Liverpool played a solid game and won 3-0 against Brentford on Sunday, thanks to two goals from Mohamed Salah and one from Diogo Jota. With three new points secured at Anfield, Klopp’s men moved up to second place in the standings. After Manchester City drew 4-4 against Chelsea, in a wild game at Stamford Bridge, they are now just one point ahead of the Merseysiders.

Klopp was pleased with the performance after the game, but is concerned they will have to maintain that level if they are to be able to match it in the spring.

– It tastes good, but it’s November. The important thing is that we can keep up with the other teams at the top, but we haven’t played perfectly, far from it. We have fought to qualify, we have had good moments, and not so good moments. Today we showed that we are good, but we have to compete with other teams until March/April, then we can talk. But until then, we have to fight our way through the most difficult league in the world.

There is now another break for the national team and when the Premier League returns, the stage is set for a top clash against league leaders Manchester City.

– Now everyone is going together again (at the national team meeting), they will also come back and we can train once before the City game.

– The start of the season means nothing before a game like this, we just need to make sure we are ready for the game.

Very smooth on top

After the twelfth round of this year’s Premier League season ended with City dropping points in London, the table looks very even at the top.

Just three points separate the top five teams, as we enter a crucial part of the season with a very tight fixture list.

It’s rare for a team to be this close at the top, and especially rare for so many teams to be involved. This season, Jürgen Klopp will have to face Liverpool again, while Ange Postecoglou and Unai Emery are gaining real momentum at Tottenham and Aston Villa, and Manchester City and Arsenal are picking up where they left off last season.

There are usually two/three teams that stand out a little from the rest, as we saw last year with Mikel Arteta and Pep Guardiola’s teams. After twelve rounds last season, they had accumulated 31 and 29 points respectively and distanced themselves from the rest of the league.

Two years ago in 2021/22, it was Chelsea who led the league after twelve rounds by 29 points ahead of Manchester City with 26 points and Liverpool with 25 points.

The last time the league was as balanced as it is now after twelve rounds was in the 2020/21 season, when just three points separated the top 5. Then Tottenham and Liverpool shared the lead with 25 points, while Leicester and, surprisingly, Southampton followed. in behind, with 24 and 23 points, before Chelsea finished in the top 5 with their 22 points.

At that time, Liverpool endured an injury nightmare like no other, and ultimately finished in third place after a remarkable turnaround at the end of the season.

With eight wins, three draws and one loss in the first twelve rounds, Liverpool have laid a good foundation for the remainder of the season, but are still far behind from the start they made to their golden 2019/20 season.

After twelve rounds of that time, Liverpool had collected 34 points and was a full eight points ahead of Leicester City in second place. They only lost one point which came in a 1-1 draw against Manchester United.

Something needs to be done to follow up a season in which they won 26 of their first 27 games, but after a promising start to the year, Liverpool fans can hope the Reds are still alive in April.