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Gary Neville makes 'beyond ridiculous' claim after Liverpool sends Man City message

Gary Neville said it would be "beyond ridiculous" if Manchester City was to end up winning the Premier League title from the position it currently finds itself in.

Pep Guardiola's men lost their fourth top-flight match in a row at Anfield on Sunday to fall 11 points behind the table-topping Reds after just 13 games of the season.

Arsenal, Chelsea and Brighton all recorded the results required to move above City in the table over the weekend, knocking the league's defending champion out of the top four, and Neville does not think City will be able to bounce back to win a fifth title in a row.

"I'm sure he (Guardiola) will be thinking already about how he moulds a new team," Neville said on The Gary Neville Podcast. "I said last week, 'can they, from this, win a Premier League title?' I don't think they can, and I said last week after the game against Spurs that this would be the Pep Guardiola's greatest-ever title if they won it.

"If they won it after today, it would be beyond ridiculous, if they were to win it from being 11 points behind. Liverpool will have had to have completely folded, and City will have had to have arrested what looks like a decline of this team in this moment in time."

Chelsea and Arsenal are currently the closest challengers to Liverpool, each trailing the Reds by nine points. While Neville thinks Chelsea is "too early" in its journey under Enzo Maresca to challenge for the title, he believes Arsenal could still win the league.

However, he also thinks the manner in which the Gunners let West Ham back into their game on Saturday will give opposition teams encouragement in future matches.

"They've had a good week and they've got back on track but there was just a little bit of a niggle last night," Neville added. "They've won well and it's been a good night for them but a stupid little 10 minutes that Mikel Arteta will have taken to bed with him, I'm sure.

"They've had a stop-start beginning to the season: the sendings off, the injuries, dropping points. But it looks like they're getting into a position whereby — it's a big week, they have to go and beat Manchester United and Fulham — and then they have to look at Liverpool and think, 'are you going to go and win at St James' Park and are you going to go and win at Goodison Park?' They might be thinking, if they win their two games, it's going to be seven points at the end of the week (if Liverpool drops points), and that's a lot more achievable than nine."

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