Is it too soon to say the title race is leaning in one direction?

RED MIST: Liverpool's Darwin Nunez exchanges words with referee Paul Tierney during the Premier League match at Anfield, Liverpool. Pic: Peter Byrne/PA Wire.

When is it too soon to say the title race is already leaning in one direction?

It’s a very modern trait to start judging the season after only two games, but when you consider the Premier League was won by just one point in 2022 and 2019, and that on both occasions Liverpool lost out to Manchester City, a dismissal for striker Darwin Nunez and a 1-1 draw against Crystal Palace may already have given us a glimpse of the final table.

It means Liverpool already sit four points behind their rivals, and Nunez’s red card, for head-butting Joachim Anderson, could have far-reaching consequences.

It didn’t cost them all three points, thanks to a strong reaction with 10 men and a stunning goal from Luis Diaz, but it means the 100m Euro man misses key games against Manchester United at Old Trafford next Monday and at home to Bournemouth and Newcastle after that.

Those are games in which Liverpool would have expected their big money signing to make an impact, and perhaps to reach top form, but now he will have to sit and watch rival Erling Haaland doing exactly that for City instead.

So, although Diaz’s excellent goal saved his blushes on the night, the fact that Liverpool are already playing catch-up with their star striker absent cannot be ignored.

It’s not easy to criticise Liverpool’s transfer strategy given the way the club has developed in the Klopp era – and you only have to look across at United to see that other clubs are light years behind them.

But the decision to allow Sadio Mane to move to Bayern Munich is looking questionable after this start to the season, which began with a disappointing 2-2 draw at newly-promoted Fulham.

The opening fixtures suggest that, for now at least, Liverpool are weaker as a result, and when you consider Mane is still only 30 years old then he had plenty more to give in a red shirt.

Injuries to Thiago, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota have also left the squad thin and put the club’s decision to hold off making further transfer seem risky.

That policy is in place for the right reasons; Klopp wants a tight, competitive squad in which competition for places is genuine and all players believe they have a chance to play. His view was that if the perfect option isn’t available in the market, then why rush?

But when the margins in the Premier League are so narrow, that strategy may have to change, because Liverpool cannot afford to fall further behind City given the high consistency levels of Pep Guardiola’s side.

Last season City wobbled on the opening day when they lost at Tottenham but followed it up with 5-0 victories against both Norwich and Arsenal. Liverpool, on the back of a poor performance at Fulham, were nowhere near as convincing in their response this time around, even if sheer determination and character got them through to a 1-1 draw in the end.

Ahead of the match, Klopp mocked suggestions that dropping two points on the opening day had left his team fearing they could be out of the race before August is even over. “We have to be cool and we have to be calm,” he said.

Well, you wouldn’t choose those words to describe Nunez’s actions, and there were a string of missed chances too.

By half-time, with Palace 1-0 ahead, his withering verdict was under the microscope.

By that time Liverpool had created at least 11 chances, with James Milner, Mo Salah and Nunez guilty of misses, while Palace had gone ahead, completely against the run of play, with a stunning strike on the break, through Zaha.

Palace have history at Anfield, they won there in 2015, 2016 and 2017, and even after Diaz replied, Zaha had two more opportunities to create another shock.

He didn’t convert, and Liverpool remain unbeaten in 21 Premier League matches in 2022. But this wasn’t the start they dreamt of or expected, and Nunez’s suspension adds the kind of pressure they really don’t need.

Of course, you always expect Liverpool to fight back, and it is ludicrous to write them off with 36 matches still to go. That’s an awful lot of points to play for.

But are City, at the very least, already edging ahead as favourites in what is certain to be another unbelievably tight title race? Too soon to say, maybe. But not too far-fetched to suggest...