They’re five points clear, but it feels like two points dropped.
Following Manchester City’s surprise defeat to Newcastle United on Tuesday night, Liverpool were presented with the chance to go seven points clear at the top of the Premier League table.
And after just three minutes of their tie against Leicester City at Anfield, it looked like they were set to race ahead of their title rivals.
Jurgen Klopp’s side made a lightning-quick start.
After some sharp build-up play down Liverpool’s left-hand side, Sadio Mane reacted first to collect a loose ball in the Leicester penalty area and drove home an excellent finish past Kasper Schmeichel in the Foxes’ goal.
2:01 – Sadio Mane's opener for Liverpool was their quickest goal in the Premier League since April 2016, when Daniel Sturridge netted against Newcastle (1:07). Intense. pic.twitter.com/8U3dar4iwd
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) January 30, 2019
And then not a lot happened. Liverpool tapered off and struggled to find any way through the blue wall of Leicester players.
They focused many of their attacks down their right-hand side, with Jordan Henderson looking more comfortable as a right-back than he does in central midfield, but soon found that avenue blocked off after Leicester tinkered with their formation.
Klopp’s team played Leicester off the park for the first 15 minutes but noticeably dipped as the visitors refused to open the game up. Liverpool struggled to create any goalscoring chances of note throughout.
They started the first-half in fifth gear and ended it in reverse.
Harry Maguire’s equaliser in stoppage time before the break was deserved.
The Leicester goal lay down the challenge for Liverpool to show their title credentials in the second-half and they fell short for one of the few times season. This was the first time this season Liverpool dropped points to a team from outside the top six – only Man City, Chelsea and Arsenal had taken points off them before Leicester on Wednesday night.
It was a strange, passive display from Klopp’s team, summed-up best by the performance of one Liverpool player in particular – Naby Keita.
Nothing really worked for the midfielder on the night. His passing wasn’t incisive – with most passes going sideways and backwards, rarely breaking the Leicester lines of defence – and he was sluggish, sometimes reacting late to stub out Leicester counter-attacks.
Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino were largely anonymous, and no Liverpool player excelled. However, Keita typified Liverpool’s lethargic evening.
Fabinho, another summer signing, didn’t start the match and there wasn’t the same fanfare when he arrived. But the Brazilian looks to be a step-up from Keita at the moment.
Liverpool are still five points clear at the top of the Premier League with 14 games to play.
There is no cause for panic after this result and Leicester are a good team, having already beaten Chelsea and Man City this season.
If anything, this unusually flat display could and should sharpen Liverpool’s senses as they enter a decisive run of games, their best chance of winning the league title in over a generation.
