Jurgen Klopp delivers fresh Liverpool top-four verdict amid Man Utd, Newcastle and Tottenham battle

Jurgen Klopp conceded Liverpool have little margin for error in their remaining fixtures if they’re to achieve a Premier League top-four finish.

The Reds’ 0-0 draw at Chelsea last night leaves them in eighth spot and seven points outside the Champions League places. Certainly, not many expected Liverpool to be languishing in such a position after going close to an unprecedented quadruple last season.

However, the Reds have underwhelmed throughout 2022-23 and face missing out on Champions League qualification for the first time in six years. Arsenal and Manchester City are shoo-ins to finish in the top four while Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United fighting for the other two berths.

Liverpool have 10 games remaining and welcome Arsenal to Anfield on Sunday (16.30 BST).

On whether a top-four finish is still achieveable, Klopp said: “I don’t know if there is any chance, for that we must win pretty much all the games and the other teams must lose a lot of games. It's not in our hands, I cannot say, what can I say about that? It's not important. If you would be only motivated on the highest level if somebody tells us, 'Oh, you have a chance for the top four...' Then if we are not fourth, then I want to be fifth, if we are not fifth, then we want to be sixth, so that's what I want to be. For that we have to win football games, because in the moment I don't even know where we are exactly. Eighth? Seventh? Ninth? I don't know – it's not interesting.

“We have another 10 games to play and the next one is Arsenal. Not the other nine, I am not interested in [those games]. But the next one is Arsenal, so if we are difficult to beat against Arsenal we can win this game. If not, Arsenal will just go over us and then we will see. With one point, the steps, how I said, are not massive. If you win a football game, all of a sudden three points for one game; wow, things can look different. But for the moment we have no lack of goals, or lack of where we want to end up; we want to be as successful as possible. But that means for each weekend, or for each midweek game, like today, we want to win it. I saw that tonight and for that, I am fine.”