Patience, reservation, quiet calculation; we are not interested in anything that slows down judgement or forces us to hold back on hot takes. At this point it’s difficult to know whether a shortening of attention spans in the wider culture has infected football or the other way around, but it hardly matters.

Nothing reflects the acceleration towards short attention spans than managerial tenures getting leaner, of course, but it’s only in the last decade that fans and the media have given up lamenting football’s short-termism and joined in.

Impulsivity flows freely inside and outside the industry now. 

Whatever you think about the successes or failures of Michael Carrick or Pierre Sage, a decade ago it was unthinkable that pundits, supporters, or journalists would be shrugging their shoulders at the inevitability of sackings after eight rounds of a Premier League season.

At some point, without anyone noticing, we went in cahoots.

That’s the ugly side of being impetuous, but there’s a fun side, too, which is looking at the league table in October and confidently declaring who can and cannot win the title. And at this end of the spectrum, we are often woefully misaligned with insiders. 

At the end of October last season Arsenal were already top of the league, it’s true, but that was an anomaly.

The eventual champions in the previous five seasons had: 21 points from the first 9, 18 points from 8, 23 points from 11, 20 points from 10, and 12 points from 9.

We’re cooking the books slightly by changing the matchweek at which to count these numbers but it’s still noteworthy that, on average, those figures amount to precisely two points per game – far below the average needed to hit the tally required to lift the trophy.

Does Andoni Iraola have Liverpool in a title race?

If Liverpool beat Arsenal on Sunday they will move to within three points of the current holders, on 18 points from 9 games, or, that magic number again, exactly two points per game.

Yet the consensus reads that Liverpool cannot challenge for the title this season; that the club who won it in 2024/25, under-achieved that level in 2025/26, and strengthened significantly in the summer are somehow unable to match Arsenal.

The consensus reads that a team with a firing-on-all-cylinders front line including Alexander Isak and Bradley Barcola lacks the required creativity from its £100 million playmaker, Florian Wirtz, who just happens to top the Premier League charts for chances created this season.

Apparently the manager who has lost one of his last 36 Premier League matches isn’t convincing enough.

Apparently a defence that has kept four cleans (just one fewer than Arsenal) can’t hit the heights anymore with an ageing Virgil van Dijk.

Apparently Liverpool aren’t ready because they lost a game to Manchester City and drew at home to Fulham. This is the same side that has won seven of its last eight matches in all competitions.

Champions Arsenal head to Anfield on Sunday

We are slow to change our initial perceptions, as ever, and while that keeps us neatly in step with events at the bottom end of the table – where quick sackings confirm our theories, or, perhaps, deny managers the chance to prove us wrong – it has regularly seen us write off the eventual title winners early.

But if Liverpool win on Sunday we will surely catch up to reality.

We will notice that Iraola’s lack of a number six is a weird complaint considering that his current three - Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch and Dominic Szoboszlai – played together in a title-winning campaign two seasons ago.

We will notice that Jeremy Jaquet and Ronald Araujo have settled brilliantly, and that Victor Munoz has given them new strength and depth.

We will notice that Iraola is the real deal – and Liverpool are ready to go all the way.

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