If Chelsea are a little horse in a three-way race to the title, still learning how to jump and struggling to stay alongside the galloping thoroughbreds of Arsenal and Manchester City, then Liverpool must be something akin to a Shetland pony. Or possibly one of those wooden mounts on a fairground carousel, destined to go round and round and up and down without reaching anywhere new.

It is never a good idea to completely swallow what José Mourinho is saying – few will believe his claim that Chelsea will only be good enough to win the title next season, for instance – yet the idea is already taking hold that the present top three will be the final top three and the rest of the season will merely establish the order.

In fairness, not too many Liverpool supporters would have disputed that suggestion at around the time Kolo Touré was rolling a suicidal square ball along the edge of his own area at West Bromwich on Sunday afternoon, though it is not too difficult to think of a couple of reasons why the Merseyside team could still have a big say in this season's championship. The first is Brendan Rodgers' oft-repeated mantra that the top three sides have still to visit Anfield in the league, beginning with Arsenal this Saturday.

Granted, that is not much use if the Reds are going to squander points away to West Brom and at home to Aston Villa, though the evidence from the Merseyside derby last week was that Rodgers can get his tactics right and his players motivated for the big games. Everton were poor in the derby, no question about that, but if Liverpool bring the same A game to their home encounters with Arsenal, City and Chelsea there is no reason why they should not take a share of the points.

People are quite rightly raving over Chelsea's performance at the Etihad on Monday, though Liverpool are not only playing in a similar way, they were almost as impressive on the same ground on Boxing Day. City's 100% home record might not have lasted until February had Raheem Sterling and his team-mates had a little more luck with refereeing decisions at the end of last year.

The other reason Liverpool cannot be easily overlooked is, quite simply, Luis Suárez. If it is true that the title is a three-horse race then the most accomplished and influential player in the Premier League will have to be an unusually quiet spectator in the next two or three months.

Which seems on the whole unlikely. While Suárez has just added another supporters' award to his collection for January, one imagines the Uruguayan would not be totally thrilled to end the season with only the Player of the Year award on his mantelpiece. Not that Suárez would necessarily claim that gong should Liverpool miss out on the honours.

Were Chelsea to win the league then Eden Hazard would be in with a good shout, or possibly even John Terry. Arsenal could supply two or three candidates should they remain on top, and if City manage to recover from the paralysis of Monday evening then Yaya Touré, Álvaro Negredo or whoever does most to make the goal machine fire up again would be worthy of consideration.

Yet in terms of influence no player is as important to his club as Suárez.

Whether this is because he is such an outstanding individual or Liverpool are something of a one-man team is an interesting if delicate subject for debate, but take his goals out of the equation and Liverpool would be back to looking up at Manchester United in the league table. Suárez may be behind Agüero in the goalscoring charts for all competitions – he was banned for the first few games this season and Liverpool are not playing in Europe – but his 23 league goals make him easily the EPL's top scorer. At this stage of the campaign he has played 19 league games, the same number as Mesut Özil at Arsenal and Wayne Rooney at Manchester United. For purposes of comparison, the respective goal tallies are 23, four (Özil) and nine (Rooney). Total number of shots? 87-19-51.

Crosses? 34-34-76. Chances created: 54-55-42. Passes completed: 731-1,271-866. Duels won: 127-70-80.

This column is not the world's biggest fan of bare statistics, which can be misleading and are more often than not boring, yet it is clear from the above that Suárez does much more for Liverpool than stick the ball in the net on a regular basis. He is never less than competitive in every area, and in some areas way ahead. Only Özil's pass total is vastly superior, for while Rooney's total of crosses looks impressive, 62 missed their target and Suárez actually has a slightly higher percentage of successful crosses. Hazard has put in more crosses (38), created more chances (62) and completed more passes (1,038) for Chelsea, but he has played in five more league games. He has scored only nine goals and had 33 shots.

The stats (don't worry, there won't be any more) appear to back up the evidence of one's own eyes. Suárez is a busy player who attempts to be involved in everything, more often than not with a degree of success.

Liverpool would have been lost without him for the last couple of seasons, though with Daniel Sturridge alongside and Rodgers favouring a quicker, counterattacking game that better suits the talent at his disposal, Suárez does not have to carry quite such a heavy burden and looks much happier for it.

Can he swing the title Liverpool's way? Probably not, if you want to be sensible and logical about it. Considering the strength of the other squads in the contest Liverpool still look susceptible if injury deprives them of a key player. But you would not bet against Suárez making a bid for the headlines at the weekend, against the team that offered £40m plus £1 for his services in the summer. And the weekend after that, for that matter, when Liverpool visit the Emirates in the FA Cup.

With Manchester United and Bayern Munich also looming, Arsenal are entering a critical phase of their season. So are Liverpool, who if they are going to turn non-involvement in Europe into an advantage, need to make sure they win their league fixtures against opponents possibly distracted by the Champions League. What that means in practice is that after Arsenal this Saturday, Liverpool must not let any more dozy points slip against Fulham, Swansea, Southampton and Sunderland in order to ensure they are in a position to nail down the coffin lid on Manchester United's Champions League hopes at Old Trafford in mid-March. If they can do that, Anfield should be quite a lively place again when Spurs, City, Chelsea and Newcastle come visiting in the final four home games of the season.

While Rodgers was doubtless wise to damp down the title talk, that does not mean Liverpool should aim no higher than fourth place. They are still in the mix, still a threat to their rivals, and they boast an individual capable of posing a threat to absolutely anyone.