John Aldridge: My verdict on whether Liverpool are now title favourites

Arne Slot will be taking charge of only his 12th league game as Liverpool manager when his team travel to Southampton this afternoon and you can’t even start to think about getting your hands on the trophy at this stage of the season.

What I will say is that Liverpool have a better chance of winning the title now than I felt they had heading into this season. The uncertainty over how the transition from Jurgen Klopp to Slot would work out was one of the big factors in my pessimism last summer.

I also didn’t expect Arsenal and Manchester City to stumble as much as they have. As a result of everything going in Liverpool’s favour so far, there is a different feel to the Premier League title race this year.

City have won four straight titles and we have got used to them hitting the 90-point mark year after year, but that’s not normal.

Look back over the last 20 or 30 years in the Premier League and teams did not need anywhere near that many points in order to be crowned champions.

If they are thrown out of the league or docked enough points to make sure they go down, the whole club will be thrown into turmoil.

But the news that he has agreed a two-year contract extension at the Etihad will give everyone at the club a real boost.