Liverpool to retain Premier League title by default as they get away with it again against Burnley
The league table tells us Liverpool have started their title defence brilliantly. The eye test continues to tell us anything but.
The game was mostly one-way traffic, sure, but with respect, you’d expect that from pretty much any other Premier League side against Burnley, who have faced by far the most shots and created only-just-not-quite the fewest in the Premier League this season.
You’d also expect that the reigning champions would have the quality required to actually make it count when they were able to pick their way through an impressively stubborn Clarets defence.
Instead, Liverpool’s attacking was so speculative, and their shooting and crossing so inaccurate, that Burnley fans had multiple valid occasions to let out big, mocking ironic cheers.
Twice in the first half, they got dangerous balls across the face of goal – once from Hugo Ekitike, one from Florian Wirtz – only to find there was no runner within five yards who could apply the final touch. When Ibrahim Konate did get a chance from a corner, he turned his header over the bar from all of about two yards. Mo Salah had one of those games where he looked like he was playing in boots three sizes too big.
MORE LIVERPOOL ON F365
👉 Florian Wirtz snub would ease suffering of Liverpool pair at hands of Slot favourite
👉 Slot explains Alexander Isak plan for Liverpool after Burnley absence – ‘It’s going to be interesting’
👉 Florian Wirtz flopping? Do you remember Ronaldo and Henry?
Nothing spoke more loudly about Liverpool being in an early-season transitional period than summer signing Milos Kerkez getting hauled off for his own protection on 38 minutes.
The left-back has looked a disciplinary liability since his arrival from Bournemouth and had earlier picked up a stupid yellow card for the least persuasive dive you’ll see all season, then was fortunate to escape further censure for a foul. Arne Slot had seen enough: Andy Robertson was hurried on in his place.
The frustration was written all over the visitors’ faces as they went off at the break, and it all will have been directed at themselves.
The irritation will have been double by the final whistle, with the second half continuing in much the same manner against a Burnley side that dropped ever deeper and became ever more resilient in defending their own box. Even Lesley Ugochukwu’s late red card for a second bookable offence late on was not helping their cause until it did.
That is becoming a familiar feeling for Slot’s men this season. They have already let leads slip against Crystal Palace, Bournemouth and ten-man Newcastle. They did at least take the latter two as a spur to actually go and do something to win the game, but there has been a distinctly unconvincing air to them so far this season.
Liverpool surely can’t keep relying on last-gasp winners, like they have in three games already, or a Dominik Szoboszlai worldie, as they did against Arsenal. Yet so far, it has worked for them.
Nobody wants to feel like any club has won the league almost by default. At the moment, it feels like Liverpool might just do exactly that.
If that is the case, they won’t care one bit that these first four wins have come in such unconvincing fashion. But it does feel like surely it has to catch up to them at some point if they don’t raise their game. Or at least…it would if anybody else looked at all likely to supersede them.
The thing is that Liverpool are far from alone among this season’s would-be title contenders: none of them have looked like they’re going to run away with it. Arsenal are too conservative for their own good in big games. Chelsea remain frustratingly inconsistent from one game to the next. Manchester City have returned to stuttering and faltering.
The last time the favourites felt this undercooked, Leicester City came from nowhere to fill the vacuum and took the trophy. We’re not outright saying that this is going to be Tottenham’s year, because we’re not (that) thick, but…well, on the evidence so far, why not? Manchester City won their first five games in 2015/16 before gravity caught up to them, after all.
That’s the same risk Liverpool run if they keep relying on good fortune going their way to win games. They showed us last season they are capable of much better. Their retention credentials would feel a lot more certain if they put their talent on display again. So far, we’ve just not seen it – in spite of their results.