Liverpool have been used to second finest throughout Pep Guardiola’s period at Manchester Metropolis, however a 2-0 victory over the crisis-hit champions left little doubt over who’re the crew to beat on this season’s Premier League title race.
Objectives in both half from Cody Gakpo and Mohamed Salah at Anfield on Sunday didn’t do justice to the size of the Reds’ domination as Metropolis succumbed to a sixth defeat in a seven-game winless run.
Arsenal and Chelsea at the moment are Liverpool’s closest challengers, 9 factors behind, with Metropolis 11 again and nearly sure to lastly unfastened their grip on the English prime flight after an unprecedented 4 consecutive titles and 6 previously seven seasons.
Guardiola reminded the Anfield crowd of that truth by elevating six fingers when taunted with chants of “sacked within the morning”.
The Catalan’s defiance, although, couldn’t masks the truth that Metropolis have rested on their laurels, whereas Liverpool have stepped up a stage underneath Arne Slot.
Slot appeared to have the unattainable job of succeeding the much-loved Jurgen Klopp.
The charismatic German introduced Liverpool again to the highest of English and European soccer. His title triumph in 2019/2020 was the membership’s first for 30 years and the one blot on Metropolis’s dominance in latest instances.
In distinction to Alex Ferguson’s departure from Manchester United and Arsene Wenger’s exit at Arsenal, Liverpool have turned a legendary determine leaving right into a constructive.
Klopp did a lot of the groundwork himself, rejuvenating the squad over his closing 18 months in cost with the signings of Gakpo, Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai and Ryan Gravenberch.
Slot’s solely summer time signing, Federico Chiesa, has barely featured on account of harm.
However the injection of recent blood, combined with the expertise of title winners within the prolific Salah, captain Virgil van Dijk, Andy Roberson and Trent Alexander-Arnold has proved a profitable mixture.
Slot has been eager to present Klopp’s legacy credit score, however the Dutchman deserves his due for the small particulars which have produced a run of 18 wins from his first 20 video games in all competitions.
– ‘An excellent day’ –
Robertson and Alexander-Arnold’s narrower positions have left Liverpool much less weak in transition and contributed to them having the very best defensive report within the league.
Gravenberch has shone since being reworked right into a holding midfielder, whereas Gakpo is lastly delivering on his potential underneath his compatriot.
Slot has additionally managed to maintain Liverpool’s momentum rolling regardless of fixed hypothesis over the futures of Salah, Van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold, all of whom are out of contract on the finish of the season.
“Metropolis are a incredible crew, 4 instances champions in a row and so they have high quality to punish any crew,” mentioned Van Dijk. “So, general, it has been a fantastic day.
“It is game-by-game and keep calm. However video games like this, once you win it like this, is at all times a superb feeling.”
It isn’t simply the Premier League that Slot has to date bent to his will.
Liverpool are additionally prime of the Champions League with an ideal report from 5 video games, together with a memorable 2-0 win over Actual Madrid on Wednesday.
Victory over Metropolis capped a dream week, however the former Feyenoord boss was nonetheless eager to make use of the English and European champions because the benchmark for his facet’s aspirations.
“Actual Madrid and Manchester Metropolis have been and are so good, with managers which have gained so many trophies, so it’s at all times good to return out of these conditions as a winner,” added Slot.
“However they had been capable of win each single three days. We perceive what we wish to obtain is greater than this profitable a couple of times, even towards these large groups, if you wish to win large issues.”
December might solely be a day previous, however already it’s onerous to see past Liverpool matching Manchester United’s report tally for 20 English top-flight titles come Could.
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