Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is anticipating an even sterner challenge in his side's attempts to win back the Premier League title next season because of the progress being made by the likes of Chelsea and Manchester United.
The Reds are poised to lose their status as reigning Premier League champions within the coming weeks, with their defence of the title have been steamrolled by a rampant Manchester City this season.
With just five games of the season remaining, Pep Guardiola's side are ten points clear at the top of the table, meaning it looks increasingly likely that they will wrestle the title back off Liverpool, after the Reds' defence of their first Premier League crown has crumbled in front of their very eyes.
Although Klopp will be hoping that this season's woes will be a flash in the pan for his team, he is wary of the threat others will pose in the race for the title next season, pinpointing the progress that Chelsea are making under Thomas Tuchel.
Klopp, as quoted by the Metro, said: "We are responsible for the things that happen to us. We were involved in the last few years, constantly in semi-finals and fighting or league titles.
"I don’t know if other teams felt bad because of us but I wish for them not, I’m not like that. I’m not a person like this.
"They [City] deserve the situation they are in. That is football, that is fair. They won an awful lot of games. United turned the game around [against Roma] – like they did 20 times this year.
"I had my bad moments in the season for other reasons, not because other teams are winning more games than us.
"That’s not my problem, my only problem is with the opponent of the specific weekend and not think, ‘oh my God, City again and United are back on track.'
"Life is too short for these kind of worries or thoughts. We will challenge them again next year but this year we can only finish our season as good as possible and we have nothing to do with semi-finals and finals.
"It always becomes harder because City never stops. That is clear. They did not stop and they will not stop.
"United is coming up definitely everyone can see that, Chelsea is obviously in a brilliant place, a top squad.
"Thomas [Tuchel] inherited a present and you can see that they are really good so it will not get easier.
"We’re not just talking about City, there will be other teams for sure. We have to deal with all the other teams who are outstandingly strong but still go under the radar like Leicester: brilliant manager and a top squad dealing with different situations.
"Nobody should write off Tottenham or Arsenal. Obviously West Ham is now flying. How can it be easier? It is not only City."
Whilst Klopp is anticipating almost everyone to raise their game next season, his admission about Chelsea improving will have come as no surprise.
Before Tuchel was installed as Frank Lampard's successor towards the end of January, Klopp had already hailed his fellow countryman as a "fantastic manager," meaning the progress the Blues have made under the former Paris Saint-Germain boss will have come as no surprise.
"A fantastic, fantastic manager. You can see really his influence, it has changed a lot their style of play, how they play, different formations and stuff like that," Klopp said back in 2019, as quoted by Get French Football News.
"I know a lot of people who have worked with him, they all are full of respect for him. You cannot be in the Champions League only because of spending money, that is not how it is.
"You need to have on the pitch a good organisation, because all the others we are not blind.
"We do our job as well and you need to have the right tools in the right moments and Thomas has that.”
