Liverpool sloppy and disjointed but Saints were hilariously generous
We are in something of a quandary here. We don’t much care for the November international break, but we are huge fans of the chaos that ensues when the Premier League returns.
Probably can’t have one without the other, so maybe the November interlull is actually worth it after all. This has already been a magnificent weekend of pure, uncut Barclays, and this five-goal caper between Southampton and Liverpool was easily the silliest game of football we’ve seen since, well, yesterday.
Liverpool were not good and will know they’ve got away with one here. This was a sloppy, disjointed performance and Arne Slot’s side were indebted to the frequent maddening and hilarious generosity of their hosts.
It’s a shame really that this game arrived a mere week before the official opening of the ‘early Christmas present’ window, because all manner of gifts were exchanged at St Mary’s.
Liverpool’s opener from Dominik Szoboszlai was the precise goal Southampton had apparently been attempting to concede all afternoon and indeed all season. The speed with which Southampton managed to go from Alex McCarthy in possession to the ball hitting the back of their net was ludicrous.
It even caught out the Sky director, who was still showing us replays of that earlier effort. We’d normally have some sympathy, but when it’s Southampton, with their wildly ill-suited back-up keeper, playing out from the back against Liverpool it really is probably a good idea to stay with the action.
Liverpool were not above handing out gifts of their own, mind, with Virgil van Dijk and Andy Robertson combining to disastrous effect to allow Southampton’s equaliser. Van Dijk gave the ball away carelessly and Robertson’s attempt to tackle the excellent Tyler Dibling was brainlessly cumbersome.
The officials’ decision that the offence had taken place on the very, very edge of the penalty area was probably the right one and Adam Armstrong drew the Saints level at the second attempt.
Southampton, via the hapless McCarthy almost handed the lead straight back to Liverpool but managed to hold on to the break.
A wonderful counter-attack saw Dibling and Armstrong combine to play in Mateus Fernandes and somehow Southampton were ahead and a nonsense was brewing. The worst team in the league leading the best. The worst attack in the league scoring twice against the best defence.
But Southampton really are generous to a fault. McCarthy, who really did have quite an afternoon, misjudged both the flight of a long ball and the pace of Mo Salah horribly, and the stabbed finish past him was expertly done. As is very often the case, Salah made it look far easier than it was.
Southampton will be kicking themselves. Liverpool really did barely look a threat when not helped out hugely by their hosts. And the generosity wasn’t finished yet, with Yukinari Sugawara stepping off the bench to commit one of the more blatant handballs any penalty area has ever seen and allow Salah the chance to win the game. He never seemed likely to spurn it.
A monumental missed opportunity for Southampton, then, on what really did seem to be the best day of the season so far to be playing Liverpool. This was an entirely atypical display from them in these early months of the Slot era. They had none of their usual control.
All season there has been a sense of inevitability about Liverpool once they get their noses in front. They are still to drop any points having taken the lead, and just about retained that record here. But even at 3-2 there were still dicey moments to endure.
But endure they did and winning games playing at something approaching your very worst is a wonderful thing if you only have to do it occasionally. And there is no denying now that a really quite wonderful opportunity has presented itself for Liverpool here.
Should they beat Manchester City at Anfield next Sunday, and at this time you’d have to back them to do precisely that, they will be 11 points clear of the champions and at least nine clear of everyone else. At any stage of the season that is a handsome lead with plenty of wriggle room to survive any kind of run-in onslaught from a City team that, frankly, doesn’t currently appear capable of producing it.
We’re all used to City looking slightly vulnerable early in the season and unstoppable later on, but they are so far beyond ‘slightly vulnerable’ now. This really doesn’t feel like the kind of false hope they’ve provided Arsenal – and Liverpool themselves – over recent years.