Source: SKY_Sports
Benitez expects tight race
Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez believes the Premier League title race will be more competitive than ever this season.
The Reds suffered an opening day defeat at Tottenham while champions Manchester United slipped up in midweek against newly-promoted Burnley.
Arsenal and Chelsea remain as recognised title contenders and Benitez expects the improvements of Manchester City, Tottenham and Aston Villa to make the top of the table more congested than ever.
The Midlands side travel to Anfield on Monday eager to recover from the shock of suffering a 2-0 home defeat to Wigan last time out.
Benitez said: "This will be a different sort of title race. Already we have lost, and so have Manchester United.
"There are other teams who can make an impact - Spurs, Manchester City, Villa - and I believe it will be a lot harder this season for the top four teams to win every game.
"Villa will be difficult for us. They have pace, experience and ability. They do very well in away games because of that and are an extremely dangerous side."
Liverpool suffered a bad defeat at Tottenham on the opening weekend, but bounced back with a resounding 4-0 victory over Stoke on Wednesday.
And Reds skipper Steven Gerrard said: "The opening games have shown this season it will be very difficult to win. We are going to have to be even better than last season.
"It looks like it is going to be a very competitive league.
"You can tell that after the opening round of games. The points total we amassed last season would have been good enough to win the title in the last three or four seasons, but it was only good enough to be second.
"Every season it gets tougher to win the title, but that is still our ambition.
"A setback on the opening day was not fatal. But it has been a long time since Liverpool won the title, and it does not get any easier."
