Can a team win the Premier League with a struggling goalkeeper? History suggests not. That does not bode well for Manchester City and Liverpool, counting the cost of weekend catastrophes from Claudio Bravo and Loris Karius, two summer arrivals now pinpointed as weak links.
Having struggled to adjust since arriving from Barcelona this summer, Bravo was lambasted for being too easily beaten by Willian in City's 3-1 loss to Chelsea on Saturday. Karius meanwhile capped an uncertain performance at Bournemouth on Sunday by clumsily handing Nathan Ake the winning goal in a 4-3 defeat.
"You have always needed to have a great goalkeeper to win the Premier League, that's never changed," Shaka Hislop, former Newcastle and West Ham goalkeeper and ESPN FC TV pundit, said.