Wednesday’s action produced some compelling results, with Aston Villa beating the champions 1-0 – who now have not won in their last four games – while United overcame Chelsea at Old Trafford.
Liverpool, meanwhile, saw off Sheffield United with relative ease to close the gap back to two points to league leaders Arsenal, with Villa up to third and United now on 27 points – just three behind City. Klopp feels the latest Premier League season may be the most competitive yet and despite United’s early season struggles – they have lost 10 games in all competitions already – believes they could be part of the title race.
Asked if he expects the title to go down to the wire this season given how congested the table is at the top, Klopp laughed and replied: ‘I have no clue! If we win it I hope not!
‘We will see, but if somebody would write City off that would be the biggest joke in the history of football, that really makes no sense. ‘And Arsenal is obviously fighting, they had a similar experience [vs Luton] as we had [vs Fulham] a few days before – it feels really good!
‘But then you have to play the next game from the start again, it’s 0-0 not 4-3 already and you don’t score a late goal and can take that into the next game.
‘Aston Villa is incredible and United are there. They don’t play yet maybe exactly the football that whoever wants [to see], the media or whatever, there are some arguments. ‘But they have points like crazy! So they are around. And then Chelsea, I’m not sure if they’re coming still, so there’s all these kinds of things.
‘And then you have to play them anyway, who cares where they are, we have to play them, they are incredibly strong, the league is incredibly strong.
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp believes Manchester United are in the Premier League title race despite an underwhelming start to the season and says it would be ‘a joke’ to write off Manchester City.
