Jamie Carragher has predicted an unexpected twist in Liverpool’s Premier League run-in.
The Reds need just six more points to be crowned champions and first place could even be guaranteed if Arsenal loses to Ipswich Town on Sunday and Liverpool beats Leicester City. If not, a slip up from the Gunners the following Wednesday against Crystal Palace could hand Liverpool the crown.
If Mikel Arteta’s side manages to take at least four points from those games, Liverpool will need to beat Tottenham Hotspur on April 27 to finish off the job. Given Spurs’ horrendous season - with the club sitting 15th - a win seems likely.
But Carragher has thrown a spanner in the works and predicted that, should Tottenham be eliminated from the Europa League by Eintracht Frankfurt this week, manager Ange Postecoglou could be sacked and Liverpool would face a different face in the dugout for potentially its title-winning showdown.
“Well it can’t go on any longer and I think if Tottenham goes out to Eintracht Frankfurt in the cup, it probably would be a shake hands and move on to something different for both parties in terms of the manager and the club,” the ex-Liverpool defender told Sky Sports on Monday, when asked about Spurs’ form.
Tottenham drew the first leg of the Europa League quarter-final tie 1-1 at home and will need to win at the third-place Bundesliga side to progress. After that, it’s a home Premier League game against Nottingham Forest, before the trip to Anfield next week.
Spurs are on course for its worst finish since 1993/94 and only the bottom three sides have lost more league matches this season than the North London club.
“Ange Postecoglou, since he’s come in, I’ve loved watching Spurs,” Carragher added on the club’s woeful campaign. “I love it when I have a Spurs game and I love analysing them. But if you’re a Spurs fan, you’re so open and you’re always conceding goals and they’re exciting to watch. I’ve said it for so long, they should be everyone’s second favorite team because you’re always going to get a good game.
“But some of the results we have seen this season - there have been mitigating circumstances in some instances in terms of injuries that they’ve had - but even when they’ve had a full team they haven’t won enough games.
“This isn’t just this season; if you go back to the first 10 games of last season when they were fantastic and top of the league, from then this has been going on a long time. It has been going on for nearly 18 months with them losing games and conceding goals. This isn’t turning on a manager after a bad run of form.”