Jamie Carragher maintains that Manchester City are the best team in Europe ahead of Liverpool, despite the Reds’ recent Champions League success.
Not only did Liverpool win Europe’s most prestigious competition last season, beating Tottenham 2-0 in the final, but they also sit top of the Premier League table, five points ahead of City after five games.
City failed to beat Norwich on Saturday evening, losing 3-2 as Norwich front-man Teemu Pukki exploited City’s defensive frailties.
A number of Liverpool fans were excited to see their title rivals fall to a ‘relatively easy’ hurdle, but pundit and former Reds defender Carragher thinks it is too early to bust out the champagne.
Writing on Twitter after the game, Carragher said:
I think City are the best team in Europe and LFC a very close second!
Winning the Champions League doesn’t mean you are the best team in Europe as it’s a cup competition and there is no way we were the best team in 2005!
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Carragher is right in his assessment, in my opinion, but I can understand how certain fans would raise issue with it on the basis that Liverpool’s Champions League success has to count for something significant in the conversation.
Were Greece the best team in Europe when they won the European Champions in 2004? I think it’s safe to assume that the ‘best’ team doesn’t always win the competition, but then that is another debate entirely.
Either way, it isn’t really a debate worth having. Liverpool and Manchester City are both certainly too of the best teams in world football, and it remains to be seen whether Liverpool can capitalise on their early run of successful results and stick it out to claim their first Premier League title.
