Tony Cascarino: Liverpool can put the Premier League title race to bed with Boxing Day win over Leicester

This is the view of Tony Cascarino, who hailed the Premier League leaders as they strengthened their championship credentials at the weekend.

Jurgen Klopp’s side beat Bournemouth 3-0 on a stress-free Saturday – Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Naby Keita and Mohamed Salah getting the goals.

Their weekend was made all the better by the fact reigning champions Man City lost more ground on them with a loss at home to Manchester United.

It means there is now a 14 point gap between the two sides and Man City boss Pep Guardiola went on to say the prospect of catching the Reds is ‘not realistic’.

Leicester are actually Liverpool’s closest challengers now as they are only eight points adrift in second.

The Foxes are in great form, having won their past eight matches in the Premier League with their latest a 4-1 triumph at Aston Villa.

The next couple of weeks could be a good opportunity for Brendan Rodgers’ side to close the gap as Liverpool only have one more Premier League match before Christmas as they are flying out to Qatar for the Club World Cup.

Leicester face Norwich and Man City after Liverpool’s match against Watford on Saturday – before the Foxes host Jugen Klopp’s side in a top of the table clash on Boxing Day.

But Casc, who is a Liverpool fan, believes Leicester vs the Reds will represent the perfect opportunity for Klopp’s side to put the title race to bed before the end of the year.

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  • Tony Cascarino stunned by just how good Liverpool’s squad is

In his column for The Times, Casc wrote: “A big fear for Liverpool fans was how they would cope if anything happened to one of their top players, but this week they showed how well equipped their squad is.

“Jurgen Klopp said in the summer how comfortable he was with the squad and that was obvious in their thrashings of Everton and Bournemouth, with only four players – Virgil van Dijk, Dejan Lovren, Andy Robertson and James Milner – starting both games.

“Of their seven goalscorers in the two wins, four of them are not first-team starters.