Michael Owen makes Arsenal title claim after Liverpool defeat to Manchester United

Michael Owen insists Liverpool remain Arsenal’s biggest Premier League title challengers despite their 2-1 defeat to Manchester United on Sunday.

The loss to United at Anfield is the third consecutive defeat in the Premier League for Liverpool this season and has left Arne Slot’s side four points behind leaders Arsenal.

However, despite losing to their rivals, Owen is adamant that Liverpool should not panic about their performance and believes Arsenal will still view the reigning Premier League champions as their biggest threat.

‘As long as you’re creating the chances, then Liverpool will be okay,’ Owen told Premier League Productions.

‘I don’t look at Liverpool and think, ‘wow, this is a team that are really lacking’, I actually think quite the opposite, they played quite well, Manchester United did really well themselves, full credit to Manchester United, everyone will be hurt in the Liverpool dressing room, the fans will go home a little bit unhappy, but I still think they’ve got a lot to look forward to.

‘Put it this way, when Arsenal are watching the Premier League results next week, again they’ll be thinking, ‘hope Liverpool lose, they’re still our big challengers’, and that’s the case.’

Former Manchester United midfielder Michael Carrick was also upbeat on Liverpool’s chances of recovering from their third Premier League defeat.

‘For me with Liverpool, all good teams going to great teams suffer at certain points and it’s how you get through that period to turn into a really great team, to go back to back, in terms of leagues, it’s never smooth, you don’t win every game, you go through patches and like Michael said, I think they’re playing well enough,’ Carrick said.

‘That’s the challenge, to go from very good to great, it’s a bit of a slightly new team, to evolve, you’ve got to have that riding out the tougher times.’

Owen then added: ‘Michael made a really good point, as players when you lose two or three games, it’s easy to shrug it off, other people outside can think, ‘what’s going wrong at Liverpool?’, but inside as long as you’re still thinking, ‘we’re still playing well, it’s just a little blip’.

‘Now obviously the longer it goes on you could start doubting it and your confidence could start going maybe, at the moment I still think they are playing well enough and feeing well enough about themselves, lots of fit players, lots of chances being created, I still think they’ll come off the pitch [against Manchester United] not having their confidence battered at all, I think they’ll still be thinking, ‘we’re playing well enough to win games, it’s just not going our way at the moment’, and that’s really important because once your confidence and self-belief starts going then you can slide away. But I do think it’s just a blip in their season, I think they’re playing well enough for us not to think it’s a crisis.’

Carrick also believes Liverpool still have time to get back on track after their poor run of form.

‘I also think the timing of the season when you have that blip is massive,’ Carrick said.

‘The finishing line is a long, long way away yet. I know to win the league now you’ve got to win more games than when I was fortunate enough to do back in the day, but I think as momentum goes, if this was February, March and they were coming towards the end there’s a fragility there.

‘I think there’s more than enough time to put a run together before the end of the season, it just feels like a bit of a run, but I think they’ll get through it, there’s plenty of time, there’s plenty of football to go and there’s enough good signs for Liverpool to march on.’

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