King of the Klopp Wijnaldum gives Pep a headache
LIVERPOOL established themselves as the most likely northern challengers to yearend leaders Chelsea and relegated Manchester City back into the chasing pack.
The table- toppers had just gone nine points clear earlier in the day and have now won 13 games on the trot, so realistically only victories will do for those in pursuit.
One of these two simply had to narrow the gap before it becomes a chasm.
This was the last fixture before the New Year, but the fireworks never really came out of the box.
We expected goals. There had been 37 of them in the last 10 League and Cup games between these two, and defending has hardly been the strong suit under either manager this season.
But in the end there was just one, scored by Georginio Wijnaldum’s head as early as the eighth minute.
Liverpool were the better side in the first half and City recovered to edge the second, but they found a much- maligned Jurgen Klopp defence too tough to crack.
Anfield is not City’s favourite ground. It’s now 15 games since they won here.
The flip side is that Liverpool are now unbeaten in 17 home League and their total of 43 points is a new club Premier League record for the halfway point of the season.
Yet they still trail Chelsea by six. That sums up the enormity of the task. Klopp and Pep Guardiola are auld acquaintances from the Bundesliga, but this was their first English meeting.
Guardiola had called Klopp the world’s best attacking coach, but the German sprung a surprise. His team sat back, let City have the ball and waited for opportunities to counter.
Sure enough, City completely dominated the opening minutes with some robust defending by Liverpool producing a succession of free- kicks and a yellow card for Ragnar Klavan for a foul on Sergio Aguero.
But in the eighth minute their first attack saw Wijnaldum score with ridiculous ease when he headed in Adam Lallana’s precise cross. His marker, Aleksandar Kolarov, was still jumping when the ball flashed past Claudio Bravo.
After that Liverpool always looked the more dangerous.
Wijnaldum wasted a decent opening, Bravo flapped at a punch and only just cleared, Roberto Firmino was unlucky not to be able to take James Milner’s 30- yard pass in his stride when clean through, and Emre Can curled one a fraction wide of a post.
There were virtually no City chances in the first half. Simon Mignolet had to do a spot of ball- juggling with his feet well outside his box as he beat Aguero to a long ball, but it was heartsin-mouth stuff.
Firmino carelessly gifted De Bruyne a chance, but Dejan Lovren covered well to block his shot.
The Brazilian then robbed Yaya Toure and Liverpool had a two against one break, but the normally intelligent Lallana foolishly strayed offside.
Nathaniel Clyne found himself in a shooting position near the penalty spot in the first minute of the second half, but finished like a full-back in unfamiliar territory.
Mignolet’s first save of the match came in the 54th minute and it was strictly routine, but then David Silva flashed one just past a post and City suddenly brightened.
Raheem Sterling, booed and accused of being greedy every time he touched the ball, was clearly fired up on his return to Merseyside and was walking the sort of tightrope that looked equally likely to see him scoring or getting sent off.
He was well policed by Milner, who ironically earned City nothing when he ran down his contract to move to Liverpool while the £ 49m Sterling fee financed half Klopp’s current team!
Sterling stretched to turn Toure’s pass into the side- netting, and a Kolarov drive had the sting taken out of it before it reached Mignolet when it hit a defender on the way.
Liverpool were under the cosh for the first time in the game, but when Jordan Henderson had to come off with an injury in the 64th minute Klopp responded with a typically positive substitution, sending on Divock Origi.
It worked, too, because it gave City another threat to think about and they couldn’t manage to create any clear-cut chances.