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Liverpool Premier League title worry revealed as Chris Sutton addresses Man City criticism
LIVERPOOL will be concerned about their battle for Premier League supremacy with Manchester City next season because it is hard for them to improve on the season they have just had.
Manchester City are 'so good' says Chris Sutton
That’s according to Chris Sutton, who addressed criticism of Manchester City’s tremendous recent success.
Pep Guardiola’s charges secured a clean sweep of domestic trophies on Saturday with a record-equalling 6-0 thrashing of Watford in the FA Cup final at Wembley.
City are the first team ever to win the Carabao Cup, the FA Cup and the Premier League title all in the same season.
They became back-to-back top-flight champions for the first time in 10 years after edging out Liverpool by a single point.
Having amassed an unprecedented 100 points in 2017-18, City achieved a 98-point finish in the campaign just gone to overcome a Liverpool team who only lost once all year - at the Etihad back in January.
Despite City’s extraordinary success, having done the double last season with the Carabao Cup and the league, the Sheikh Mansour-backed outfit have faced criticism amid suggestions they have broken financial laws governing football.
City - who allegedly stand to face a one-year Champions League ban if they have violated Financial Fair Play regulations - have received over £1.3billion of direct investment from the Abu Dhabi ruling family since they took over in 2008.
And that has led to claims from rival fans and neutrals that City have simply bought their success - but Sutton dismissed such claims, insisting Guardiola and his backroom staff’s successful recruitment is to thank for their dominance.
It’s hard to see a weakness in this City team and a weakness in this squad
But he also raised fears that City may be unmatched in the coming years given how strong they are across the board, with the Citizens and Liverpool appearing to be out on their own and the Merseyside outfit boasting far lesser resources.
“It’s the points tally over the last two seasons has been absolutely remarkable,” Sutton told The Monday Night Club on BBC Radio 5 Live.
“The negativity only comes from jealousy from other football fans who see their team and want their team to play like Man City and win things in the style Man City have been winning them in.
“It’s as simple as that. Football fans are jealous of Man City, why wouldn’t you be? I can understand that.
“That’s where, ’They’ve bought this success’ comes from, which is a load of rubbish.
“Man City and Pep have bought wisely. I think they’ve had one real failure in terms of recruitment and that was Nolito.
“All the rest it’s very hard to… [Claudio Bravo?] Yeah, maybe so. He’s bought young.
“You look at the years he’s got out of these players and they’re going to develop, he’s developing Phil Foden and this and that and the other.
“But in terms of, can somebody challenge? Well I tell you, Liverpool challenged this season.
“The difficulty Liverpool would have I suppose going into next season is thinking, ‘Blimey, we only lost one game. How are we going to topple this City team?’
“It’s hard to see a weakness in this City team and a weakness in this squad. [Vincent] Kompany’s going, who would replace him?
“The one conundrum for City is they still haven’t done the real big one, the Champions League.”