Dust down the open-top bus and put in that application to Liverpool City Council for some road closures. Liverpool are 11 points clear at the top of the Premier League and will be crowned champions. It was a procession before the procession as they took apart Manchester City in their own stadium. Liverpool certainly played like title winners and as if the crown will rest easy on their heads.
What an achievement it will be for Arne Slot in his first season as Jürgen Klopp’s successor. Who says you cannot be the man who follows The Man? Numerous managers have failed at Manchester United, after Sir Alex Ferguson, while Mikel Arteta, after Unai Emery, has yet to get there at Arsenal following on from Arsène Wenger.
A euro for Klopp’s thoughts?. After all, this is his team and how could he have foreseen City’s drop-off and Arsenal’s failure to take advantage when he talked about running out of energy and needing a break?. Slot has proven to be the dream appointment as head coach for Liverpool with the confidence not to try and fix something that evidently was not broken. But maybe needed a subtle re-boot. How many managers have done that? Usually they demand change.
For Slot it has been seamless and that is the greatest compliment that can be paid given the scale of the club and the magnitude of the job he inherited. Slick just like the two first-half goals they scored here. Another goal and another assist for Mohamed Salah who appears on a mission to deliver the title in what, remarkably of course, could still be his last season at Liverpool as his current contract runs down.
It is an astonishing 51 goal involvements – 30 goals, 21 assists – for Salah in all competitions this season so far. And we are still in February. It is not just how deadly he is that is so stunning. It is the threat he possesses every time he has the ball, the fear he spreads among opponents, the efficiency of how the 32-year-old plays. He is smashing records as he smashes aside defenders, who now look scared to face him.
Mo Salah is happy with that 😁. Liverpool take the lead at the Etihad! 🔴 pic.twitter.com/KcJHuOzoAr. Efficiency is also a key word for Slot. He has drilled Liverpool superbly. He has them organised and ruthless and, although they might not be as thrilling as they were under Klopp, they actually might be proving to be more effective and, almost, cold-blooded.
There was also a goal and an assist for Dominik Szoboszlai, who delivered an outstanding performance as he broke forward intelligently from midfield and as Liverpool played without a central striker. On the bench, Darwin Núñez was taught a lesson in finishing.
The first goal came from a cleverly worked corner routine – again a sign of their organisation – with the ball played short to Szoboszlai, who turned it back across the penalty area for Salah to run on to. His low shot deflected off Nathan Aké to wrong-foot Ederson. Szoboszlai later revealed it was worked on the training ground on Saturday after a City weakness, leaving space in that area, was identified by set-piece coach Aaron Briggs. What an immediate dividend.
The second was equally well-constructed as Trent Alexander-Arnold picked out Salah’s run down the right, he cut inside and set up the onrushing Szoboszlai, who passed the ball calmly into the net. Again, Ederson was wrong-footed and City were at sixes and sevens as they tried to get back.
Dominik Szoboszlai slots it home 🔥 pic.twitter.com/scGst1IueG. It was not even as if City, again without the injured Erling Haaland, played that badly. Their build-up play was good, they kept the ball, they were unlucky in attack – although, without Haaland, they lack that instinct that Liverpool possess. But their ever-changing defence is their downfall.
What is also so astonishing, however, is that there was never any prospect – as hard as they tried – of a City comeback. There was never that wall of pressure, that old inevitability of a goal and it felt significant that, as they chased the game, Kevin De Bruyne was taken off after just 65 minutes and replaced by James McAtee. It looks increasingly like the 33-year-old’s race is run.
City simply could find no way through and, as magnificent as Salah and Szoboszlai were, that central defensive partnership of Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konaté is simply formidable. 🫣 pic.twitter.com/Wx6M1IbE6s. So, is this title race also already over?.
Liverpool have played a game more than Arsenal who can, therefore, reduce their advantage to eight points with 11 games to go. And they still have to play each other at Anfield although, with that fixture scheduled for mid-May, it may be too late by then.
Either way, it would have to be some collapse for Liverpool not to win it now. If they play like this then there is no chance of them not doing it. Their wobble, by the way, has amounted to two draws on the road to tricky opponents – Everton and Aston Villa – and they could easily have won both. Plus an FA Cup exit away to Plymouth Argyle with Slot knowing he left his squad short.
