Can Liverpool win the league?

With Luis Suarez at the wheel, the Liverpool juggernaut powers on. Driving it skilfully and unrelentingly fast, if the Uruguayan keeps up this pace, who knows where it will end.

The sight of their heroes turning Tottenham Hotspur into road kill, running over them at will in last weekend’s 5-0 drubbing at White Hart Lane, has got plenty of Reds fans dreaming. Now, perhaps for the first time, they can imagine this journey climaxing with the sight of Steven Gerrard holding aloft the Premier League trophy at Anfield on Sunday, May 14.

Last summer, men in white coats would have been sent to deal with those kind of Anfield fantasists. Not anymore. It’s no longer considered madness to suggest that Liverpool CAN win the league.

As a unit, they’ve improved at a frighteningly rapid rate. Brendan Rodgers has gone about his work quietly and with the minimum of fuss, but the manner in which he has turned a group of talented individuals into a hungry, energised team that are unafraid of any challenge is mightily (and unexpectedly) impressive.

Goals are Liverpool’s greatest strength — they’ve banged in 14 in their last three outings, and 39 overall. Only Manchester City have a more ravenous attack.

Talk has quite rightly focused on Suarez and Daniel Sturridge’s huge contributions, but thanks to Gerrard’s deadly set-piece deliveries, the Reds are also the best in the business from corners and free-kicks. They’ve netted 11 from set plays, as many goals as Crystal Palace have scored all season.

Technically, you expect a Rodgers team to have wonderful assurance on the ball, and they do. At times, they keep it beautifully.

What’s surprising is their collective appetite to snatch it back as soon as they lose possession. Winning more than three-quarters of the tackles they make, only one team — Palace — have made more successful challenges than Liverpool. Their hunger and determination to win matches cannot be faulted.

From one to 11, with and without the ball, Liverpool are very strong. Yet I still don’t believe they will go all the way in 2014. Rated at 6/1 fourth-favourites, I think the bookies have got it just about right — they can upset the odds, but it’s a monumental task for them to actually do it.

Why? A whopping 66 per cent of their goals have been scored by the SAS partnership, and that’s too much of an imbalance.

It’s hard to believe on current form, but at one stage or another, Suarez is going to get injured, or lose his magic touch. At no stage so far have both men struggled or been unavailable at the same time; and avoiding that scenario over 38 games is highly unlikely.

Should Jordan Henderson, Gerrard, Raheem Sterling and Philippe Coutinho step up and contribute more goals, perhaps the Reds could survive a dip from Suarez. But, with only one goal apiece from open play all season, that’s a tall order.

Elsewhere among the contenders, it’s a different story.

If Olivier Giroud isn’t firing, Arsenal have Theo Walcott, Mesut Ozil, Aaron Ramsey, Santi Cazorla and company to bail them out.

At Chelsea, they’re too used to dry spells. So, if Samuel Eto’o, Fernando Torres and Demba Ba ever awake from their slumber, the Blues midfield goal machines will breathe a huge sigh of relief. And favourites City know they can rely on Yaya Toure, David Silva, Samir Nasri, Fernandinho and others to handle it, should their forward line malfunction.

There are other question marks too. Defensively, Rodgers can’t decide on his best rear guard and that’s a pickle he needs to solve.

Champions tend to build partnerships between central defenders, full-backs and wingers, centre-backs and full-backs, goalkeepers and the men in front. Until now Liverpool’s glut of goals at the other end has protected this weakness.

If anyone tells you the Reds are too inexperienced or naive to last the course, shut your ears. Sooner or later, every new champion has to experience the journey for the first time. And this could be Liverpool’s time. I just find more reasons to doubt them than I do City, Arsenal or Chelsea.

Put simply, driving a juggernaut isn’t as easy as Suarez is making it look. Sooner or later, he’ll need to have a breather.

The good news for Liverpool fans is that Manchester United are so far behind, that even with a pit stop, they won’t need to fret about them overtaking in the wing mirror.

No matter what happens from now on, Liverpool should finish the race well clear of their bitter enemies. And that, for now, should be more than enough reason for Reds supporters to celebrate.

TODAY’s EPL analyst Adrian Clarke is a former Arsenal midfielder who has played at every level of English football. Now an experienced sports journalist, he writes for many publications around the world. Follow him on Twitter @adrianjclarke

LIVE ON TV:

Tonight:

Liverpool v Cardiff (mio TV Ch102 and StarHub Ch227, 8.45pm)

Fulham v Man City (Ch103 and Ch228, 11pm)

Crystal Palace v Newcastle (Ch104 and Ch229, 11pm)

Stoke v Aston Villa (Ch105 and Ch230, 11pm)

Sunderland v Norwich (Ch105 and Ch231, 11pm)

West Brom v Hull (Ch106 and Ch232, 11pm)

Man United v west Ham (Ch102 and Ch227, 11pm)

Tomorrow:

Southampton v Spurs (Ch102 and Ch227, 9.30pm)

Swansea v Everton (Ch102 and Ch227, 11.55pm)

Tuesday

Arsenal v Chelsea (Ch12 and Ch227, 4am)