Liverpool at their irresistible best as records tumble with a ton of points
There are many ways that away teams can lose here these days and you might say Southampton chose the most noble, a brief period of resistance before the Premier League leaders exerted their superiority and all sensible plans to stop them went out the window.
This is the irresistible Liverpool of the current era, who are 22 points ahead of Manchester City in second place, the biggest lead ever held by a first-placed side at the end of a day’s fixtures. This 16th consecutive victory in the league means that from the past 102 points on offer they have taken 100, which is staggering in itself before you witness the operation in full cry.
Southampton, as Jurgen Klopp was at pains to say, were worthy opponents but when at last the supremacy is exerted by the home team at Anfield, it comes at a price for the opposition.
The 42nd game of Liverpool’s unbeaten league run was won by four counter-attacking goals, three of them assisted by Roberto Firmino, all after a half-time in which Klopp said he adjusted the position of Fabinho in midfield and his team responded majestically. These are league leaders who can afford to drop points and yet not only do they refuse to yield on any terms, they are still coming at broken opponents in the final minutes. However many goals they have scored, they play as if it is never enough.
In the moments before the fourth goal by Mohamed Salah, his second of the game, Southampton centre-half Jack Stephens stopped a Firmino counter-attack by grabbing the Brazilian by the throat and taking the booking, as if all other options had run out.
As ever for Klopp, his eyes are still fixed firmly on the finish line and he was much more comfortable discussing how impressed he was by Southampton’s performance than addressing the reality of a season in which his side could wrap up the title in the next seven games. His first-team players and their manager now embark on their week-long break, handing over to coach Neil Critchley and the under-23s for Tuesday’s FA Cup fourth round replay against Shrewsbury Town.
“I have never seen it before either,” Klopp said when asked about the startling consistency of his team. “It is not that I feel stronger and stronger [with every win]. It is just a little celebration – ‘great’ – sometimes more, sometimes less and then relief; settle; go again.” His team, he added, were “not perfect, not even close”. “We don’t care about being perfect,” he said. “We just try and use our skills in the best possible way.”
Even he would admit that it “looked like it might happen” – points might be dropped – against a Southampton side who had as many attempts on Liverpool’s goal in the first half as the home team had in reply. They were led by Danny Ings, who created chances and was denied a goal by the incomparable Alisson, again a candidate for man of the match. So, too, Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez, who did their best to control Ings and partner Shane Long.
If there was a grievance for Southampton then it was a foul by Fabinho on Ings before Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain opened the scoring for the home side shortly after half-time. The Southampton striker had got past Gomez and was brought down by the right boot of Fabinho, although even a review by video assistant referee Simon Hooper could not persuade him to get Kevin Friend to reconsider.
Ralph Hasenhüttl said that he could see no reason why Ings would have gone down otherwise, having been through on goal. “He [Fabinho] hits him twice,” the Southampton manager said. “If the first isn’t, then the second is a clear foul. If Liverpool scored [as they did in the same phase of play] and the referee says ‘no goal’ and ‘it’s a penalty’… this we can’t expect.”
Southampton worked flat out to contain Liverpool and hit them on the counter-attack in the first half. “It was a little bit surprising that they had 15 minutes in which they didn’t really get a chance against us,” Hasenhüttl said.
“Against the best team in the world, 15 minutes like this is a massive signal [that his team are playing well]. I want to see this when we are 1-0 up.”
His side survived a first-half VAR review when Firmino went down in the penalty area under Long’s challenge. What changed the game, as Hasenhüttl ruefully said later, was the first goal. Once Southampton were obliged to commit more to the attack, Liverpool were ruthless. The first was OxladeChamberlain’s second in two games, dispatched into the corner from Firmino’s cutback. Firmino picked out Jordan Henderson before the hour after the midfielder had forced Alex McCarthy into a flat kick that Liverpool recyopener cled quickly. Henderson made the third for Salah, slipping a pass outside the boot of Jan Bednarek which the Liverpool striker lifted over McCarthy.
By the end Southampton were simply trying to cling on as Liverpool reached their awesome best, a last goal on the counter-attack created by Firmino for Salah. Stephens had already taken that booking for grabbing Firmino when the Brazilian broke again, delivering it to Salah in the area to score – the game over and the margin of victory significant once again.