Via echo
Storm Darragh may have had other ideas for the two Merseyside clubs. For everyone else in the Premier League, though, the halfway point of the season has now been reached.
Arsenal's comfortable 3-1 win at Brentford on New Year's Day means that, each team has played the 19 other top-flight teams once.
as Arne Slot has long been insistent, it represents the perfect opportunity to take stock and assess what has gone before
Slot last spoke of the landmark ahead of Liverpool's visit to Tottenham Hotspur less than a fortnight ago.
Slot said
"As I have said for the last three or four months, judge the table after 19 games because then everyone has played the same opponents,"
"Probably we had a bit of luck, for example Arsenal had a lot of red cards in the beginning of the season and that's why they dropped points.
“We have now received a red card and we dropped points (at home to Fulham). We now have Tottenham away which Arsenal had at the beginning of the season, Chelsea already played there."
It's worth bearing in mind that, going into the weekend before Christmas, had Chelsea won at Everton and Liverpool failed to beat Tottenham - a not inconceivable pair of results - the Londoners would have been top at Christmas.
Instead, less than two weeks later, they find themselves 10 points adrift of the Reds down in fourth place
it will also act as a warning to those who are in danger of becoming carried away by Liverpool enjoying a six-point lead over Arsenal
Liverpool are five points better off and, having lost at Goodison last campaign
the Gunners five points worse off while City are a whopping 12 points behind what they achieved from the same games last season
it appears increasingly likely the race for the Premier League title will come down to a straight fight between Liverpool and Arsenal.
And regards remaining fixtures, there's no doubt the Reds have the much tougher task.
Liverpool have to travel to seven of the current top 10 as well as Everton.
The Gunners, meanwhile, must visit only three of the present top half
What will be more concerning for Liverpool, though, is the manner in which they fell away last term, dropping 17 points in the second half of the campaign while the Gunners lost only eight. Nerves will have to be held.
Comments