Diogo Jota insists Liverpool can close gap to Manchester City

suffered a shock 1-0 defeat at the hands of

on Tuesday, before

defeated

by the same scoreline on Wednesday to extend their lead. Man City are now eight points clear of second-place

and nine points clear of Liverpool, despite having played one more game than

Jurgen Klopp

's team.

Even though the reigning Premier League champions have lost just 10 points in their first 20 games this season, Jota believes that Liverpool can reduce the gap between themselves and their opponents before the conclusion of the season.

"

There are still a lot of games. Obviously there is a gap now between us and them

," the Portugal international told the club's official website. "We know there is that gap, but we also know we are able to close that gap and that's the plan.

"But we need to avoid what happened against Leicester because if we keep doing the things we did in that game, it's going to be hard for us. We know that. So it's up to us to recover from that game, regroup and go again – because we are able to.

"We were not like ourselves, we were not getting that momentum we often do. Although we had our chances to open the scoring – if we did that, the game changes, like we know. I think that was the missing part."

Liverpool head to Chelsea on Sunday in a pivotal matchup between two clubs frantically attempting to cling on to Manchester City's coattails.

Blues manager Thomas Tuchel expressed worry over player availability after Wednesday's 1-1 draw with Brighton and Hove Albion, stating:

"We have seven COVID cases." We have five or six players out for six or more weeks. How should we compete in a title race?

"We would be stupid to think we can do it out of COVID and injuries. Just play and everybody would be stupid to do it without 23 fit players."

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