Jurgen Klopp, as he tends to do, confounded everyone with his strong team selection against FC Porto on Wednesday, and he was rewarded with a comfortable 2-0 victory.
It would be fair to say that Liverpool surpassed their expectations – and Arsenal grossly underperformed their own – in the 4-0 victory at Anfield on Saturday. The Reds looked back to their best following the humbling at West Ham prior to the break, and they were good value in a win that was every bit as comfortable as the scoreline suggests.
The latest in what feels like a procession of international breaks is finally at an end. The period away from club football has enabled Liverpool to put some distance between their current mood and the 2-3 defeat last time out at West Ham, although with several key players picking up knocks on international duty it would be foolish to suggest the fortnight off has been wholly positive.
Liverpool powered their way into the Champions League knockout phase with games to spare on Wednesday evening with a superb 2-0 victory over Atletico Madrid. The Reds got off to what has become their trademark fast start, and they once again found themselves 2-0 up inside 25 minutes thanks to goals from Sadio Mane and Diogo Jota.
A wretched 30-minute period either side of half time cost Liverpool all three points against Brighton on Saturday. Jordan Henderson and Sadio Mane had fired the Reds into a 2-0 lead after just 24 minutes, and such a margin should really have laid the foundation for a resounding home victory at Anfield.
With Jurgen Klopp deciding to make all eleven changes to his team following the 5-0 thrashing of Manchester United at the weekend, there was plenty of desire and hunger among Liverpool’s second string in the EFL Cup clash with Preston on Wednesday evening.
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How about that then? Privately, perhaps, most Liverpool fans were confident of victory at Old Trafford on Sunday. But a 5-0 romp that could have been an even wider margin? This was wildest dreams stuff.
Have Liverpool ever been in better shape heading into the ‘local’ derby with Manchester United? It’s a fair question given that the Reds remain unbeaten in the Premier League and racked up their third straight victory in the Champions League in Madrid on Tuesday.
Everything that could have gone right did so in Liverpool’s 5-0 crushing of Watford, whose hopes of a honeymoon period under new boss Claudio Ranieri were well and truly dented.
What with the international break, it feels almost a lifetime ago since Liverpool and Manchester City’s highly entertaining 2-2 draw at Anfield. It was a game that City fans might have walked away from with a sense of injustice, given that James Milner probably should have been shown a second yellow card when crudely tripping Bernardo Silva in the second period.