Every team in the title race will have setbacks...and it is the side with the best reaction who will become Champions.
That is the message from Jurgen Klopp to his players, after their first defeat of a record-breaking season saw them slip to fourth in the table.
Klopp is adamant the Premier League gets inexorably stronger and stronger...and predicts that will rule out any club running away with the title with the 98-100 points which City and Liverpool recorded in recent years.
“The league is getting stronger and so it is more difficult to get 99 or 97 points. That's logical,” he explained as West Ham ended Liverpool’s 26 match unbeaten run.
“Sides will lose matches...it is the same with City and the other. Nothing is decided - these things can happen and we will all have similar problems, that is clear.
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“You have to get through these periods and carry on, recover, carry on, recover. There is a specific mindset needed and that's what we think we have, but it's not a given.”
Klopp says his Reds must now work on their resilience after hitting a bit of turbulence which has seen them drop four points in their last two Premier League matches, to slip behind both Chelsea and City.
It is not catastrophic though, and he believes it is that strength of character which will prove decisive.
“It is not that you just do it, you have to work on it, you have to stay focussed, and that is what we are in the moment and that is what we want to show now,” he said.
“It is the same for all of us and you need to find solutions in difficult moments, stay on track, draw when you can not win and win when it's possible, then you must be lucky with injuries.
“There are very positive talks about Chelsea and rightly so - absolutely great team, super coach, all these things - but they are only a few points ahead. It's not as though we are now far off. Nothing is decided.”
