Reds survive early scare to beat Cherries
A nervous hush is not what you might expect to accompany the final furlong for a team who led the Premier League by 22 points going into yesterday’s games, but then there have been so few wobbles in this Liverpool season that even one defeat can do strange things to the prevailing mood.
A losing streak of one league game was ended by Jurgen Klopp’s players, albeit not as confidently as the manner in which they have dispatched so many opponents at a stadium where they have now won 22 straight league games – an English top-flight record. In fact, in the last minute of regulation time, Nathan Ake might have equalised, a goal that would not have changed the title race much, other than to add to an unexpected sense of Anfield anxiety. Ake did not do so, and Liverpool held on for a win that puts them within three victories of that title.
Even Klopp is starting to talk about winning the title in a roundabout way, pointing out that, having accepted winning as routine, the defeat by Watford had reminded the club anew of the joy of it. “Imagine,” he said, “we had won against Watford, won in the FA Cup and against Atletico [Madrid], in the end becoming champions whenever it will happen. And everybody would say, ‘ Yeah, champions,’ ” the German essaying indifference for that last part. “So if it happens, it will feel really special. If it happens.”
There was another fine performance from Mohamed Salah, who scored Liverpool’s equaliser before a winner from Sadio Mane. In the second half, James Milner kicked a Ryan Fraser effort out a yard from it crossing the Liverpool goal-line. In the first 15 minutes, Liverpool fell behind to a goal that should have been disallowed for a foul on Joe Gomez by Callum Wilson, the eventual goalscorer.
Klopp was enraged at the time and when Salah did strike, the cameras caught the Liverpool manager celebrating vociferously in the personal space of assistant referee Stuart Burt. “Yes, that happened,” Klopp conceded later. “Would I do it now? No. But in the moment, I just don’t understand how it could be a goal. This shows the problem of VAR still exists. It is not a system, it is a human being and the rules. The touch was enough to let Joe struggle. It’s a foul. They score a goal in the next situation. The referee lets it run. That’s why we have VAR, to delay the look.”
It was Klopp’s belief that “VAR hides behind the phrase ‘not clear and obvious’”. He added: “A foul is a foul, no foul is no foul. Nobody felt comfortable after that. Everybody knew, ‘Wow, something happened that was not OK,’… so I celebrated a little bit in that direction, but I’m not happy about it and I didn’t say anything while I celebrated.”
For Eddie Howe, whose side remain in the relegation zone, there was some encouragement in the performance while problems abound elsewhere. Simon Francis was ruled out with injury before the game and Simon Cook, his captain, did not last 15 minutes. He was replaced by the relatively inexperienced Jack Simpson, and his mistake allowed Liverpool to win possession for the equaliser. Having used all three substitutes they were unable to replace Philip Billing at the end, with the Danish midfielder clearly in discomfort.
That said, they came close to a valuable point when Ake, who had excelled in defence, was played in by Lewis Cook and, having been the only man onside among four team-mates, made the wrong decision to square the ball to one who was not, Wilson. Howe knew that his team would have very little possession but they were effective on the counter-attack and Ake had a firsthalf effort that was saved by Adrian, in goal in place of the injured Alisson.
The Bournemouth manager put it down to two moments that cost them when his side lost the ball too easily. “The hammer blow was to lose Steve
Cook, our captain and the relationship he has with Nathan,” Howe said. “It looks like a hamstring problem and he will be struggling for a number of weeks. The last six games we have been a lot better, back to creating goals, but at this stage of the season with games running out, it is about points. I would take points over performances.”
Their goal started with a right-arm shove from Wilson in the back of Gomez that changed the nature of their confrontation. Wilson found Billing, who delayed his pass long enough for Jefferson Lerma to scamper down the right and cross for the originator of it all to finish. Michael Oliver, the video assistant referee, decided that the clear and obvious threshold had not been reached.
Salah’s equaliser was a shot through the legs of Lerma after a sharp turn, when one thought he would be better served giving the ball back to Mane. The Egyptian is very adept at finding the corners of the goal, however, and it ended a move in which Mane had pinched possession from Simpson. One interception and pass from Virgil van Dijk created their second. He played in Mane, who ran through and shaped a right-foot finish with his customary confidence around Aaron Ramsdale.
Mane hit the bar in the second half, Roberto Firmino went close to his first home league goal of the season, and one suspects that the atmosphere on Wednesday against Atletico will be that much more raucous.