Liverpool go 13 points clear as Roberto Firmino leads ruthless rout of Leicester
Sweeping from the Middle East to the Midlands without breaking stride, Liverpool took a big step closer to adding that much craved Premier League trophy to their recently acquired world crown. As in Qatar, so in Leicester, as Roberto Firmino opened the scoring here. But Liverpool did not settle for merely beating their nearest domestic rivals. They crushed Leicester as if issuing a warning to anyone who dares to challenge their supremacy.
James Milner scored from the spot before Firmino got another and Trent Alexander-Arnold lashed in a longrange shot to claim a superb goal to go with two elegant assists. This, then, was an almost feudal display, imperious rulers against bereft subjects. No one else has made Leicester look so puny this season.
Granted, Brendan Rodgers’ team had lost a little momentum going into this game, collecting only one point from their previous two matches. But they are still a formidable side, a fact that Jürgen Klopp recognised by deploying his strongest available team. Rodgers, meanwhile, made one alteration to the lineup that started Leicester’s defeat by Manchester City, with Dennis Praet replacing Ayoze Pérez. That entailed a change of formation, with Harvey Barnes on the right while James Maddison operated from the left, and replicated the lineup Rodgers used at Anfield in October, when Leicester felt aggrieved to lose to a last-minute penalty by Milner. The plot failed and this time Leicester could have no quibble with the result. They were out