Hearts were in mouths an hour into Liverpool’s trip to St. Mary’s as Liverpool found themselves 2-1 down, staring into the face of letting an opportunity to put Manchester City under serious pressure go to waste.

Two Mo Salah goals later, the Reds find themselves eight points clear at the top of the Premier League. They are also able to take serious solace from the way in which they dug deep to grind out the victory despite not being on their A-game.

Liverpool now join elite company in being only the fourth Premier League side to have this point advantage – eight or more – after 12 games.

Manchester United in 1993/94, Manchester City in 2017/18 and Jurgen Klopp’s Reds in 2019/20 are the other three.

All of them went on to win the Premier League that season.

Fans will recall the level that Klopp’s side was playing at during that infamous title-winning season, as well as Man City’s Centurion side. Both were two of the best teams English football has ever seen.

It would be fair to say that Arne Slot’s Liverpool are not playing at the level that either of those two did in those seasons. Yet, they keep winning, and that is the most crucial aspect.

Liverpool now Premier League title favourites

Manchester City visit Anfield next weekend with a chance to cut that deficit to five points. But, alternatively, Liverpool have a chance to be 11 points ahead of the side that have won the past four Premier League titles.

If that were to be the case, Liverpool’s lead at the top would likely only be nine points as it is fair to assume that at least one of Arsenal, Chelsea or Brighton would win their game and overtake Man City in the table.

All the signs are pointing to this becoming a special season for Liverpool. Today’s win over Southampton was the definition of a stereotypical ‘champions performance’ – playing poorly, going behind, but somehow, some way, winning.

Yet we don’t want to get too ahead of ourselves. A Premier League title in November is like the sun: you shouldn’t look directly at it.

But slowly, quietly, Liverpool have gone from title contenders to title favourites.

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