Former England midfielder Danny Murphy has refused to rule out the prospect of Liverpool catching Manchester City in the race for the Premier League title this season.
Liverpool reduced the gap on Pep Guardiola's side with a 3-0 win over Brentford at Anfield on Sunday afternoon, but remain 11 points behind the reigning title holders, meaning it is becoming increasingly hard to see anything but City retaining their crown.
City, on Saturday, moved 13 points clear at the summit with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Chelsea, courtesy of Kevin De Bruyne's delightful second half winner, meaning Thomas Tuchel's troops are now 13 points adrift of the top.
However, although Liverpool, who have a game in hand on City, are still more than ten points behind the runaway leaders, Murphy, a former Liverpool player himself, believes Jurgen Klopp's side cannot be written off just yet, even though he has conceded that it is "extremely unlikely" that they will catch City.
"With Manchester City's brilliance and the way they are so relentless and clinical when it comes to winning games, it looks like Liverpool are climbing Everest with their title bid this season," Murphy told BBC Sport.
"It's worth remembering they have done it before, though. Right now, catching City looks extremely unlikely but then Jurgen Klopp's side have already beaten the odds to triumph a few times in recent years.
"So, although it is going to take an absolutely unbelievable effort for them to stop City retaining their Premier League crown from here, there are a few reasons I would not write the Reds off yet.
"Firstly, we know this Liverpool team can go on the kind of long winning run they need now. They did it in 2018-19 when they took City to the last day of the season, then did it again to win the title in 2019-20, when everyone thought their opportunity had gone.
"The fact they have been the only side in recent years to finish above City, or even go toe-to-toe with them, also means there will be a belief in their squad that they still have a chance.
"There has been a resilience about Liverpool under Klopp for a few years now - they have got the trophies to prove it - so their players will think that way, even if no-one else does. They won't be giving up yet."
Although Murphy believes Liverpool still have a sniff of an opportunity to catch City, he has insisted that the title race is as good as over for Chelsea for another season.
He added: "They've [City] effectively knocked Chelsea out of contention after beating them on Saturday. I never thought Thomas Tuchel's side would fall away so quickly because they were so tough to play against, especially defensively, in the first couple of months of the campaign.
"It just shows you that, no matter how strong a squad you have got, if you lose or even draw a couple of games and have a couple of key players absent, you can lose confidence and the momentum shifts.
"Yes, Chelsea have had a few injuries and problems with Covid-19 in their squad but I was still surprised that the wheels came off their title bid the way they did - a month ago, we were still talking about a three-horse race and no-one expected the table to look like it does now."
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