In dominating Real Madrid and Man City with remarkable ease, Liverpool sent a message to their rivals that there is no longer any room for error this season.
Two electric Anfield occasions within the span of five days, two wins, crucial points picked up in two different competitions, yet it’s the aesthetic statements that were made that might well be the more valuable commodity by the time the end of May rolls around.
As mad as it sounds, when the visit of Real Madrid arguably isn’t the biggest game of your week, then it’s loud and clear that you’re doing something very, very right.
While the visit of Carlo Ancelotti’s legendary club in the all-white kit might have represented a Champions League clash that spoke of a meeting of European royalty, one in which the legendary club in the all-red kit put a long overdue result over their opponents, it was the slapping down of Pep Guardiola’s lottery winners from the wrong end of the East Lancs Road that provokes the bigger reverberations.
Liverpool 2-0 Man City
A third of the Premier League season now elapsed, and a win that puts Arne Slot‘s side nine points clear of their closest rival and 11 ahead of the stumbling defending champions, here was a definitive title-chasing six-pointer against Man City, and the opportunity to drive a stake through all Mancunian hearts, be them of a blue or red hue.
Yes, there is still so much of the campaign to go – 25 more league games ahead of us, another 75 points to play for – but Sunday’s victory and the points gap that it has facilitated will weigh heavily on the minds of all those in hope of mounting a compelling pursuit of Slot’s pace-setters, as will the style and consistency on display from Liverpool.
How City lost their stranglehold
On one hand you have City themselves, currently unable to buy the one thing that not even oil money can guarantee: a win.
A team that seems to have rapidly become exhausted of success, harvesting an environment at the Etihad that had been beset by a will-he-stay-or-will-he-go-now conundrum over how long the Guardiola era will continue now that his nemesis Jurgen Klopp has called it quits.
In this respect, a one-year extension of Guardiola’s contract is neither here nor there. A short elongation of stay that doesn’t speak of being of him being in it for the long haul, leaving his players with the idling thought that if the manager’s heart isn’t completely in it anymore, then why should theirs be?
Of course, Guardiola has played the injuries card on a regular basis of late, yet injuries only amplify the wider mood music of a squad.
If a team is labouring in general terms, then a manager and fanbase will cling to injuries being the root cause of all ills, as if they are hanging on grimly to a life raft while floating aimlessly at sea.
City’s opponents on Sunday have suffered a series of their own injuries, but they have bounced along impressively regardless, strumming along to a very different tune so far this season.
Timing is everything in football, and in Arsenal we have a rival who have just come off the back of two successive seasons of falling short to City in the Premier League, where they are now expected to dust themselves down and go again, only to see that, when Guardiola and his footballing bogeymen begin to unravel, there go Liverpool threatening to disappear over the horizon before the race has even got into its stride, Slot’s visit to the Emirates already navigated.
Slot has all the answers
At the moment, Liverpool are coming up with answers to the big questions asked of them.
The loss of an inspirational manager in the summer? Up steps a successor that brushes off the prospective pressure, to put his own spin on the team he inherits.
No. 1 defensive midfield transfer target has a change of heart over signing? Ryan Gravenberch is given the scope to blossom into the all-rounder he was always confident of being, while Curtis Jones continues to grow into his talents.
Alisson out for a significant period of time? Caoimhin Kelleher proves his class yet again.
Injury strikes Diogo Jota once more? Cody Gakpo‘s star begins to rise and Luis Diaz‘s end product improves exponentially.
Each of these blows could have had a detrimental effect, and maybe some of them still will, but when on the crest of a wave, problems are there to be solved by opportunities for others.
On Sunday, Slot was dispossessed of the services of Ibrahima Konate and Conor Bradley, both of whom might not return this side of New Year, yet Joe Gomez was magnificent when stepping into the breach.
No room for error
Sunday brought with it a convincing 2-0 victory against the reigning champions, a margin of success that could – even should – have been doubled, with a post struck and a header planted frustratingly wide before the breakthrough was garnered, a string of opportunities spurned or denied prior to the second goal, none more so than when Mo Salah wasted that gift of a run through on goal, eventually atoning himself with his penalty.
While City looked a tired entity, a team without the answers to the questions posed by their opponents, Liverpool struck the image of a team of high energy, of laser focus, of great determination, a collective that appears to be on a mission.
This still doesn’t mean that the prize will come easily, and the remainder of December will see Liverpool play eight more games across three different competitions, six of them on their travels, before January brings the FA Cup into play.
What Slot’s Liverpool have done so far, though, is leave their rivals very little in the way of room for further setbacks.
As building blocks go, we couldn’t have hoped for a better foundation towards something that might just be a bit special come the season’s end.
