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Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp believes that both Arsenal and Chelsea could play a part in the Premier League title race next season. The new season is just a couple of weeks away with the teams currently playing their final pre-season games before the new campaign.
The Gunners have caught the eye in pre-season due to their performances on and off the pitch. Mikel Arteta's side have spent over £100 millon to sign five first-team players, with Oleksandr Zinchenko being their latest recruit.
Arsenal even secured a convincing 4-0 victory over Chelsea in a pre-season friendly in Orlando, United States. They had earlier defeated Everton 2-0 in Baltimore followed by a 3-1 win over Orlando City in Florida.
Klopp is expecting a closely contested Premier League title race and believes both Arsenal and Chelsea will join Liverpool and Manchester City in the running. Speaking to Sky Sports (via Football London), he was quoted as saying the following:
"It was always clear that these kinds of things will happen [teams closing the gap]. Arsenal did, obviously, exceptionally well. Did I mention Chelsea? Probably not.”
Both London outfits were well off the the pace compared to Liverpool and Manchester City in the Premier League last season. The Blues did finish third in the standings but were 18 points behind Jurgen Klopp's second-placed side.
Arsenal, on the other hand, ended last season in fifth place and narrowly missed out on Champions League qualification.
Thomas Tuchel believes Chelsea are well behind Liverpool and Manchester City
Despite Klopp thinking Chelsea would be title contenders next season, Blues boss Thomas Tuchel arguably believes otherwise. Tuchel wasn't impressed by his side's 4-0 defeat to Arsenal and believes there is work to be done to catch the likes of City and Liverpool.
Tuchel was quoted as saying the following (via Sport Bible):
"Given our last two weeks, our game today, we should not mention the two teams in front of us. We got absolutely beaten by a team that does not play Champions League football next season and finished behind us. But at the moment, they seem far ahead of us."
The Blues have one more pre-season game left before they begin their Premier League campaign. Tuchel's side will travel to Italy to face Serie A outfit Udinese on July 29.
They will begin their league campaign with an away game against Frank Lampard's Everton on August 6.
