At the beginning of the season no one saw Liverpool coming, they played badly and at a time was battling to move to the big six, it was all Manchester city and Arsenal.
Now Liverpool sit 5 points clear of Arsenal and Manchester city with Aston villa their closest rivals.
I think in terms of consistency Liverpool are better than Arsenal and has a better chance of maintaining the top spot and would be Manchester city main adversary to them defending their premier league title.
Actually, at the beginning of the season, no one saw it coming that Liverpool would mount at the top of the premier league table towards the end of the year. But that doesn't mean Liverpool wasn't on people's minds to be a major contestant in the Premier League title, after mentioning Manchester City and Arsenal.
In previous seasons, someone couldn't mention the major contestants of the Premier League title without Liverpool being on their list of clubs that can be the winner of the PL title.
Now, Liverpool sits on top of the table, which brings more pressure on them to stick to performing well because any match draw or loss from them, brings their rivals(Aston Villa, Manchester City, or Arsenal), closer to them. That's what they wouldn't like to happen to them this season because in the last two seasons, they missed being the PL title holder because of they allow their rival being Manchester City to come closer to them via points, which later was an advantage to Manchester City to lift the PL title that season(2021/2022).