Reds by Bournemouth
Liverpool kept Chelsea 10 points behind them in the battle for the top for with a 3-0 win at Anfield today.
It wasn’t always easy but it was a huge win for the Reds as they need to make sure they get this top 4 spot wrapped up.
Jurgen Klopp may have surprised some people by only making one change from Tuesday against Manchester City as he brought Jordan Henderson back in for James Milner, but that was the only change on the day.
Bournemouth on the other hand probably also surprised some people by playing a back 3/5 which isn’t normal for them.
Sadio Mane got the scoring started in the 7th minute when Mo Salah got the ball out of the corner, found Jordan Henderson who played the perfect ball over the top to Mane. Mane’s first shot was saved but he was able to pounce on the rebound to get the scoring started.
Liverpool played a very impressive first half. The ball movement and player movement was intricate. The only thing lacking was the final product as the first half was a very impressive display.
In the first half Liverpool outshot Bournemouth 10-1 and didn’t allow a single shot on target.
Jordan Henderson to me was probably the standout player in the half to me. He was spraying the ball all over and winning balls back, it was really captain at his best. You could almost tell the difference in him especially that he was forced to sit on Tuesday you could tell that he had a little bit extra energy than everyone else.
The second half was a bit more of a struggle for the Reds. I don’t know if they got tired or if Bournemouth figured some stuff out but it became a bit nervy at times, thankfully the back 4 and Karius were on top of their games so no harm was caused by a stretch of poor play.
Finally they got a second in the 69th minute when Trent Alexander-Arnold found Mo Salah over the top as Salah headed it home for his 40th on the season in all competitions.
Then in the 90th minute Robert Firmino put the game to bed for good with a finish off of a nice Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain run.
It was a huge win on a day that you could have thought that there could have been some sort of emotional let down or fatigue, but Klopp had his team ready and they went out and got the job done. It wasn’t always pretty but it was effective. This was a huge win in hopefully soon locking up a top 4 spot.
Trent Alexander-Arnold was my Man of the Match. He was absolutely everywhere in this game. It was another stand out performance by the youngster who has been fantastic down the stretch of this season.