Eventually, there comes a point at which the fact that everybody seems to be having an off-day when they play against Liverpool has to be taken as a Liverpool thing rather than a quirk of the calendar. They head into the Christmas programme four points clear of Chelsea at the top of the table with a game in hand having lost only one of 16 games. While this will always in part be the season when Manchester City imploded, it should also be pointed out that Liverpool at the moment are on course for 93 points; only four times has the champion ever won more than that.
Even with Liverpool’s consistency there’s a tendency to look at Sunday’s 6-3 win at Tottenham as a result of the inexcusable openness of Tottenham rather than of their own excellence. And it is true that it’s easier to play Spurs right now, when they’re missing Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven, when Ange Postecoglou is doubling down even further on doing things his way, than it might have been at certain other points of the season. But at the same time, Spurs tend, relatively at least, to be better against teams who come at them, who give them space behind the defensive line they can attack, and until the game disintegrated into mass silliness in its final quarter, Liverpool gave them a lesson.
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This was 6-3 going on 9-0. For the first 40 minutes, they were imperious, dominant in midfield and devastating in forward areas. Other teams have beaten Tottenham this season, but nobody has given them a chasing like that. Even after the sloppiness that led to James Maddison’s goal, Liverpool were good enough to restore their two-goal lead before half-time and sniff out any prospect of an improbable Tottenham comeback.
They keep on doing this. On the opening weekend of the season, they’d looked ordinary in the first half at Ipswich, but improved enough after the break to score twice. They sputtered at Wolves but found a winner five minutes after being pulled level. When Chelsea pulled level with them just after half-time at Anfield, they responded within three minutes. They found equalisers in the final 10 minutes against both Arsenal and Fulham. They came from behind with two goals in the final 25 minutes against both Brighton and Southampton. Even though the 3-3 draw at Newcastle ended up feeling like a disappointment because of the way they conceded a late equaliser, they had dragged themselves back from a very unpromising 2-1 down midway through the second half.
The thought this weekend was that, for the first time, they were under a little pressure. A lead that had stood at nine points after the victory over Manchester City, was down to two. They’d drawn back-to-back games and because of the postponement of their fixture at Everton, Chelsea were looming, even if they had played a game more. Spurs, in their curiously predictable inconsistency, are a dangerous opponent but by half-time, Liverpool had already wrapped the game up. As it turned out, their neighbours Everton did them a favour by holding Chelsea and so the lead is four points with a game in hand. They can afford a couple of slip-ups; Christmas no longer feels like a period at which, in the blizzard of games, the lead could be lost almost before anybody has noticed.
There is an oddity in that three of their key performers are out of contract in June. Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah all played their parts in Sunday’s win. At least one of them is likely to sign a new deal before the end of the season, although at the moment it seems that at least one is likely to leave. That gives this campaign a strange sense of impermanence, a mayfly magnificence, glories enhanced by the fact it might be a one-time only offer.
But then all the way through, it has seemed Liverpool are making the most of favourable circumstance. Arsenal, Aston Villa and City were in moments of doubt when they faced them – although given for City that has now apparently become a season of meltdown that has perhaps come to feel less significant than it did when they met three weeks ago. Real Madrid were without Vinicius. But that’s sometimes how it works out; a team still has to take advantage.
And, while Liverpool have been relatively fortunate with injuries, it’s not as though everything has been perfect. Arne Slot has found a way of using Ryan Gravenberch – and Curtis Jones – that means the absence of a classic holding midfielder has been forgotten. Salah and Van Dijk are back at their absolute best. Dominik Szoboszlai and Luis Díaz are thriving. And whenever Liverpool have been pressured, Slot has found an answer. The Premier League is now theirs to lose, and for a manager in his first season in England, that is a remarkable achievement.
On this day
Mark Crossley is known for a number of reasons. He saved a penalty from Gary Lineker in the 1991 FA Cup final but couldn’t prevent Nottingham Forest losing to Tottenham. He’s the only goalkeeper ever to have saved a penalty from Matt Le Tissier. He scored a remarkable own goal against Blackburn in September 1992, saving a Colin Hendry header only to roll backwards and let the ball slip from his grasp. And on 23 December 2006, he scored his only league goal.
Crossley, by then 36, had damaged a hamstring earlier in the game but with his Sheffield Wednesday side 3-2 down in the Championship at home to Southampton, he limped forward for a corner in injury-time, leapt highest at the back post and nodded the ball in from close range. He had been brought in on loan by the Wednesday manager Brian Laws, a former teammate at Forest, but was soon replaced by Iain Turner and returned to Fulham. In total, Crossley played 566 times in a career that spanned 21 years. That was his only goal.
