I see this trotted out time and time again, tell me this. If it was so easy to be challenging why has no one outside the 4 teams in the CL done it?
I think it's a factor but also obviously not the only one. The team had made serious improvements that I think would have put them in the top 3 anyway, but not having to play CL football has allowed them to push on further than they perhaps would have done.
Also obviously Liverpool seriously under achieved last year.