Another potential obstacle overcome, Liverpool remain in the hunt for the Premier League title despite Manchester City’s subsequent win over their local rivals United. West Ham have become one of the toughest sides to beat in the division, and Saturday evening’s encounter at Anfield was always likely to be settled by the odd defining moment here or there.
Liverpool’s FA Cup win over Norwich City on Wednesday threatened to turn into a footballing version of the hare and tortoise fable. The Reds romped into a two-goal lead thanks to a brace of goals from Takumi Minamino, and given Norwich’s poor form and lowly status in the Premier League it seemed impossible for them to come back from that deficit.
And as Liverpool pushed to extend their cushion but failed to find a breakthrough, Lukas Rupp stole clear to fire home completely against the run of play and set up a final 20 minutes that was more fraught than it really needed to be from Jurgen Klopp’s perspective.
And there you have it: Liverpool have won the EFL Cup for the first time in a decade, and landed their first of what will hopefully turn out to be a number of trophies in 2022. The Reds held their nerve in a titanic penalty shootout after a pulsating 120 minutes against Chelsea at Wembley Stadium somehow passed by without a goal.
There’s no better way to prepare for a major cup final than hitting your opponents for six in your prior engagement. And that’s exactly what Liverpool did on Wednesday evening – blasting half-a-dozen goals past Leeds United without reply at Anfield, and sending a clear message to Chelsea ahead of Sunday’s EFL Cup final.
Liverpool have one foot in the Champions League quarter-finals after a 2-0 first leg win in Milan on Wednesday evening. In truth, the scoreline flatters the Reds. They were outplayed for large swathes of this encounter, and Inter came the closest to scoring when Hakan Calhanoglu struck the woodwork.
Jurgen Klopp described Sunday’s trip to Burnley as a potential ‘banana skin’ for his side, so he will have been delighted that Liverpool didn’t slip out of the title race at Turf Moor.
The mark of a champion is to win and win well in games that you are supposed to. It was a trait that Liverpool did not have in their ‘nearly’ title runs prior to the 2019/20 success, but this set of players under Jurgen Klopp looks to be a different animal altogether.
Liverpool march into the fifth round of the FA Cup after eventually seeing off a gutsy Cardiff City side on Sunday. The Welsh side were severely depleted by injuries and illness, and yet they dug in to keep the scoreline blank at half-time – despite Liverpool enjoying a mammoth 81% of possession.
While it’s great for the players to put their feet up after a hectic festive schedule, most of us would agree we’ve missed top-flight football something rotten over this past fortnight!
For only the second time in Jurgen Klopp’s managerial reign, Liverpool are through to a domestic cup final. The 2-0 victory over Arsenal in the League Cup semi-final on Thursday evening ended a six-year weight for a day out at Wembley, and Chelsea now stand in the way of Klopp and his team getting their hands on another trophy.