Klopp’s Liverpool now have the backbone and mettle to launch a serious title assault
AT STAMFORD BRIDGE
Over the last three decades there have been so many false dawns at Anfield that you wondered whether the sun was ever going to rise above the Mersey to glint off the Premier League trophy.
From Rafa Benitez’s “facts” to Steven Gerrard falling over his own feet, Liverpool have found some unique ways to drag defeat from the jaws of victory in the years since they were last crowned kings of England.
Daniel Sturridge’s sensational 89th-minute equaliser at Stamford Bridge last night suggests that Jurgen Klopp has built a team that can cope with the weight of both history and expectation.
Before that strike, anything that could go wrong seemed to do just that.
Mo Salah missed an open goal, Xherdan Shaquiri fired an even better chance wide from eight yards, Roberto Firmino saw his textbook downward header hacked off the goal-line by David Luiz.
All this after Eden Hazard (right) had scored the kind of goal that made Maurizio Sarri’s boast about the Belgian challenging Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as the best player in the world seem like the Italian was talking sense.
On Wednesday night, Hazard came off the bench at Anfield to score a slaloming Carabao Cup winner that turned Jurgen Klopp’s bright-white grin into a grimace. Sturridge came up with a goal that illustrated why Liverpool’s fans are right to believe that this time it might be different.
The injury-prone striker had been packed off to West Brom on loan last season.
In the summer, anyone willing to pay £20m and pick up the tab for his £150,000-a-week wages would have been allowed to do so.
When Klopp sent him on for the tireless James Milner four minutes from time it was a last throw of the dice.
But they say that fortune favours the brave.
And when Sturridge got his first touch of the ball 30 yards from Kepa Arrizabalaga’s goal, he made sure his second would send a shiver down the rest of the Premier League.
The shot he unleashed was packed with the frustration of a player who knows this is last shot at redemption.
It just had too much pace, and too much power for the world’s most expensive goalkeeper.
Klopp rushed to the bench, grabbed Salah in a bear-hug and celebrated like a man who knew he might have just witnessed a decisive moment in Liverpool’s season.
Napoli in the Champions League is next up for Liverpool on Wednesday night.
Then, on Sunday, they have the chance to really show their title credentials when Manchester City arrive at Anfield.