ANFIELD — Arne Slot and Unai Emery were almost identically dressed. Black windcheater, dark zip-up top, black trousers and black trainers. The space Slot stepped into in the summer was very similar to the one that swallowed Emery when he succeeded Arsene Wenger six years ago.
Wenger had dominated and shaped Arsenal perhaps even more than Jurgen Klopp had moulded Liverpool. They both entered a dressing room which knew only one voice.
Yet while Emery floundered and fell, Slot has pulled off a seamless transition of a kind Liverpool used to excel at – Shankly to Paisley to Fagan, to Dalglish. The last two won the title in their first season at the helm and the question is whether Slot can do the same.
An international break is a time for assessment. Liverpool enter it five points clear. In the wake of what he acknowledged had been a big week at Anfield – a comeback to beat Brighton, the demolition of Bayer Leverkusen and now a 2-0 victory over Aston Villa – Slot argued other teams “could win 15 or 16 games as we have done”. The Liverpool manager named Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea as the three most likely to do so.
However, the lead is significant. Of the seven previous teams who were leading the Premier League on Armistice Day by five points or more, only one – Newcastle who were eight clear of Manchester United in 1995 – have failed to win the title.
“If you asked me before the season started, I would not say we were candidates but now it looks like we are,” Liverpool midfielder Alexis Mac Allister remarked.
Anfield seemed to know it too. Once news of City’s defeat at Brighton had come through, the stadium was raucous and expectant. They demanded to win.
Thus far, Liverpool have not suffered the number of injuries that have bedevilled City and Arsenal, although the sight of Trent Alexander-Arnold coming off with a hamstring injury was a sign that this can change.
Hard though Villa sometimes pressed, Liverpool’s defence coped, especially Ibrahima Konate, who no longer appears to be Virgil van Dijk’s understudy.
Caoimhin Kelleher is Alisson Becker’s backup. Since coming in for the injured Brazilian, Kelleher has kept three clean sheets in six matches, five of which have been won. And yet afterwards his manager was adamant.
When Becker returns from treatment, he will become Liverpool’s first-choice keeper once more. That is why the Irishman will have to leave. But it has been quite some audition.
This was Villa’s fourth consecutive defeat. They are learning, as Newcastle learnt last season, that Champions League spectacles do not automatically spill over into the domestic game.
Since the epic victory over Bayern Munich, Villa have won a solitary Premier League game in two months. In the season they overcame Bayern to win the European Cup in 1982, Villa finished 11th.
They did not play badly at Anfield and had Ollie Watkins been in better touch, Villa might have had at least one goal. Their problems were best exemplified by their corners. They had nine to Liverpool’s two but in the first half they pushed up so many players for them that they were twice caught cold by a cavalry charge of a Liverpool counter-attack. In the second, the set-pieces became more frequent and ever more ineffectual.
Emery’s most significant action was to drop his captain, John McGinn. Since his return to the Villa midfield from injury, the Scot has lacked his former intensity and results have slumped. The 4-1 loss to Tottenham and defeat in Bruges seemed to have snapped Emery’s patience.
The Aston Villa manager acknowledged that the gap between his side and Liverpool is greater now than last season. That gap may yet become a gulf.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/QHhxP68
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