Kolkata: After losing the 2011 Champions League final 1-3 to Barcelona, Alex Ferguson had said: “Nobody’s given us a hiding like that.” Ange Postecoglu didn’t walk the route of the former Manchester United manager following Sunday’s goalfest, choosing instead to highlight Tottenham Hotspur’s injury problems, but there could be no doubt that Liverpool absolutely cleaned out their opponents at White Hart Lane.
Leading the Premier League standings by four points with a match in hand, Liverpool host relegation-threatened Leicester City, who have not won at Anfield since 2000, on Boxing Day. They have been unbeaten away from home at Christmas. The last time that happened was in 1987-88. And in 1893-94 before that. They have lost once in 25 matches in all competitions this season. And this is not about a favourable run of fixtures.
Twice, Arsenal went ahead, twice Liverpool pulled back. Inside three minutes of Nicolas Jackson’s equaliser, Liverpool found a goal against Chelsea through Cody Gakpo. In the season Spurs became the first Premier League team in history to lose 10 points from two goals up, Liverpool have won points after chasing matches against Arsenal, Fulham, Brighton and Southampton. Like champion teams are expected to.
From the time Arne Slot replaced Jarell Qansah with Ibrahima Konate in the season opener away to Ipswich Town, Liverpool have controlled matches across competitions in a way it didn’t seem possible at the start of the season. A new coach replacing a hugely successful one is always difficult – here’s looking at you, Manchester United – and not having been active in the transfer market, the question was: would the players Slot inherited be fresh after their years with Juergen Klopp. It has been answered and how.
On Sunday, the way Liverpool bombed forward, played through Spurs’s press, the way they moved the ball from their goal to the rivals in two, three touches, the way they exploited the vast open space Spurs left was a lesson in blending speed, strength and skill. Liverpool had 12 shots on target on way to the 6-3 win.
Such relentlessness, remorselessness even, is proof of collective efficiency but some individuals do stand out. With 18 goals, 15 assists in 24 matches across competitions – 15 goals and 11 assists in the Premier League, a first in the competition’s history before Christmas – Mo Salah keeps showing what Liverpool could miss from next summer. Luis Diaz’s speed and the ability to play false nine means space for Dominik Szoboszlai to surge up in the way Jude Bellingham would at Real Madrid last season. Add to that Szoboszlai’s ability to win duels, in the ground and in the air (the Hungarian won five headed duels in the first half and had 13 touches in Spurs’s box).
“It was maybe our best performance away from home…We scored six goals and could have scored more. Mo and Lucho (Diaz) were maybe the ones that stood out in terms of scoring goals but we would not do justice to Dom’s performance if we didn’t name him as well…He was a very important part of our game plan without the ball,” said Slot.
Trent Alexander-Arnold’s passing range and his being more of a right-back instead of inverting at the base of the midfield has also played a part as has the defensive solidity and leadership qualities of Virgil van Djik. Along with Salah, Szoboszlai and Andrew Robertson, Van Djik is one of the international captains in Liverpool’s first 11 and having leaders in all areas of the pitch is never a bad thing. His contract, and that of Alexander-Arnold, is up next summer.
Crucially, and this has been in evidence through the season, Liverpool have absorbed the impact of unavailable players in the way others have not. Konate was not there on Sunday so Joe Gomez stepped into the breach. Caoimhin Kelleher did that for Alisson, Conor Bradley admirably against Real Madrid when Alexander-Arnold was not there. When Diogo Jota was injured, Darwin Nunez stepped into the breach. When Alexis Mac Allister needed a break, Curtis Jones came on without a perceptible dip in quality.
There is a cautionary tale in all this. Having let in eight goals in 13 matches in the league, Liverpool have leaked eight in their last three. Okay, they were 5-1 up when Spurs scored twice but it shows Liverpool can be vulnerable. They were on top on Christmas Day in 2018-19 and 2020-21 as were Arsenal in the last two seasons. Neither won the league.
“You have to keep on going, keep on going, every three days you have to be on top of your game, every minute of the game,” Slot has said. “That’s why it’s so hard to win it, because it’s not always easy to show up every three or four days.”
But as Manchester City deal with inner demons, Arsenal cope without Bukayo Saka and Chelsea with disciplinary issues, Liverpool are well placed to go all the way.
