As Liverpool followers, perhaps we had it a bit too simple in 2019/20. Possibly the record-breaking method wherein we claimed our first Premier League title distorted our thought course of considerably.
It’s 5 years in the past at the moment {that a} 2-0 win over Manchester United despatched Jurgen Klopp’s crew 16 factors clear on the prime with a recreation in hand and Anfield lastly dared to sing “We’re gonna win the league!”, a assured declaration which was confirmed as reality with seven matches nonetheless to play in that season.
If Arne Slot is to emulate his predecessor within the Dutchman’s first yr on the helm, the title could have been a complete lot tougher to earn.
For Liverpool followers, Saturday should’ve felt like taking part in in a dwell crypto on line casino recreation, such was the heart-pumping pleasure which ensued throughout the house of 144 minutes particularly.
4:51pm
The Reds’ match at Brentford enters stoppage time. It seems to be for all of the world as if this’ll be one other day on which Slot’s crew drop factors within the title race. When Mo Salah dragged a shot extensive a few minutes in the past, that felt just like the final massive likelihood that the guests would get. 35 photographs and nothing to point out for it.
It’s gonna be a type of days, isn’t it? Extra torment for Liverpool amid the sobering considered Arsenal probably drawing with placing distance afterward, with a win over Aston Villa decreasing the hole to 2 factors. That day once we beat Manchester Metropolis to go 9 clear looks like a very long time in the past.
4:52pm
The clock is now at 90+1. Harvey Elliott performs a intelligent by move to Trent Alexander-Arnold, who sees his first-time cross blocked down however the rebound offers him a second likelihood to play the ball throughout the center of objective, the place Darwin Nunez is about to get on the tip of it.
The Uruguay striker – so incessantly maligned by pundits throughout the nation over the previous two-and-a-half years, with solely 4 targets all season and none within the Premier League since 9 November – will get a clear contact on it and steers it previous Mark Flekken from the sting of the six-yard field.
The away finish on the Gtech Group Stadium erupts. Nunez’s teammates race in the direction of him with unreserved glee. He instinctively whips off his shirt and tosses it apart whereas working in the direction of the exultant Liverpool followers. That act will earn him a yellow card however, frankly, who cares proper now?
All of the torment of the earlier two hours abruptly feels value it…and the 25-year-old even goes and scores once more a few minutes later simply to make sure that Brentford gained’t do to us what they did to Manchester United final March and cancel out a stoppage-time objective with a last-gasp equaliser.
4:58pm
Full-time. Brentford 0-2 Liverpool. Nunez is near tears as his teammates swarm to congratulate him heartily.
The three factors we’ve simply gained are factually the identical as what we earned from our earlier league victory, the 5-0 mutilation of West Ham, however this explicit win feels a lot larger given the way wherein it was earned.
A few of us may faux that Arsenal aren’t taking part in later and go off for a stroll, placed on the dinner or get pleasure from some high quality household time. We’ve already been put by the wringer right here; we don’t need to undergo all of it once more at 5:30!
6:43pm
Leandro Trossard’s cross picks out Kai Havertz, whose low shot deflects off Emiliano Martinez and into the web to present Arsenal a 2-0 lead. They seem like cruising and the four-point hole at the beginning of the day can be maintained.
With the preliminary euphoria of our win at Brentford having subsided, there’s now an anticlimactic sense that the Gunners will simply shake off the potential psychological blow of Liverpool’s outcome earlier and rating a commanding victory over a robust Aston Villa aspect. They’re not going away quietly on this title race.
6:56pm
With the Emirates Stadium scoreboard now studying 2-1, Matty Money floats a teasing cross into the Arsenal penalty space. It’s met by Ollie Watkins, who maintains his freakishly sensible file of scoring at this venue to poach an equaliser for Villa.
Rapidly, the glee that we felt when Nunez broke the impasse in west London a few hours in the past is replicated. If the Gunners don’t win this after being two targets up, how damaging might that be to their title hopes…and the way massive a lift might or not it’s to ours?
However calm down – we’re nonetheless solely halfway by the second half right here.
7:15pm
Mikel Merino’s shot hits the bottom and bounces off Havertz earlier than going previous Martinez. Arsenal have conjured a late winner in spite of everything, emulating Liverpool’s heroics from earlier. Sigh.
Oh wait, it’s going to VAR. Is there one other lifeline right here?
Replays present that Havertz’s decrease arm was barely prolonged because it made contact with the ball. On-field referee Chris Kavanagh communicates that the objective can be disallowed. It’s gone from 2-0 to 2-2 to 3-2 and again to 2-2 once more. How and why are we doing this to ourselves!
A couple of minutes later, the full-time whistle blows and it ends all-square on the Emirates. There are pockets of boos from the Arsenal followers, who know all too nicely that the title race momentum has swung firmly in Liverpool’s favour on a dramatic day of Premier League soccer.
And guess what…we get to do it once more subsequent weekend, and 16 extra instances after that earlier than the tip of Might. Gross sales of coronary heart charge screens amongst Reds supporters might enhance exponentially over the approaching weeks and months!
