In search of a team to challenge Arsenal for the Premier League title this season, Liverpool are now being peddled as the most likely candidates ahead of their meeting at Anfield. But on what basis? We really are desperate for a title race.

They can go within three points of the Gunners with victory on Sunday after a run of five consecutive wins in all competitions followed the 3-0 defeat to Manchester City. It’s hard to disagree with Alan Shearer’s assertion that that counts as “a little bit of momentum”.

He also believes “there are just little signs of Liverpool getting into stride”, while Jamie Carragher claims in his Telegraph column there “have been increasingly encouraging signs”.

But neither pundit detailed what those positive signs actually are beyond an ability to “chisel out results” and vague references to squad “togetherness”.

It’s fair to say Andoni Iraola has got a better tune out of some than Arne Slot managed in his second season. Alexander Isak has six goals in seven Premier League games. Cody Gakpo’s no longer a scapegoat. Rio Ngumoha’s upward trajectory continues.

Jeremy Jacquet’s been a revelation, Ronald Araujo’s speedy emergence as a cult hero has been a joy and he will have further endeared himself to the fans through placing his trust in academy duo Trey Nyoni and Lewis Koumas.

There’s no doubt Iraola is doing a fine job with an expensively assembled but imbalanced squad. Credit is indeed due to him for getting results while looking to embed ideas antithetical to his predecessor.

But there would be no credit without those results, none of which have been convincing.

They ran in six against a very, very poor opponent in LASK, who responded with three goals of their own.

Brentford were 1-0 and keeping Liverpool at bay comfortably before Yehor Yarmolyuk gave them the gift of his red card and the Reds came back to win 2-1.

Villarreal currently sit tenth in La Liga, four points above the relegation zone, and two goals up at Anfield before Liverpool turned the game on its head to win 4-3. As Shearer admitted, they were “really, really poor” for the first half hour of that game.

Yasin Ayari really should have scored for Brighton before Florian Wirtz gave Liverpool the lead with a very fortunate deflection in a game in which the Seagulls enjoyed 64% possession, had 16 shot to Liverpool’s 11 and an xG of 1.35 compared to the hosts’ 0.87.

And on Wednesday night they needed penalties to beat a disjointed Chelsea side.

There’s a case to be made that they were fortunate to win their last four games in their run of five on the bounce.

Football Is A Results Business, but we could very easily be talking about a manager under increasing pressure at Liverpool ahead of the visit of Arsenal based on their performances alone.

Just like that notion would be absurd given the difficulty of the job Iraola has on his hands and in the knowledge that Bournemouth got off to a very slow start when he arrived on the south coast, it’s equally irrational to suggest Liverpool are a team gearing up for a title challenge.

It’s a narrative being forced by Carragher, Shearer and we suspect plenty of others in the build-up to the clash at Anfield on Sunday out of yearning for a serious challenger to Arsenal this season rather than through a genuine belief that they can go toe-to-toe with a far superior football team.