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And with that, I’m off. Here’s Andy Hunter’s match report again. Bye!
Arne Slot has a chat:
It sounds weird, but I think we had a really good start. But then one moment where we underestimated the situation led to a chance and a goal. You have to work really hard to come back in the game, and it really helped to score the equaliser just before half-time.
The first games we also conceded one or two chances but those ones didn’t go in. The last few games almost every chance we concede goes in. This is quite normal during a season. Because we went 1-0 down for a long time it was a game, before we made it 3-1. Then you saw maybe how good we are.
On the title chase: “It’s a boring answer, but you go game by game. You know how many games you still have to play. Especially in the Premier League you see results where you are like, I didn’t expect this. If this happened in the Eredivisie you might think, OK, this is it.”
And on the contract situations with Van Dijk, Salah and Alexander-Arnold: “We don’t talk about contracts in public. This is something for the players. But it’s clear that Mo again had a good game. Virgil had a very good game. Trent for most parts was very good, with one or two exceptions.”
Heres’s Andy Hunter’s match report from Anfield:
Liverpool have kicked off at 8pm on a Boxing Day twice in their history. The first time was in 2019, when Jürgen Klopp’s team demolished Leicester en route to winning the Premier League title with ease. The second time ended with another convincing defeat of the Foxes. That may not be the only repeat.
Arne Slot’s soaring leaders moved seven points clear of their closest challengers for the title, with a game in hand, courtesy of a controlled comeback against Ruud van Nistelrooy’s side. Leicester took a shock early lead through Jordan Ayew and, while Liverpool never hit the heights of their 2019 performance at the King Power Stadium, goals from Cody Gakpo, Curtis Jones and Mohamed Salah’s 19th of the season ensured the outcome remained the same.
Much more here:
Cody Gakpo is the player of the match:
We know the qualities we have. It’s not nice to go behind. We’re working on that, to maybe start more focused. We started very good but we had one or two moments where we were a little bit sloppy.
We cannot deny we are in a good place. But one of the strengths of our team is we approach each game as a new one, and that keeps us hungry and working very hard. We will give everything in each game, and hopefully we can go far in every competition.
Not an overwhelming display from Liverpool, then, but once the fog cleared (in multiple senses) plenty good enough to beat these opponents. Mo Salah has a chat:
It’s a good result. To be fair they were very tough first half, and second half they were very good. The way they were standing in front of the box was very hard for us, first half especially. [This season] feels different, but the most important thing is we need to stay humble. Hopefully we carry on with no injuries and we win it. This one is very special. Hopefully we win the Premier League, for this club it’s something I dream of.
The league table this evening looks like this, with Liverpool seven points clear at the top, precisely 20 (twenty!) points above Manchester United (with a game in hand), and Leicester stuck in the bottom three:
90+9 mins: It’s all over! It ends with Salah’s rabona cross, which is caught by Jakub Stolarczyk (whose debut was pretty promising). Liverpool bank the three points!
Liverpool’s manager Arne Slot celebrates his team’s victory. Photograph: Ian Hodgson/AP
90+9 mins: To say Liverpool have had it all their own way since the third goal is to vastly understate how much of their own way they have had it.
90+8 mins: Tsimikas crosses beyond the far post, it’s headed back into the mixer, where Van Dijk is beaten to it.
90+7 mins: Gakpo wins a free-kick, just outside the penalty area, towards the left corner.
90+5 mins: Another substitution. Coady goes off, and Caleb Okoli comes on. James Justin rolls on the captain’s armband for the last few minutes.
90+3 mins: Liverpool are passing it around the back four again. They seem in no hurry.
90+2 mins: It feels like the referee has for some reason added some first-half stoppage time onto the end of this half. Liverpool bring Harvey Elliot on for Mac Allister, who set up their first two goals.
90+1 mins: Thanks largely to VAR’s interventions, there’ll be nine (nine!) minutes of second-half stoppage time.
89 mins: “‘Anyway, Denis Law had absolutely no memory of the game whatsoever’ – that’s quite an underwhelming punchline for so much carefully constructed narrative tension,” writes Oliver Driesen. I was also disappointed, if that helps. We still had a lovely chat, though. You know a player’s scored a lot of goals when they score six in an afternoon and forget about it. Meanwhile, Prime’s statistics suggest that Liverpool have had 53 touches in Leicester’s penalty area, and Leicester just five in theirs.
87 mins: Meanwhile Leicester take off Mavididi, and replace him with Decordova-Reid.
86 mins: Tsimikas comes on for Robertson, and Endo for Gravenberch.
85 mins: Liverpool are going to bring on a couple more substitutes. Still no Chiesa, though.
Well that’s just silly. Gakpo finds Salah with a nicely lifted pass from the centre circle. He runs at Kristiansen, jinks onto his left foot and then just passes it across goal and in at the far post. He’s not been anywhere close to his best today, but that was an excellent goal, and a ridiculously casual way to score it.
Mohamed Salah (right) shoots … Photograph: Adam Vaughan/EPA
And watches as his shot goes past Leicester City’s diving keeper Jakub Stolarczyk to extend Liverpool’s lead. Photograph: Copa/Getty Images
Salah and the Liverpool fans celebrate. Photograph: Adam Vaughan/EPA
81 mins: A hilarious dive by Mavididi on the edge of his area, in search of a free kick. The referee isn’t buying what he’s selling.
80 mins: Gakpo gives the ball away to Ayew. To stop the break he tries to bring the Leicester player down and misses; Szoboszlai tries next, succeeds and is booked. He’ll miss Liverpool’s next game, at West Ham on Sunday, as a result.
79 mins: Leicester give the ball away, Alexander-Arnold plays a lovely pass through to Salah, and he pokes a shot towards the near post that gives Stolarczyk an easy save.
77 mins: Those changes are made. Curtis Jones and Darwin Nunez go off, Szoboszlai and Jota come on.
77 mins: The game has slowed down a bit. Liverpool pass around their defence for a while, barely at walking pace, then back to the keeper, then back to the defence.
74 mins: Liverpool are readying a substitution or two. Szoboszlai is certainly getting ready to come on, and apparently Jota too.
71 mins: It’s a red line this time. Nunez was offside by the barest of margins, and the goal will not stand. The decision took three minutes and 14 seconds.
71 mins: Really, the time this is taking is ludicrous.
69 mins: VAR has to check it, of course. And eventually he works out that Salah was onside. What, then, of Nunez? Let’s draw some more lines!
68 mins: Liverpool have the ball in the net again, but the linesman’s flag goes up! Again it’s Salah in the build-up; he volleyed it infield, Nunez tried to backheel it in and missed, and Gakpo followed up to score.
67 mins: Robertson’s cross is on its way to Nunez, who would have had a back-post tap-in, but Stolarczyk dived out to push it away.
64 mins: Leicester take off Winks and El Khannous and bring on Oliver Skipp and Facundo Buonanotte.
62 mins: A lovely move from Liverpool ends with Salah passing infield from the right to Nunez, whose first-time shot is well saved.
Liverpool’s Darwin Nunez (right) is denied by Leicester goalkeeper Jakub Stolarczyk. Photograph: Adam Vaughan/EPA
Liverpool’s Darwin Nunez reacts. Photograph: Liverpool FC/Getty Images
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