky Sports.

“They need to put the pressure on Liverpool. I think Liverpool are still in a really healthy position but if they’d have not got three points today, they’d have handed the initiative that potentially they got from the midweek draw at Everton back over to Liverpool.

“The gap would have remained the same but as it is Arsenal have put a little bit of pressure back on Liverpool.”

Of course, we’re now under pressure to deliver not only across two challenging fixtures beyond the weekend’s latest hurdle – but across a 17-day period that’ll see us play a game every 3.2 days.

It’s not exactly for the faint-hearted, is it?

Of course, if Liverpool can manage to emerge from this run of fixtures relatively unscathed, we’ll be looking in great condition for the remainder of the title race.

Liverpool may have to cope without Arne Slot

It remains to be seen just how many games the Dutchman will be forced to sit out after receiving official FA charges over his post-Everton antics.

Arne Slot was genuinely remorseful after his confrontation with Michael Oliver, with Liverpool yet to respond to the misconduct charges ahead of the February 19 deadline.

Hopefully, the 46-year-old’s potential absence won’t have a significant bearing on upcoming results.

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