Merson: Liverpool aren't title favourites - their bid could be over in a week

Paul Merson

Liverpool's win at Bournemouth was a big football result. That was a potential banana skin.

No Mohamed Salah, no Trent Alexander-Arnold, you saw Bournemouth beat Newcastle then go to Manchester United and win.

There's a time to play teams and that wasn't a good time to play Bournemouth. Liverpool came away from that game with flying colours.

I've always said Liverpool will be there at the end of the season. They just have loads of forwards - five of them in fact - and they all score goals.

You see Darwin Nunez missing loads of chances - I would rather have a forward missing loads than one who looks like he's never going to get one.

Luis Diaz, Nunez, Cody Gakpo and Diogo Jota - bar Salah there's not a lot between them. So they've always got someone - that's a massive advantage for them.

If you take Erling Haaland out of the Man City attack, it's weaker as there's no-one there to replace him with.

Yes they have Julian Alvarez, who is a good player and will do a job, but he's not Haaland.

I won't say Liverpool are title favourites though. City can just churn, churn and churn out wins.

They can go 10 games without losing, easily. Look at them now, they've won eight out of their last nine matches [in all competitions].

Their squad is just too big. They've had one of Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne out since the start of the season and they're still there.

The difference between City, Liverpool and Arsenal is City can go for 10 wins in a row and nobody will pay any attention to it. If Liverpool and Arsenal do it, it's a big thing.

And it could all be over for Liverpool in the title race in one week. They play Chelsea at home - you have no idea which Chelsea is going to turn up. They can play, so that's a hard game.

Then they go Arsenal away, and if it goes like the way the FA Cup game went then Arsenal will win that game. Before you know it, it's all over for Liverpool.

I think Arsenal are still in the title race. They had a big result the other day and they're still there and thereabouts, so you have to put them in the equation.

But Gabriel Jesus and Eddie Nketiah won't score as many goals between them as Salah - and he is on the right wing. That's a massive advantage for Liverpool, who will be in the race for a long time if they keep playing as they are.