LIVERPOOL’S TITLE TO LOSE
Pep’s Manchester City come a cropper at Anfield and now it’s . . .
Atwo-goal gap at anfield, a nine-point gap in the table — and liverpool are worth it. all of it. the goals, the points, the incredible distance they have placed between themselves and last season’s champions in the briefest of intervals.
they are worth every last inch of their stride to the summit.
Manchester City did not summer well. they did not repair and replace at the back and, yesterday, with injuries that showed.
Jurgen Klopp, by contrast, has been assembling this team for several years. that told, too.
City could find no way through liverpool’s back line until it was too late, while every liverpool foray appeared capable of delivering results.
the statistics suggest a closer game than this was, City apparently superior in possession and shots at goal.
In reality, liverpool were ahead early, convincingly clear within the hour and still comfortable, despite City’s several penalty claims and revival towards the end.
Plus, when one team always look like scoring and the other have a blanket thrown over them for roughly 80 minutes, the outcome is fairly predictable. So the scoreline is the truest picture of events. From the sixth minute onwards, this was liverpool’s victory.
Sometimes a team get into such a good place it is almost as if they forget how to lose. that is where liverpool are right now.
It is more than the old cliche about winning without playing well. It is making the absolute most of opportunity, about riding a little luck, about summoning the resilience to see out a storm.
liverpool did all three here. It wasn’t that they outplayed Manchester City. the champions did rather well in open play, as Pep guardiola claimed. Yet, while City found themselves thwarted and smothered, so liverpool’s counter- attacks were little moments of perfection.
when they got a chance, they took it. when they got a sniff, they took that, too. It was an even game, yet liverpool went in at half-time two goals clear, and extended the lead to three after 51 minutes.
guardiola talked up how well City played and it is true they saw a lot of the ball. Yet, it is equally hard to say liverpool did not deserve this. City had possession because they were chasing. liverpool, defending a lead, could afford to soak up pressure.
there is something hugely impressive about this team and the way Klopp has them playing. they know exactly what they are about in a way City do not right now, with injuries forcing a makeshift defence. Yet whose fault is that?
It is not just that liverpool look outstandingly coached, they have been outstandingly prepared for this moment. the balance of the team, the recruitment, have been spot on.
Even so, it still required one of those sliding doors VaR situations to give liverpool the advantage. what might have been a penalty at one end turned into a goal at the other. on another day, that might not have been the case.
thank heavens that with VaR there are no more random, subjective calls and problematic grey areas.
Manchester City thought that trent alexander-arnold handled the ball from Kevin De Bruyne’s deflected cross, which he probably did. there is a question about whether Bernardo Silva handled it first, although the officials did not seem interested in that. Nor, however, were they interested in what alexander-arnold did.
You know when trains get cancelled because it’s the wrong kind of snow? well, handball is a little like that now. this was the wrong kind of handball. So referee Michael oliver waved it away and, metaphorically, so did the little man in front of a television screen somewhere near Heathrow. and liverpool tore up the other end and scored 22 seconds later. VaR
cannot be blamed for that obviously. it cannot be blamed for ilkay Gundogan’s poor clearance, or for not replacing vincent Kompany and keeping Claudio Bravo as No 2 goalkeeper, or any of the other minor judgment calls that will have been some factor in losing. Gundogan cleared weakly to Fabinho and his shot from 25 yards flew past Bravo, the 22nd goal he had conceded from 41 shots.
having dominated to that point, it was the most dispiriting start for City.
Worse followed. There were 13 minutes gone when liverpool went two clear — although this was the encapsulation of all that is great about Klopp’s team. The initiative, the counter-attacking pace, the precision, the finishing, it was all there. Alexander-Arnold brought the ball out from the right and hit a stunning crossfield pass to Andrew Robertson on the left. his ball into the centre was equally precise and met by Mohamed Salah at the far post, his stooping header leaving Bravo powerless.
City were stunned and it took them time to recover. Not until the 29th minute, when Angelino played a lovely one-two with De Bruyne and skimmed the outside of the far post, did they truly threaten liverpool’s goal.
in the 42nd minute De Bruyne found Sergio Aguero, who could have done better one on one, but steered his shot wide.
Perhaps had City scored either of those chances it might have produced a different outcome. instead, first blood after half-time went to liverpool, and that was City done.
it was another cross from wide that did it, but not from either of the usual aspects. Alexander
Arnold and Robertson may have more assists in a year than any full backs in the modern era, but this was a beauty from Jordan henderson. he skinned Gundogan and picked out Sadio Mane at the far post. Should Bravo have done better preventing the ball reaching its target? Yes. Was he the reason City lost? As Guardiola predicted, no. he just didn’t really do anything to stop it happening. Mane scored with his header and Anfield began to really enjoy the afternoon. Not even a goal from Bernardo with 11 minutes remaining could dampen that spirit. Time was, Anfield would have got nervy at the thought of a comeback. Not any more. They didn’t even flinch when Alexander-Arnold seemed to have got away with another one, a handball from a Raheem Sterling cross that infuriated Guardiola but was, again, waved away. City’s manager made a show of walking across the Anfield pitch to shake the hands of the officials at the end. ‘Thank you so much,’ he said to each in turn. ‘Thank you so much.’ Yet these were judgment calls, not colossal errors. it wasn’t like starting the season with three frontline centre halves, for instance. One little vignette summed up the distance between these teams right now. Midway through the first half, Bravo kicked a pass straight into touch. Guardiola applauded, hands over his head, vigorously, as one might to stop a kid feeling downhearted after a mistake on a Sunday morning. A minute later, Alisson Becker played a quite lovely pass — to the same area across the same distance — which picked out AlexanderArnold, who went on a surging run of 50 yards or so, into the heart of City’s defence, finding Robert Firmino, who forced a save. it is a matter of months since liverpool could not catch City, no matter how hard they tried, but no longer. Titles are not won in November, but this is liverpool’s to lose now.