Sunderland 0 Liverpool 1
Exactly what Arne Slot needed. Going to Sunderland so far this season has been one of the hardest away games you can play in the league with both Arsenal and Man city dropping points when they came to the Stadium of Light, Sunderland were one of the very few teams around Europe who hadn’t been beat at home like Barcelona, PSG, Napoli and Juventus so this was a big scalp by Liverpool and a well deserved one at that. Liverpool were dominant in the first half and should have at least 2 goals to their name before half-time, Sunderland probably showed Liverpool a bit too much respect in that first-half and couldn’t really get out of their half for much of it. Liverpool eventually got their goal through a corner were Van Dijk was able to flick it on just past the Sunderland player on the line to score the only goal of the game. Sunderland huffed and puffed for the remainder of the second half but couldn’t find the goal to keep their home record alive.
Liverpool’s best defensive performance of the season. I don’t think it’s that controversial to say that this was by far the best I’ve seen Liverpool defensively this season so far, Van Dijk and Konate in particular were brilliant in dealing with Sunderland’s attackers for the entire match. Brian Brobbey has proven himself to be quite the handful for most defenders in the league so far this season but Konate didn’t give a sniff tonight and that kept Sunderland quiet for the entire 90 minutes. This was the perfect game for Andy Robertson to come into and Liverpool looked much more solid at the back with him at left-back, Wataru Endo had an excellent game as well but unfortunately went off with what looked like quite a nasty injury so I wish him a speedy recovery, Joe Gomez came on and filled in well to see the game out for Liverpool in the end.
Granit Xhaka’s absence was felt tonight. I think this game showed just how important Xhaka is in this Sunderland team, earlier in the season I said he was signing of the season so far and I think it shows the massive crater it leaves in Sunderland’s midfield when he’s not there. His calmness on the ball was much needed tonight when Sunderland were trying to break forward with Sadiki struggling in there to have an impact. It was always going to be tough against Liverpool’s midfield which was on it tonight but I think we saw the impact Xhaka can have in the game at Anfield a couple of months ago were Sunderland came away with a draw. According to reports he’ll be back in a couple of weeks and I hope for Sunderland’s sake he’s back soon as they look a completely different team without him.
Is there a problem on the wings for Liverpool? I don’t know if its just me but I thought yet again Gakpo and Salah on the wings for Liverpool were awful tonight, Gakpo in particular seems to only have one move in his locker were just cuts inside and shoots and I think every full-back in the league knows what he’s going to do at this point and just shows him on his left or lets him pass it to the overlapping full-back. Salah on the other wing is similar but still has that creativity to create a chance out of nothing like we saw on Sunday against City, I still think he can offer more on that right-hand-side for Liverpool especially in games were Ekitike and Wirtz don’t have the space centrally to open up teams. Whilst I think Konate was the best player on the pitch tonight, Wirtz was a close second and was by far Liverpool’s best player going forward going close a few times to scoring, his form has been important in Liverpool’s recent run and will be vital if Liverpool are to finish in the top 4/5.
A vital 3 points for Arne Slot. Liverpool couldn’t afford to drop points tonight in the race for the Champions League spots with Chelsea and Man United dropping points leaving Liverpool two points behind Chelsea and three points off United in fourth. I can’t help but think that Liverpool will finish 4th this year in the league as they simply have more quality all around the team compared to United and Chelsea, that 5th spot is anyone’s really as United and Chelsea are going to be inconsistent for the rest of the year in my opinion. Aston Villa picked up a huge win tonight over Brighton which keeps them firmly in 3rd place six points ahead of United in 4th, they are looking good for Champions League football and have favourable fixtures coming up to probably seal that 3rd spot for Unai Emery which would be a hugely successful season after last year. A big three points for Liverpool who now put all the pressure on United and Chelsea over the next month or so.