Owen remarked that Arsenal would be their foremost challengers, whereas Manchester City would also be in contention for the top prize
Michael Owen at a promotional event in Goregaon on Saturday
Ex-England striker Michael Owen earmarked his former team Liverpool as the outright favourite to win the English Premier League 2025-26 title during his visit to Mumbai for a series of promotional events on Saturday. Owen remarked that Arsenal would be their foremost challengers, whereas Manchester City would also be in contention for the top prize.
“At the start of the season, I thought that the title fight was only between Liverpool and Arsenal. Manchester City have started quite well, and so have a couple of other teams. But, I believe that Liverpool have a 75 per cent chance of winning the league, whereas Arsenal have a 25 per cent possibility of doing so,” he said. Right now, Arsenal lead the table with 16 points from seven games, whereas Liverpool have garnered 15 of them from the same number of matches.
All praise for Slot
Owen also credited Liverpool manager Arne Slot for retaining his individuality whilst succeeding Jurgen Klopp, which, in his view, helped ease the transition following the latter’s exit. The Reds won the EPL title last year during Slot’s first year at the helm.
“Slot has just tried to be himself, I think. The playing style is a little bit slower and more possession-based. In transition, you need to keep the good things and add a bit of your personality to the team, and I was impressed with the way he did that in the first season. You can’t come in and pretend to be someone else. You need to have your stamp on things, that’s what I was most impressed with,” Owen said.
Unprecedented splurge
To retain their title, Liverpool spent £446m (R5334 crore) in strengthening their squad this summer. This includes the marquee acquisitions like Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz, among others. Despite the hullabaloo surrounding the same, which made the club the highest spender in a single transfer window in EPL history, Owen feels that accommodating new players is Slot’s toughest challenge.
“Liverpool spent an awful lot of money this summer on a lot of players, which I am sure would be great in the long term, but in the short term it’s hard to integrate so many players into the system, so that’s going to be their biggest challenge right now,” Owen signed off.
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
