KLOPP’S COASTING TO THE TITLE
Liverpool back to their best as quality quartet put them on brink
THERE was a time when leading 3-0 against Crystal Palace while chasing the title was when the roof fell in on Liverpool. Not this year. At Anfield last night, three soon became four and if Manchester City do not win at Chelsea tonight, the 2019-20 Premier League title race is over.
This was an outstanding display, not just maintaining their 100 per cent home record in the league this season, but dominating a Crystal Palace team with ambitions of their own towards European football next season.
To be blunt, Palace were never in it and Liverpool as good as coasted to their biggest league win since beating Southampton by the same scoreline here on February 1. It feels a lifetime ago, yet before and after lockdown, Liverpool’s excellence remains.
Merseyside derbies are attritional and very rarely flatter them, but this was Liverpool back to their best, as they have been for much of the domestic season. They defended with ease and scored four goals of outstanding quality, from brilliant dead balls, to spectacular shots and precision passing in the build up.
That was certainly the case with the fourth, Mohamed Salah’s exquisite ball to put Sadio Mane through on the left, the forward outstripping Palace’s back line and sliding the ball past Wayne Hennessey. By the time Liverpool return here, they will have had two chances to confirm their first title of the Premier League era – the second being a visit to Manchester City next week when, if the title is still live, a point will be enough.
As Trent Alexander-Arnold walked past Jurgen Klopp to grab a brief liquid refreshment, he merited a mere pat on the back. He had just scored as good a free-kick as it is possible to see, but Liverpool are all business now. This is a job to get done, as they did last night. It doesn’t really matter how it happens anymore, particularly in these strange surroundings. Under normal circumstances, Anfield would be packed, rocking, demanding a show. Those fans will be watching from home, of course, along with millions of others – but it isn’t the same.
So Alexander-Arnold scored one of the goals of the season, certainly from a dead ball, and Klopp acknowledged it as he would a tap-in. No doubt he didn’t feel that way inside, and neither did the player, but Alexander-Arnold’s expression was set, too. When it is over they will party – and that might be tonight, if Manchester City drop points at Chelsea, but for now this was one small step nearer the ultimate goal.
And a rather straightforward one, as it turned out. We are used to teams complicating the process, of there being late twists and turns. The work Liverpool did before the lockdown negated that possibility, but when Crystal Palace began so well at Bournemouth on Saturday and Liverpool laboured against Everton the next day, it raised the possibility that Klopp’s side might be made to work a little harder than expected after the restart.
That sub-plot soon ran out of steam. Wilfried Zaha went down injured early in the first half and was substituted on 16 minutes but even if Crystal Palace’s most dangerous player had lasted 90 minutes, it is unlikely to have made much difference. Roy Hodgson had Palace set up for resistance and not a huge amount else and when Alexander-Arnold broke the deadlock, Palace struggled to find a way back into the game. They were 2-0 down at half-time and it could have been more.
The danger signs were there as early as the eighth minute when Jordan Henderson hit a deep cross which Andros Townsend dealt with poorly, playing it back across his own goal, Mamadou Sakho barely clearing and Georginio Wijnaldum shooting just wide.
Just two minutes later, the outstanding Mane sent Henderson through, Liverpool’s captain snatching at his shot and sending the ball almost comically upwards and into the roof of the stand. In the 17th minute, a smart backheel from Mane put in Roberto Firmino who cut inside, before his shot was saved by Crystal Palace goalkeeper Hennessey.
There were 23 minutes gone when a nudge by Jordan Ayew on Virgil van Dijk, gave Liverpool a free-kick outside Palace’s penalty area. Ayew protested bitterly but, then, he invariably does. Liverpool, meanwhile, were sizing up the opportunity. Salah was in conversation with Alexander-Arnold and it is a sign of the respect afforded the young Englishman, that Salah conceded his boot was the better option. During this
time, Hennessey lined up his defences. He let the wall cover the area to his left, he took central and right. If Alexander-Arnold was going to score, it would need him to get the ball up and over the wall and in a sliver of space in that far corner. This, he duly did. It lifted and pitched, curled in at the last moment; Hennessey was grasping air. And, from there, the outcome was inevitable.
So Alexander-Arnold took his refreshment, Klopp gathered his team around for instructions and five minutes later Liverpool almost doubled their lead. It was an Andy Robertson free-kick this time, punched out by Hennessey, but only to Henderson, whose return shot hit the post. Van Dijk was onto it, but the ball got trapped between the legs of defender Joel Ward, who scrambled it to safety.
More antics soon after when, after repeated chances for Palace to clear, Wijnaldum shot wide. Then, in the 41st minute, Hennessey came over all Manuel Neuerlike and tried a bit of sweeperkeepery which ended with him heading the ball straight to Salah. He saw the goal open and tried his luck from 40 yards, but it went wide.
The second came soon after, though. Fabinho played a lovely crossfield ball which Patrick van
Aanholt completely misjudged, jumping for the ball, missing it completely and ending up a crumpled heap on the floor. Salah simply sped on before finishing smartly past Hennessey.
The second half started much as the first finished, Palace stretched, Liverpool imperious. Robertson crossed again and Sakho hesitated, almost letting Salah in at the back post. Then Sakho woefully underhit a back pass and came close to letting Liverpool in that way.
Fabinho made it three, seizing on a square Robertson pass some 35 yards out and hitting a monster of a shot that had Hennessey grasping at air. And then Mane applied the finishing touch stroking home from Salah’s beautiful first-time pass.
Game over. Job done. Over to you, City. LIVERPOOL (4-3-3): Alisson 6; AlexanderArnold 8 (Williams 74min, 6), Van Dijk 7, Gomez 7, Robertson 7 (Keita 84); Henderson 7 (Oxlade-Chamberlain 64, 6), FABINHO 8.5, Wijnaldum 7; Salah 8, Firmino 7 (Minamino 74, 6), Mane 7 (Elliott 84). Subs not used: Adrian, Lovren, Jones, Origi. Scorers: Alexander-Arnold 23, Salah 44, Fabinho 55, Mane 68. Booked: None. Manager: Jurgen Klopp 7. CRYSTAL PALACE (4-3-3): Hennessey 6; Ward 5, Cahill 5, Sakho 4, Van Aanholt 5; McArthur 5 (Riedewald 66, 6), McCarthy 6, Kouyate 6 (Milivojevic 66, 6); Townsend 5, Ayew 5 (Pierrick 84), Zaha 5 (Meyer 15, 5). Subs not used: Henderson, Dann, Tavares, Mitchell. Booked: None. Manager: Roy Hodgson 6. Referee: Martin Atkinson 6.