Jurgen Klopp has caused a stir by tipping Manchester City to win the Premier League before the season has begun.
City pipped Liverpool to the title and won the league by one point last term after coming from 2-0 down to beat Aston Villa 3-2 in a dramatic final day.
Ilkay Gundogan's heroics secured a fourth title in five seasons for Pep Guardiola's side. They are in pursuit of a third consecutive title, something that hasn't been done since Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United achieved it between 2007 and 2009.
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Chelsea, Spurs and Arsenal have all strengthened, while United have changed manager and brought in Erik ten Hag from Ajax as manager in a bid to bring back the good times.
Liverpool have lost star player Sadio Mane to Bayern Munich but splashed out a club-record £85 million on Benfica striker Darwin Nunez.
But Klopp already believes City will be champion and says Liverpool's "main target" is securing Champions League football.
He also noted that City would have won five in a row had his Liverpool side not secured the 2019/20 title.
"It's always like this: the main target is to qualify for the Champions League," Klopp told Sky Sports.
"It's really difficult enough already. When you reach that and then still have time to fight for the title, then you do that. But for the majority of the season you fight for the Champions League.
"That will be a massive fight (for the Premier League title), oh my god. That's the Premier League. I have no idea who will make the race, it looks like City in the end will be the champion. If we hadn't have been champion I think they would've won it five or six times in a row which is really crazy in this country. But our target is to play the best possible season for us. What can we squeeze out? Let's see. Really looking forward to it."
And naturally Klopp's comments garnered reaction aplenty on social media:
Liverpool play on Wednesday against Red Bull Salzburg, before the FA Cup and Carabao Cup holders take on City in the Community Shield at Leicester's King Power Stadium on Saturday.
A day later the Reds host French side Strasbourg at Anfield before they start the league campaign at home against newly-promoted Fulham.
Topics: Jurgen Klopp, Premier League, Liverpool, Manchester City
Josh Lawless