Premier League Preview: Are Liverpool Emerging as Genuine Title Challengers?

"The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behaviour crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire." Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference.

Few facets of life so regularly see logic held hostage by emotion as sport, so it’s hardly surprising that most tipping points cited of a sporting nature ultimately cast no shadow when held up to the light.

A fascination with the minutiae of sport and its stars that is fed literally on a minute-by-minute basis, with no detail too small to be reported, means we, as fans and writers, become sucked in to the point it feels as if we are as much participants as observers. Our vantage point used to be the stands, now it’s from the very heart of our infatuation.

In terms of sating even the most gluttonous of appetites for sporting consumption, all of this is, of course, a good thing. But when stories that writers like Gay Talese or George Plimpton wouldn’t have bothered answering the phone for back in the '60s are today given the exhaustive treatment that only a true aficionado could love, the important things, such as wins and losses, are in turn magnified out of all proportion.

With goals in training now a thing, is it any wonder we treat each 90 minutes with such grave reverence?

In an age of saturated coverage, opinions are scattered with the abandon of confetti at a wedding. They tend to hit their targets at a similar rate. Every loss becomes as big a crisis as each victory is a milestone. The truth, more often than not in a sport that spawns a whole lot more losers than winners, tends to occupy the peripheral space between the two.

All of which brings us on to the question of whether Liverpool’s renaissance under Jurgen Klopp has reached some kind of tipping point. Could the German in just eight weeks really have moulded a side capable of a title tilt? Or rather, is it more a case of hyperbole having one hand around the throat of rationality?

Given his obsession with having his teams play with a high-intensity work rate, Klopp would likely roll his eyes at the idea that Liverpool cantered to a Capital One Cup victory at Southampton in midweek. Wednesday’s performance was very much of the thoroughbred variety.

That a Liverpool XI shorn of Christian Benteke, Roberto Firmino, James Milner, Nathaniel Clyne, Philippe Coutinho, Mamadou Sakho and Jordan Henderson was good enough to beat a full-strength Southampton 6-1 at St Mary’s, suggests Klopp has a depth to his squad that few realized. A hat-trick from fourth-choice striker Divock Origi, after being found locked in the boot room for months, was quite the fillip, too. 

The performance of Daniel Sturridge on marking his first start under Klopp with a crisply taken brace saw a lopsided smile circumnavigate his manager’s face, as he conceded post-match, via BBC Sport, "I said to Sturridge after the game 'now I know what everybody is talking about so thank you'."

It seemed an odd thing to say about a player who has now scored 44 goals in 59 starts for Liverpool, but that’s the thing with Sturridge. While absence may make the heart grow fonder for Liverpool supporters pining for a player who has managed just 19 games in 2015, for hardened managers, it can make the mind grow forgetful. 

Having missed 564 days due to injury or illness since signing for Liverpool in January 2013, according to the Telegraph, it’s a state of affairs his manager seems unwilling to indulge. More than once, Sturridge has put "home" in his satnav and ended up being directed to Liverpool A&E.

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Wayne Rooney: 12 games 2 goals Daniel Sturridge: 4 minutes 2 goals pic.twitter.com/PT7Mcis2bt

— Uber Football Facts (@UberFootbalI) December 3, 2015"

"Your body has to learn to adapt to new intensities of training and in this time you have to learn what is serious pain and what is only pain," Klopp said of Sturridge, via the London Evening Standard, sounding a little like something Republic of Ireland assistant manager Roy Keane might say.

This was not a side in transition, though, but one transformed. The spectre of indecision that haunted Brendan Rodgers’ final six months at Anfield was fully exorcised. As an aside, has there ever been a manager who would better suit a Ghostbusters uniform than Klopp? Just imagine how much his enthusiasm would grate on Bill Murray.

Following on from equally dynamic and captivating wins at Chelsea and Manchester City in recent weeks, Liverpool and Klopp are already struggling to use the fact it’s still early days as an umbrella to shield them from a level of expectation that, in the words of Gladwell, is "spreading like wildfire."

Newcastle United vs. Liverpool, Sunday at 4 p.m. GMT

Going off Thursday’s headlines and opinion pieces, it would take all the firemen in Newcastle to dampen a blaze heading for St James’ Park on Sunday afternoon. Having seen their side win just two league games all season, and concede eight in their last two matches, Newcastle United supporters reached their own tipping points weeks ago.

Several are seemingly not afraid to cross a social behavior threshold either when discussing the merits of Steve McClaren. Things will be spelt out in black and white if Newcastle fail to turn up on Sunday, perhaps via a P45 for the manager.

Considering Liverpool are as many points off the top of the table now as when Klopp took over, a doctor would likely prescribe a cold shower to those on Merseyside who in even in the idlest of moments dare to dream of a first title since 1990. A triumvirate of away victories, however spellbinding a 13-3 aggregate victory over Manchester City, Chelsea and Southampton may be, does not a season make.

And yet, is it not feasible that Liverpool could go from mediocre to magnificent, just as Chelsea have dipped from dominant to dire? Is six points really an insurmountable gap from sixth to first?

Indeed, in a Premier League season in which Arsene Wenger may even name himself on the bench for Saturday’s visit of Sunderland due to the extent of Arsenal’s injury problems, Manchester United are a point off the top but playing the type of football that has led to a shortage of prescription drugs in the region, and Manchester City are up, down and everything in between, there will never be a better opportunity for one of the undercard to steal the show.

Leicester City and Tottenham Hotspur will also think of themselves as having a puncher’s chance.

Jon Super/Associated Press

"There are exceptional people out there who are capable of starting epidemics. All you have to do is find them. [...] The success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts." Gladwell, The Tipping Point.

Does that sound like anyone familiar? 

It's often said of Klopp that he has an infectious personality, and to watch his side at the minute is to put a mirror up to the dugout. When Liverpool close in packs, rhythmically press and then retreat, and then repeat until the opposition drop to their knees like buffalo accepting their fate to lions, it's not hard to image him drilling his players in training with the same exercises. Albeit without harming any live animals.

Alberto Moreno gave an interview with COPE this week (via Goal.com), in which he spoke of how Klopp instills his principles. Klopp's obsession to detail in getting his methodology across to his players is hardly a new revelation, but it's interesting how Moreno feels comfortable in calling his new manager's sessions "boring."

It could come across as quite chippy on Moreno's part, but for me, that's the beauty of Klopp and why he works. Friendly enough to be approachable, to speak frankly with and about, yet at the same time only a fool would fail to notice he doesn't suffer fools gladly.

He's assured of his place in the hierarchy and knows his players know theirs, too. He's the type of boss who indulges the odd office hangover, but only to those who don't clock-watch.

"With Klopp the training sessions are all about tactics, in order to have the team well-positioned on the pitch, and to know how and when to press," said Moreno. "The truth is that the training sessions are a bit boring for the players, but then they are the ones that give results on the pitch."

Victory at Southampton was a seventh win in eight and means Klopp has lost just one of his first 11 matches in charge. In Rodgers’ last 11 games at Liverpool, he oversaw just three victories, with his side scoring 10 fewer goals and conceding five more. The fact Liverpool have already played Arsenal, Manchester United, Everton, Tottenham, Chelsea and Manchester City away from home means all of their title rivals (bar Leicester, perhaps) still have to come to Anfield. 

By his own admission, though, Klopp is still waiting for a big performance at Anfield, and until that happens, on a consistent basis, there will continue to be doubts over whether gegenpressing can be as effective at home as it is away. 

"Are you crazy? I’d prefer not to have understood that question…I’ve been here three weeks and you think, after one win at Chelsea, we should think like this?," said Klopp in the aftermath of his fifth game in charge, a 3-1 win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, as per the Independent. 

Fast-forward a month and a journalist would take offence at having their sanity questioned for suggesting Liverpool have an outsiders' chance of the Premier League title.

Maybe the tipping point is closer than we think. 

 
Watford vs. Norwich, Saturday at 3 p.m. GMT 

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Ex-Atleti Coach Quique Sánchez Flores: "I would be up for coaching Real Madrid" #HalaMadrid pic.twitter.com/oTm4N9CAQN

— RMadridHome (@RMadridHome) November 28, 2015"

Watford fans must hate Leicester. It's as though our brains can only cope with one underdog per Premier League season. 

The Hornets could qualify for next season's Europa League and there would still be pundits asking why Quique Sanchez Flores was at the draw in June. The Spaniard has had his fair share of column inches dedicated to sartorial choices and an admittedly immaculately manicured beard, yet anything bolder than understated praise for his side seems conspicuous only in its absence.

Whereas Bournemouth arrived in the Premier League with plentiful fanfare, and deservedly so, Watford's ascent wasn't as well documented, and being on the margins of popular consciousness seems to have continued this term.

All of which seems more than a little unfair given of the three promoted clubs, the other being Saturday's visitors Norwich City, it is Watford who look best equipped to retain their top-flight status. Nineteen points from 14 matches is considerably healthier than either Norwich (13) or Bournemouth (10).

The ever-eloquent Flores explained his approach in an excellent interview with the Guardian's David Hytner.

“I think that the artist is not living inside me, rather the pragmatist, with the intense focus on work,” he said. "It is not the fight of the humble teams to have more of the ball, rather to protect themselves."

It's a way of playing that has seen Watford concede just 16 goals, which makes them the eighth stingiest defence in the league. At the other end, Troy Deeney and Odion Ighalo have combined to create 23 goalscoring chances for each other this season, more than any other pair.

On Saturday, Deeney is vying to become the first Watford player to score in four consecutive Premier League matches. Ighalo's eight goals to date puts him behind only Jamie Vardy (14) and Romelu Lukaku (10) in the top goalscorers chart. In an era when strike partnerships are as antiquated as drying your clothes on a mangle, Watford's front two are a stick in the eye for false nines, inverted wingers and overt snobbery. 

Watford have four more points than Chelsea and are only two shy of Everton, who are tipped by many to make a concerted charge for the Champions League places between now and May.

It's a hell of an achievement for a manager who pitched up at Vicarage Road over the summer in the knowledge the Pozzo family, who own the club, went through four managers in a promotion-winning season that preceded his arrival. 

Norwich have lost their last three away matches in the Premier League, but they have a bit of a hoodoo over their hosts having scored at least two goals in their last six matches against Watford in all competitions.

Arsenal vs. Sunderland, Saturday at 3 p.m. GMT 

Stephen Pond/Getty Images

This is peak Arsenal. Christmas is coming and the treatment room is standing-room only. Heading into Saturday's game with Sunderland, Wenger had 10 players out injured at the last count.

Santi Cazorla is set to miss at least three months with the knee ligament injury he suffered in last weekend's 1-1 draw at Norwich, with Alexis Sanchez and Laurent Koscielny also hobbling away from a game that threatens to derail their season.

A lengthy injury list will only add fuel to the argument Wenger was negligent over the summer when he failed to add to a squad that many argued was threadbare, even when boasting a clean bill of health.

His handling of star man Sanchez, whom he has repeatedly selected despite the Chilean showing obvious signs of fatigue prior to his injury, has not sat well with some supporters either.

Wenger, via the Independent, has hit back at the accusations levelled at him by Dutch fitness coach Raymond Verheijen. Criticism has centred on "the pattern" of injuries to Arsenal players in the past, with Verheijen adding on Twitter: "football coaches are responsible for most injuries". 

"This guy looks like he knows absolutely everything. I am amazed that he knows more than all our physios and all our doctors," meowed Wenger.

He added: "We have to analyse every single case and every single exercise, but also I think you have to not over-analyse when players are injured."

It's fair to say more than a few Arsenal supporters probably wouldn't be against the idea of "over-analysing" injuries in principle. Given Wenger's tenure has had more tipping points than a scrap-metal yard, it seems a futile exercise to apply Gladwell's theories to this latest "crisis" in north London.

Sunderland travel south in optimum spirits having secured back-to-back league wins, which has lifted them out of the relegation zone. 

Sam Allardyce has, as expected, added a greater resilience to his side and is unlikely to deviate from a plan to frustrate Arsenal from the off. It's a tactic that has seen the Black Cats secure goalless draws in three of their last six visits to the Emirates. 

He'll be less enthused with the fact Arsenal are undefeated in 35 of their last 38 home matches in the Premier League and have not lost to Sunderland in the previous nine meetings between the two clubs.

You can't have it all, Sam. 

Manchester United vs. West Ham United, Saturday at 3 p.m. GMT—What Wayne Rooney would give for a repeat of this...