It was not nerves, says Liverpool coach after draw with West Ham

The battle for the Premier League title is now a "three horse race" according to Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp, after his side were held to a 1-1 draw away to West Ham United.

The league leaders opened the scoring on Monday night through a contentious strike from Sadio Mane, as James Milner had been clearly offside in the buildup, reports Xinhua news agency.

"If you want to be top at the end of the season, you have to deal with much tougher situations than we had today. For the last five, six, seven weeks, we talked about a two-horse race but now Tottenham are in behind. For me they are 100 percent in the race," Klopp said on Tuesday.

The German pointed to Liverpool's long injury list, with Jordan Henderson, Georginio Wijnaldum, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joe Gomez and Dejan Lovren all out. He added that Milner and Virgil van Dijk had played despite suffering from a virus.

"I don't moan about it. It's just a fact. It's not an excuse. We could have played better tonight. Milner came back but he didn't train yesterday. The preparation for the game was far from perfect but we still go," he added.

Klopp also brushed-off questions from the press over whether nerves had played a part in the dropped points.

"I see your faces and you are feeling sorry for us but we are fine. If you get a point at West Ham, that's fine. That's not a surprise. If you want to win big things you have to be ready for these tight races. It's a long season and we have lost one game all season. The team is doing well," insisted the Liverpool coach.

--IANS

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