TOTTENHAM fans should not get too excited about Liverpool's current plight, warns Harry Redknapp. Rafa Benitez's Reds have endured a dreadful first half of the season, seemingly leaving the door wide open for the likes of Spurs...

By Ben Pearce

TOTTENHAM fans should not get too excited about Liverpool's current plight, warns Harry Redknapp.

Rafa Benitez's Reds have endured a dreadful first half of the season, seemingly leaving the door wide open for the likes of Spurs, Manchester City and Aston Villa to steal a Champions League spot.

However, Benitez this week guaranteed that the Merseysiders would recover to seal their customary top-four spot, and Redknapp believes the chasing pack should take the Spaniard's claim seriously.

In fact, he feels the Anfield outfit still have a chance of taking the title, never mind qualifying for the Champions League again.

"Liverpool are not out of the picture. They have good games coming up, I've looked at their fixtures," said Redknapp.

"They could win the next four games and they would put themselves back in it. They are capable of going on a run.

"Everyone wrote Arsenal off after they lost to Chelsea, then they come back. Chelsea haven't won a couple, Man United got beaten at the weekend and Arsenal won so it's all to play for.

"It can change from week to week but Liverpool have got it all to do, and they will be outsiders. I'm not going to sit here and say that they will win it for sure, because I think that they won't, but I wouldn't say it's impossible either."

Benitez's side travel to bottom side Portsmouth this weekend and then host Wolves on Boxing Day, before ending 2009 with a tricky trip to Villa Park.

And their next league game sees them host Tottenham at Anfield, on Sunday January 10, in a match that could have a major say on both teams' chances of clinching a Champions League spot.

Manchester City boss this week admitted that he is targeting Liverpool's place: "One team is usually deemed as the most vulnerable - and currently that is

Liverpool," he said. "It is highly unlikely to change now.

"Teams won't be challenging for the top two or three. That is not going to happen this year. It probably means only one club is going to get into the top four."

And, having faced Hughes' side last night at White Hart Lane, Redknapp admits that City will pose an ever-increasing threat in the coming months and years.

"Man City could certainly be difficult to keep out of the Champions League places and they will be pushing all the way," he said.

"Eventually, in the next four or five years, I could see City winning the championship. It wouldn't surprise me at all, if these owners stay in, as I'm sure they will. It's there for them, it's a great chance for them."

Ambitious Redknapp hopes that Spurs will also continue to progress and threaten the established elite in the Premier League.

And the Tottenham boss believes his side have only recently lost the chance to involve themselves in the title race.

"The title is so open you wouldn't want to write anyone off. If we hadn't thrown silly points away then we could have been up there," he said.

"Any team that puts together five or six wins can put themselves right in it, but it will be hard for anyone outside of the top four to win it. I have to say that one of those four will probably win it.