Premier League: Pressure builds on Liverpool title bid
Aston Villa's Ollie Watkins (centre) scores the side's second goal of the game during the Premier League match against Liverpool at Villa Park, Birmingham. Picture: Martin Rickett/PA Wire
Liverpool went eight points clear at the top of the Premier League table on Wednesday, but not since the opening day of the season has the side’s prospects of winning the title looked so unsure.
They are in the middle of a five-match run that many identified would be a tough assignment for the Reds and so it has turned out to be. Starting, last Wednesday week, with the Merseyside derby against Everton, and the farewell to Goodison Park turmoil that ensued, followed by a home match against Wolves, then two away matches, starting with Aston Villa last Wednesday, and Man City tomorrow, followed then by a home encounter with Newcastle next Wednesday.
Despite not losing, with two draws and a win in the first three of the five games, the mood of Liverpool fans has become understandably anxious, as one could easily interpret each of those results as a lucky outcome.
The results can be seen in the positive light of no defeats and points have been put on the board and the lead has even been extended, but Liverpool fans will not gain much solace from that, as the method by which the side secured those points was, to say the least, rather frantic and far from comfortable.
Everton bagged a 98th minute equaliser in the derby that felt like a win for them. And indeed, the Toffees were the better side in the derby. A resurgent Wolves made Liverpool sweat on Saturday despite the Reds going 2-0 up in the first half. And Liverpool were lucky to hang on to for the win come full time, after Matheus Cunha had pulled one back for the Midlands side. Again, on Wednesday, Liverpool’s defence were scrambling to hold on for the draw at Villa after the side squandered a host of chances to put the game away.
The over-riding consensus among punters and fans alike, is that the once supreme juggernaut that was Liverpool, earlier this season, looks more like a panting panda in recent days. Ryan Gravenberch’s dominance in midfield all season long looks well diminished of late, as he tires in games a lot quicker, putting new pressure on the already overworked combination of Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate in a defence that once banked clean sheets for fun.
Then add in the inexplicable misses by Diogo Jota and Darwin Nunez against Villa and you are left wondering if they can get through this run of games with their lead in the table intact.
Now, Liverpool face defending champions Man City, stinging with humiliation after the rather embarrassing exit from the Champions League at the hands of Real Madrid midweek, with Pep Guardiola and players for sure looking for a way to regain a measure of pride this season, starting with Liverpool tomorrow.
City’s fragile hopes of going to the Bernabeu and overturning a 3-2 first leg deficit was quickly extinguished, after just three minutes, by the first of Kylian Mbappe’s eventual hat-trick. After that early goal, one could see the City heads drop and Madrid and Mbappe were comfortable for the rest of the game. But one wonders if Pep is more concerned about securing the best possible finish in the domestic league rather than the far more difficult run of winning the Champions League.
Guardiola did not call on Erling Haaland, who admittedly was coming back from injury, or Kevin de Bruyne from the bench in Spain, despite the serious situation they were in at the Bernabeu. Was Pep not willing to risk the big Norwegian front man and Belgian playmaker? Rather preferring them to be available for the always spicy encounter with Liverpool at the Ethiad and the need to secure valuable points in the race for at least fourth place, which City currently inhabit but only by one point ahead of Bournemouth.
Guardiola saving his stars for tomorrow’s game may be undone by the injury to key defender John Stones in Madrid. City’s defence has been under pressure to hold back the floods of attacks all season and Stones has been pivotal (between spells of injury) in stopping their season from been a whole lot worse.
City will not hand over the points to Liverpool and the Reds have not beaten City at the Ethiad since 2018. But which City side turns out against Liverpool will shape how this game goes. The City side that steamrolled a very good Newcastle side 4-0 last week, or the side that gave up against Madrid. Adding pressure on Liverpool will be second-place Arsenal, whose game on hand against West Ham this afternoon should be a sure three points to close the gap to five points, as the misfiring Eastenders will unlikely offer much of a test to Arsenal despite the Gunners ironically lacking firepower up front.
Suffice to say, the earlier predicted stroll to the title for Liverpool has now become a lot more interesting.
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