It’s nice, isn’t it? When things that should be good end up being great. When hype delivers. When — just to pluck an example out of the air — the weekend’s big game actually delivers the outstanding goals, laughable defending, and general air of chaotic nonsense that sustains the Premier League as a spectacle.
Liverpool’s defeat of Manchester City by the odd goal in seven had something for everyone, even Arsenal fans, whose historic invincibility is safe for another year. Whether that makes up for the contemporary very-much-vincibles is an open question.
That said, it was a strange game for the innocent neutral. Some games ebb and flow; this one wound itself up then exploded. Minutes one through 58 were tightly contested, energetic fun, and minutes 69 and onward were spent trying to clear up the mess. This consisted mostly of asking, “What the hell just happened?” occasionally thinking, “Hang on, they’re not actually going to do it, are they?”and pausing every now and then for a little giggle. No wonder the players looked so tired at the end: They had to do all that and run around.
Minutes 59 to 68, then. It’s as though Pep Guardiola, having taken pity on all the pundits he’s made look very silly this season, decided to present a short alternative history sketch titled: They Don’t Like It Up There: What If All The Clever People Were Right And All That Fancy Passing Nonsense Just Doesn’t Work In England.
First John Stones, instead of thumping the ball into the stands like a proper central defender, tried to work it back to his keeper and was punished by Roberto Firmino. 2-1. Then Nicolas Otamendi, instead of clearing his lines like a proper central defender, poked the ball feebly into an opponent’s midriff. Over to Mané, 3-1. Finally Ederson Moraes charged out of his goal, failed to hammer the ball into the night like a proper goalkeeper, and instead sent a weak pass straight to the feet of Mohamed Salah. 4-1, and a philosophy in tatters …
… well, apart from the 15-point lead at the top of the table.
It was a strange passage of football. Three goals in nine minutes is not normal; a generally assured defence splintering into a pile of neurotic matchwood is not normal; and Liverpool’s attackers, sensing the moment, chipped in — well, Mané hammered in — with three thoroughly not-normal finishes. And strangeness, while highly entertaining in the moment, does make the process of postgame reflection a little trickier. Here are five things we learned from the weekend’s big game: “!,” “?,” “hang on,” “LOL,” and “wait, what?”
Adding to this vague sense of postmatch bafflement is the fact that this result, in terms of the competition in which it happened, comes with a lot of heat and light and little weight. City aren’t about to abandon their style of play, since that’s how they created the 15-point lead that makes three left at Anfield essentially irrelevant. And as for Liverpool, it’s perfectly possible to read this as a sign — a statement! a warning! — that Anfield contains brilliance sufficient for the winning of the league title. Next season.
That pesky 15-point gap, again. Those draws that should have been wins and those thumpings at the hands of City and Spurs. If this was Liverpool’s moment of ascension from good to great, then the hard evidence of such will have to be deferred.
In England, at least. Both City and Liverpool are still in the Champions League, and we can be fairly sure that the rest of the competition was watching with interest. They will have noticed that there is a soft underbelly to City, if they can be persuaded to fall over and expose it. They will have noticed, too, that Liverpool can score out of nothing and are setting new standards in scampering around and annoying the opposition. They’re also still fairly terrible at defending, though presumably Virgil van Dijk’s integration will now begin in earnest.
Perhaps the other interesting wrinkle is that City have now been overcome, or at the very least shut down, in both directions. As appropriate as it was for City’s unbeaten run to end in the kind of game that the Premier League’s brand consultants like to pretend happens every week, they were only a poor penalty kick away from losing to Crystal Palace a couple of weeks beforehand. Jurgen Klopp’s team pressed high and hard and handsome, but former Liverpool hero Roy Hodgson set his side up to sit deep, soak up pressure, and hit Wilfried Zaha on the break.
While City weren’t exactly helpless in either game, it’s interesting that both approaches worked. Perhaps it’s even encouraging for everybody else, in that it suggests there isn’t just one way to go about halting Guardiola’s juggernaut. Teams don’t have to attack; they don’t have to bunker down. Instead, they can do whatever best suits their squad, and if they can do it well enough (and if City have an off day, and a couple of injuries, and all the rest of the caveats that come when playing against a very good team, which City are): profit! Maybe! Jose Mourinho will be delighted, if such emotions aren’t beyond him.
Given the circumstances of the league, the fixture delivered everything it possibly could (except, sadly, a 21-man brawl with points deductions and suspensions to follow). It was entertaining in the moment, intriguing in its implications, and if it was a little lacking in immediate significance, that’s just the inevitable consequence of the lack of a title race. After all, the Premier League’s writing team have already given away the ending to this season. What else to do, but start running adverts for the next?