Games without supporters have the one benefit of letting us hear all the sounds football can offer. Tactical instructions, defenders’ commands, appeals to the referee, the squeals of the injured (and the not-really-injured), the whole rich tapestry of noises is there.
And at Anfield, at almost the end of this match, emerged a cacophony that will live in the memory, a heartfelt outpouring. It was the sound of people letting go of a distinctive emotion — vindication, sweet vindication.
It came from Jürgen Klopp and his staff, who made so much noise you glanced towards the Kop to check that the fans were not somehow there.
It also came from a young footballer whose scream of joy articulated the difficult period he has been experiencing. Trent Alexander-Arnold. The 22-year-old’s thumping stoppage-time winner broke Liverpool’s worst sequence of home results in history and pushed them back in contention for a Champions League place.
For Alexander-Arnold it was a how-do-you-like-me-now moment, a goal scored in front of Gareth Southgate, who dropped him from the England squad last month, and what a goal it was. Emiliano Martínez made an exceptional save to thwart Thiago Alcântara, who caught a close-range volley with full power, and Ross Barkley hooked a poor clearance to the edge of the area. There, collecting it, Alexander-Arnold moved smoothly into space to shoot and connected, sweet and true, half driving and half curling the ball into the far corner of the net.
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Klopp’s vindication included reward for a bold substitution where he removed a centre back, Ozan Kabak, to introduce Xherdan Shaqiri. It was the Swiss replacement, with an electric give-and-go, then a cross to Alcântara, who had been the one to break behind Aston Villa’s fraying lines. The visitors gave a lot to the game, particularly its second half, but were worn down by Liverpool pressure in the end.
Yet before Alexander-Arnold struck, it had seemed another painful day for his team. A familiar cocktail of issues had gripped Liverpool: missed chances and the whims of VAR. They dominated the first half but, having suffered six straight defeats at Anfield, were rushed and anxious in front of goal. A pattern was set after 12 minutes when Diogo Jota swept a pass through with a lovely touch and Tyrone Mings lazily missed the ball. However, Mohamed Salah’s dink past Martínez rolled wide of the far post. Roberto Firmino, Salah and Jota then spurned opportunities.
Almost inevitably, Villa punished all this by scoring. Their counterattacks, borne on the broad shoulders of Ollie Watkins and John McGinn, were always dangerous and in the 43rd minute, after a weak clearance by Kabak, Ezri Konsa won the ball and McGinn disguised his reverse pass beautifully to play Watkins into space. The forward’s shot was close enough to Alisson for the Brazil player to have saved straightforwardly but Liverpool’s suddenly inconsistent goalkeeper got down slowly, and only got a weak hand on the ball, allowing it to squirm in underneath his body.
Then came VAR. Like the world’s most inventive comedian, the technology shows an extraordinary facility for coming up with new jokes. In first-half stoppage time, after so many snatched attempts, it seemed Liverpool had finally found a moment of scoring composure.
Alexander-Arnold lofted a gorgeous diagonal pass to Jota, who was breaking into space on the left. He passed neatly to Salah and the Egypt forward flicked to Andrew Robertson with a lovely touch. The Scotland full back’s blocked shot rebounded into Firmino’s path. The Brazil forward, who has scored only one league goal with his feet in more than two years at Anfield, gave lie to that statistic by pausing and spooning the most relaxed of finishes over two defenders and into the net. It was 1-1, everyone imagined, and Liverpool’s wait for a first-half home goal, which had dragged on since December, was over.
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But wait, no. Out came those diddy dotted lines on the screen. Jota had for all the world appeared level with Villa’s last defender, Konsa, but now the technology wanted to know: might the skin on Jota’s elbow have been half a millimetre beyond a hair on Konsa’s knee? After a long check, still it looked impossible to tell. The benefit of the doubt went to the defending team; the decision was offside.
And so yet another goal was lost to the game of football on the basis of a triviality about which, before VAR, not a single person on the planet would have cared.
At half-time, with their team trailing again, Liverpool fans tried to digest the stat that the side had converted only one of their past 113 scoring efforts at Anfield. More than five hours had passed since Liverpool’s most recent home strike (outside of Hungary) but, in the 57th minute of this match, the drought was over and the man to end the sequence, perhaps predictably, was Salah.
A feature of their performance was a return of energy and intensity, from pressing in forward areas (especially from Jota and Firmino) to work on the flanks of Alexander-Arnold and man-of-the-match Robertson.
The Scot was pivotal to Salah’s equaliser, racing outside Jota to create an overlap and driving into the box after the Portugal playmaker — supplied after good work from James Milner and Firmino — slipped him a pass.
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Robertson struck a fierce shot across Martínez and the goalkeeper palmed it out but Salah, ever predatory, was there to nod in.
With the game opening up, Villa’s breaks remained threatening and after Watkins penetrated, Trézéguet followed up with a fine shot, struck using the outside of his boot, that hit the inside of the post and rebounded out. Trézéguet could only head the rebound wide. He was to leave the field in tears with an injury — but for the first time in a long time, Liverpool experienced the opposite emotion.
The gaffer tapes
Jürgen Klopp
Life is like this. Football is like this. He [Trent Alexander-Arnold] played a top game against Arsenal and today. I don’t think Trent is in a situation where he has to prove himself at this level. He has to challenge himself but not because of the national team but because as a young player he has to challenge himself.
Dean Smith We didn’t start well and made mistakes in our defensive third and enabled them to put an awful lot of pressure on us. Thanks to poor finishing from them and good defending from us we managed to stay at 0-0 and then we scored a good goal. I don’t think Emi [Martínez] was troubled as much as he was in the first half.
Star man Robertson
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Liverpool (4-3-3): Alisson 5 — T Alexander-Arnold 8, N Phillips 7, O Kabak 6 (X Shaqiri 89min), A Robertson 8 — G Wijnaldum 6 (T Alcântara 70), Fabinho 6, J Milner 7 — M Salah 7, R Firmino 7 (S Mané, 75), D Jota 7. Booked Robertson, Milner.
Aston Villa (4-3-3): E Martínez 7 — M Cash 6, E Konsa 6, T Mings 6, M Targett 6 — J McGinn 7, M Nakamba 5 (R Barkley 66), D Luiz 6 — B Traoré 6 (A El Ghazi 68), O Watkins 7, Trézéguet 7 (J Ramsey 82). Booked Konsa, Watkins, Targett, Luiz.
