A QUESTION at the top of the Premier League for the past six weeks has been: who goes first? Liverpool had that perceived advantage from mid-December on and because they won when playing before Manchester City, the perception that this was an advantage took hold. Maybe it is, maybe it does affect the team playing second in a sequence.
Then on Tuesday night, City had the chance to go first. Here was a chance to cut Liverpool’s four-point lead to one and to apply physical and psychological pressure.
City went 1-0 up in just 24 seconds at Newcastle and there will have been shivers on Merseyside. But midway through the second half City lost their way, their precise patterns of play loosened and they conceded two goals through shaky defending.
Now the question was: who blinks first? And the answer was City. The go-first advantage idea had lost some of its persuasiveness.
Then, 24 hours later, Liverpool drew 1-1 at home to Leicester. Unable to enforce the so-called advantage of playing second when the team going first had lost, they also blinked. Jurgen Klopp’s team, moreover, was as shaky as City’s defence at Newcastle.
Liverpool ended the midweek games a point further in front and still in control of their destiny. Yet there was something so unconvincing about their performance against Leicester, that the extra point seemed less significant than the fresh doubts surrounding it.
Scepticism is something Liverpool have had to cope with in earlier parts of the season. “They have not played as well as we would have liked,” said former midfielder Jan Molby in September. “You cannot always play like that [excitingly],” said Klopp in October. In November there were comments about Liverpool’s ordinariness in victory at Watford.
So this questioning is not new. Plus, despite it all, they kept on winning. When Liverpool defeated Newcastle 4-0 at Anfield on Boxing Day it was a 10th win in 11 league games. Ederson had just kept his 12th clean sheet in the league – 12 in 19 matches.
That was the halfway point of the season and Liverpool reached it six points clear of Spurs and seven clear of City. Both City and Liverpool had a goal difference of plus 36. But since then Ederson has kept just one clean sheet, Crystal Palace have scored three at Anfield and Leicester have just earned a deserved draw. City now have a superior goal difference of plus three.
What is new, or what feels new, is that some doubt is being shared internally. At Anfield on Wednesday, there was noise at the beginning and end but in between there was plenty of silence, anxiety growing as an average display unfolded and Leicester attacked. And yet Klopp had made the point of asking beforehand for fans to bring volume to the stadium.
It proved easier said than done. This is a support base which has not seen Liverpool win the title since 1990 and their desperation for change has grown year on year. You can look at the fact Klopp’s squad has to go to Manchester United, Everton and Newcastle and foresee dropped points; but they need to be comfortable at home. Their title challenge can be undermined there if not. Spurs and Chelsea have yet to visit.
And imagine if City had won at Newcastle? Anfield would have been even more jittery. Pep Guardiola will surely be aware of that over the next five days. Because City play first again.
Tomorrow they are home to an Arsenal who have not won away since November. City ended up looking a bit messy at Newcastle and the full-backs, Kyle Walker and Danilo, are vulnerable. Guardiola’s defence will be exposed by a strong team at some stage.
But you would still expect them to beat Arsenal. Victory would take them to within two points of Liverpool, who play at West Ham on Monday. It is another chance to apply pressure and a further comes when City travel to Everton next Wednesday while Liverpool have no game.
As champions, Guardiola knows the lulls and swells. But Klopp does too – people forget he has been a manager for 18 years. He led Borussia Dortmund to two Bundesliga titles and to a Champions League final. He should have the experience to manage his players across the line.
Managing Liverpool’s crowd and sense of history, though, that is another matter.
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