Alexander-Arnold goes from sinner to saint for Reds
TRENT ALEXANDER-ARNOLD and Liverpool have slipped into an unsettling cycle of sin and redemption as the champions have fallen from grace this term.
After ignominy against Real Madrid last week, the prodigiously gifted right-back chose glory against Aston Villa at Anfield yesterday and banished his team’s embarrassment over a losing home run in the league that stretched back to last year.
Alexander-Arnold was the fall-guy in Liverpool’s Champions League quarter-final defeat at Valdebebas, when he inadvertently guided a diving header into the path of Marco Asensio and allowed him to score Madrid’s second goal in a 3-1 loss.
But, with the game slipping into injury time yesterday and the scores level at 1-1, it was Alexander-Arnold who appeared on the edge of the Villa box, collected a loose ball after Emiliano Martinez had saved brilliantly from Thiago
Alcantara and lashed the ball back past the goalkeeper into the bottom corner for the winner.
And so, if Liverpool’s 7-2 away defeat by Villa back in October had ushered in a season of confusion and malaise for
Jurgen Klopp’s side, this comeback victory carried with it the hope that a corner had been turned. It was the first time Liverpool had won at their former fortress since they beat Spurs here on December 16.
The result was harsh on Villa, who had taken the lead through Ollie Watkins on the stroke of half-time. But after Roberto Firmino had been denied a quick reply by a VAR controversy, Mo Salah levelled in the second half and the stage was set for Alexander-Arnold’s late heroics.
It was the perfect boost for Klopp ahead of Wednesday’s second-leg visit of Real.
‘We have to challenge ourselves, we have to put pressure on other teams,’ he said.
‘If we want to reach the Champions League spots and we are in a worse position than others we have to chase them constantly and put them under pressure, and we can only do that by winning games.’