Liverpool (AFP) – Liverpool made it an entire calendar year without a Premier League defeat as the runaway leaders beat Sheffield United 2-0 on Thursday.
Jurgen Klopp’s side moved 13 points clear of second placed Leicester thanks to goals from Egypt forward Mohamed Salah and Senegal winger Sadio Mane at Anfield.
Liverpool’s 19th win in 20 league games this season completed an incredible 12 months for a team at the peak of their powers.
The Reds haven’t lost in 37 league games since a defeat at Manchester City on January 3, 2019 and it looks certain they will win the English title for the first time since 1990.
With a game in hand to further bolster their advantage, it would take an astonishing collapse to deprive Liverpool of their holy grail.
Winners of their last 18 home league games, Liverpool are unbeaten in 51 top-flight matches at Anfield dating back to April 2017.
As if it wasn’t hard enough to beat Liverpool already, they are proving more impregnable than ever lately.
This was their fifth consecutive top-flight clean-sheet — the first time they have managed that since 2007 — and they completed more passes than any team in one match in the Premier League era.
After a golden 2019 saw Liverpool crowned European and Club World champions, the next target is ending Manchester City’s two-year spell as champions after narrowly missing out last season.
Their sights set on domestic bliss, the new year started just as the old one finished, with Liverpool setting standards of excellence that rival anything achieved by City’s breath-taking team.
Premier League immortality is within touching distance as Klopp’s men are already over halfway towards an unbeaten league season that would replicate the incredible feat of Arsenal’s 2003-04 Invincibles.
Even the strain of Liverpool’s sixth game in 16 days, which had left Klopp claiming he was down to 13 fit senior outfield players, couldn’t derail the leaders.
Liverpool hadn’t even kicked off when that number dwindled further as Naby Keita suffered a groin injury in the warm-up and was replaced by James Milner.
But Liverpool are far too polished to lose focus and they were in front within four minutes.
– Flushed with success –
Their win at Bramall Lane in September had come thanks to a mistake from United keeper Dean Henderson and once again Liverpool benefitted from a Blades blunder.
When Virgil van Dijk played a long pass towards Andrew Robertson, it should have been easy for George Baldock to deal with.
from World Soccer Talk https://ift.tt/2sIp9aL
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