Alan Hansen's column

By Alan Hansen BBC Sport football expert

The bookmakers on Monday morning still have Liverpool as third favourites for the Premier League title and I would probably go along with that.

But I think they are a lot closer to winning it now than I thought at the start of the season.

They have really impressed me at times, none more so than on Sunday when they defeated Chelsea, and I think they have got a real chance of winning the championship.

If Liverpool are going to overcome the odds then they have to contend with four very different types of games, some they seem to be developing a knack for.

First, they have to win when they play badly. Second, they must come back from the dead like they did against Middlesbrough, Manchester City and Wigan.

Also key is abandoning caution when it comes to playing the lesser teams.

Gerrard (right) celebrates with goalscorer Alonso at Stamford Bridge

But the biggest priority for this season is taking points off their biggest rivals because their record against Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal has been really poor.

Against Manchester United earlier in the season, they came back from 1-0 down, and struggling, with a magnificent display. But Sunday's victory over Luiz Felipe Scolari's men was a highlight.

Liverpool provided a terrific performance at Stamford Bridge. They defended well for an hour and then Chelsea virtually ran out of ideas.

In the end there was only one team that was going to score and that was Liverpool and that was a tribute to Rafael Benitez's tactics. He really outmanoeuvred Scolari.

Somewhere along the line Benitez has found out that he needs to be more adventurous. He's still got that hint of caution as we saw on Sunday, but now it is caution at the right times.

When they went behind at Anfield to the champions United, they became more aggressive and more adventurous in attack.

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And even though they are playing very much as a team, they realise that unless you abandon caution against the lesser teams, you can't roll over them.

There is a long way to go yet, nobody's ever won a championship medal in October, but the signs are good. Certainly, Liverpool have grown in confidence and they've grown together as a team.

Sir Alex Ferguson will tell you more than anybody that when the pressure is on, it's very much a team thing. Every time we ever played the last thing that would be said before we headed down the tunnel would be: be together.

Up until spring you have to put yourself in a position where you can win the title. Then it's all about being together as a unit and that will sort out the winners from the losers.

Manchester United had a few individual issues to contend with on Saturday but just because they had a bad second half against Everton it doesn't mean they're going to have a bad three weeks.

Ronaldo's body language was not great compared to previous seasons, you cannot hide that Alan Hansen

Rio Ferdinand, for example, was absolutely awesome until he ran 50 yards to get involved in an incident when Phil Neville got booked for tackling Cristiano Ronaldo.

It took his focus and concentration away from what he was doing and he ended up making a couple of mistakes which almost cost United.

Then, Wayne Rooney had a couple of lapses, mental blocks almost, and got involved in something that led to him being taken off.

Ferguson took the focus away from the players afterwards by blaming the referee, but internally he will sit the players down and explain to them where it went wrong and make sure it doesn't happen again.

Ferguson is far too good a manager to let that affect the team ethic.

The Scot also said that everything is fine with Ronaldo but his body language against West Brom last week and on Saturday was not great compared to previous seasons, you cannot hide that.

Ronaldo said on Sunday that he wants to be at Manchester United but let's have a look and see what he's like over the next few weeks. Then that will really tell you.

Although Chelsea have now lost their four-year unbeaten home run, they will recover for their trip to Hull on Wednesday because they have a lot of experience at the club.

The great teams can pick themselves up and go on another 10 games undefeated as Manchester United and Chelsea have done.

While you could argue Scolari's men ran out of ideas on Sunday, you can also point to them missing five or six top players.

Chelsea have usually got people on the bench that can come on and give you a different perspective, whether it's height, pace, a trick or the ability to hit it from 25 yards but on Sunday they didn't really have anybody.

If you have Michael Essien, Michael Ballack and Joe Cole on the bench then you have subs who can really make a difference. Once they get those type of players back then I'm sure it will be a different story.

As for Arsenal, despite the weekend's movements at White Hart Lane, this is still a good time to play Spurs.

Granted Tottenham have recruited Harry Redknapp and that will give them momentum, but they are bottom of the table and when they come under pressure their confidence will still be low.

You're better off playing a Tottenham team that are bottom than one that are four off the pace.

Alan Hansen was talking to Alistair Magowan