Liverpool vs Leicester: They don’t make it easy, do they?
Liverpool failed to take control of their Premier League destiny after they could only draw against Leicester City on Wednesday night.
After Manchester City’s thoroughly shocking and unexpected defeat at St. James Park on Tuesday, the Reds and their fans across the globe went into Wednesday night’s game with aspirations of closing out the day seven points ahead of the defending Premier League champions.
And despite the fact that Liverpool found them a goal ahead just 150 seconds into the game, the three points weren’t meant to be as the night ended in a dour 1-1 draw off the back of a Harry Maguire equalizer.
Maguire probably should have been sent off for a challenge on a breaking-away Mane just moments earlier, but that’s neither here nor there.
How you process this result is likely a referendum on your general disposition in day-to-day life, as the draw can easily be considered as glass half empty – missing an opportunity to go seven points clear – or glass half full – at the end of the day, Liverpool did gain a point over City.
No matter how you feel about the home draw to Leicester, one thing remains clear: this title race is going to come down to the wire.
While Liverpool has a favorable run of fixtures coming up – away at West Ham and home against Bournemouth – mounting injuries at the back have begun to rear their ugly head as Jordan Henderson was deployed at right-back and Joel Matip could partially be blamed for Leicester’s equalizer.
Matip was caught in no man’s land, completely undecided as to what to do as Ben Chilwell’s lofted header found Maguire’s boot. It was the type of error that may look small but could have big consequences.
Another growing concern in regards to the title race is the form of Naby Keita, who once again delivered a noticeably average performance. Yes, he beat a couple of Leicester defenders off the dribble and was non-call away from probably scoring a goal, but he also gave away possession in dangerous places a handful of times and wasn’t sticking his tackles.
It was no coincidence that Liverpool regained control of the game in the second half once Fabinho came on for the former RB Leipzig man.
However, despite the objectively disappointing result – had City not slipped up this week, the Leicester result would have the Reds sitting an extremely uncomfortable 3 points clear – the fact remains that the team are five points clear at the top of the table and still largely look like the best team in the Premier League.
With Dejan Lovren back in the squad, James Milner back from suspension, and Joe Gomez a couple of weeks away from a long-awaited return, the squad’s depth is improving by the day (barring no further injuries – knock, knock).
As long as the team can stay healthy and take care of business against the lesser sides (they beat West Ham and Bournemouth by a combined score of 8-0 in the early season fixtures), the Reds only have three games left against top six sides the rest of the way: an assuredly difficult road test against a resurgent and retro Manchester United, at Anfield against the always-tricky Tottenham, and at home against a currently capitulating Chelsea side.
Next. Henderson brilliant at right-back but was Salah isolated? Read our Leicester player ratings here!. dark
Trust me – no matter how much of a bummer the tie against Leicester was, the glass still remains increasingly (five points to be exact) half-full.