Liverpool has overtaken Manchester City in the Premier League title race as the season gradually approaches its halfway mark. In five games’ time, everyone will have played everyone, and assessments can really start to be made.
Even then, Jürgen Klopp will certainly not be jumping the gun, but he must be pleased with the position in which Liverpool has put itself. Having got some of the season’s most tricky away fixtures out of the way already, it is currently just two points off the Premier League summit, with a home game against leader Arsenal the second-last game of the first rotation of fixtures.
It didn’t always look like the weekend would have such a happy outcome. Liverpool trailed Fulham with just five minutes of normal time remaining, before a remarkable comeback saw the Reds hit two inside two minutes to steal the win.
Meanwhile, Manchester City conceded a 90th-minute equalizer to Spurs, moving to three winless league games in a row and losing ground on its nearest competitors. Erling Haaland looked to have played in Jack Grealish for a chance to make it 4-3 deep into stoppage time, but the referee failed to play the advantage after a foul on the Norwegian, prompting a furious response.
Liverpool will now watch the fallout from that incident closely. Meanwhile, Klopp will be hoping for a rapid improvement from one of his own stars. Here are the two stories from today that you shouldn’t miss.
Liverpool should be expecting punishment for Erling Haaland, with a precedent set earlier on in the season. The tirade he directed at referee Simon Hooper plainly crossed a line — while he continued to voice his displeasure on X (formerly Twitter) after the game.
Under the new ‘participants charter’, it was unquestionably right that Haaland was booked, and indeed there was a strong case for a red card as his vociferous protests continued after being shown the yellow. Meanwhile, many of his teammates were lucky to escape cautions, with the threshold certainly met for two or more players surrounding the referee.
So far this season, the most notable application of the charter has been to double a one-match red card ban for Virgil van Dijk, citing his conduct towards the officials after being dismissed. Liverpool should be demanding consistency, writes James Martin, and that would mean at least a one-game ban for Haaland. Read the full story here.
Yet when he is called upon, the pressure is immense. Faced with an injury to Alisson, Klopp has turned to Kelleher to step up, a daunting task at the best of times. After a strong showing against LASK, Kelleher faltered against Fulham. He was ultimately bailed out at the other end, but it’s usually Alisson doing the bailing.
Certainly, Kelleher’s affectionate Klopp-given nickname of ‘the blond Ali’ did not ring true. He will hope to be able to show his best form in the next few games, writes David Comerford, in a run that could define his career outlook. Read the full story by clicking here.
