While it wasn’t necessarily exciting for large parts, Liverpool moved 12 points clear again at the top of the Premier League table by beating Everton. With eight games remaining, it is surely an unassailable advantage.
Arsenal won against Fulham a day earlier, closing the gap to a still-substantial nine points. And with some nervousness growing among some after disappointing results against PSG and Newcastle, getting the three points on the board without too much fuss was important for Liverpool, the champions elect.
Getting a victory without conceding a goal and by seeing things through in a calm and composed manner — even without Alisson Becker and with Curtis Jones playing right-back on this occasion — Liverpool continued the theme of its season on the field and off it too. While a derby win brought joyous scenes in the crowd, the players remained cool.
While Trent Alexander-Arnold could be spotted jumping up and down with Jones at the final whistle and Arne Slot allowed himself a moment to thank the crowd, there was nothing over the top about the Liverpool celebrations, despite it being such an important game and another big step towards the ultimate let-off.
“I think everyone wants to be in our position and we worked so hard to be [there],” Virgil van Dijk calmly said on Sky Sports. “Now we have to keep going, keep the same focus, and keep the same mentality as we have been doing the whole season.
“The season so far has been outstanding and we just have to keep going. We have a tough one again in London [against Fulham] on Sunday that we have to be ready for and that will be the focus right now.”
“I always believe in myself,” Diogo Jota, a goalscorer for the first time in more than two months, said. “I always believe that the chances will come and I need to be there to take them.
(Image: Richard Martin-Roberts – CameraSport/CameraSport via Getty Images)
“Hopefully this game starts a good run for me that could be helpful for the team. Like I said, the three points were really the most important [thing] today.”
While it would be wrong to suggest there was no emotion in the game — the crunching challenge that went in on Alexis Mac Allister in the first half, as one example, proves that wasn’t the case — this was a relatively composed occasion. Liverpool is winning the title by being clinical rather than fevered, with Slot’s version of the team much more serene and measured, even though it would have been legitimately irked by the Tarkowski challenge, in particular.
Slot was as calm and composed about the victory as Jota and Van Dijk, leading the way by reacting to every win by looking to the next. “I liked much more what I saw here than the away game,” the Dutchman simply stated, while he refused to be drawn on the Tarkowski non-red card on the grounds of not needing to create any headlines.
There were no over-the-top Liverpool celebrations, despite this being an important derby win and ‘revenge’ of sorts for the late Tarkowski equalizer at Goodison Park just a few weeks ago. Instead, there remains a steely desire to get over the line in the Premier League title race as efficiently as possible. Precisely because of the laser focus, it won’t be too long before that happens.
