It’s a sign of what stage of the season we’re now at that Darwin Nunez’s shocking miss against Aston Villa on Wednesday has drawn as much attention as it has.
With the score level at 2-2 on 69 minutes, Dominik Szoboszlai had only Villa keeper Emi Martinez to beat, but opted to square the ball to Nunez, only for the forward to blast his shot well wide of the empty net at his mercy.
Had Nunez missed such a simple opportunity to score a potential winner earlier in the campaign, Liverpool supporters would have likely found it far easier to write this one unfortunate moment off.
Every chance matters these days
However, because it’s now February and because Liverpool’s grip on the Premier League’s top spot will be slightly less secure should Arsenal narrow the gap to five points on Saturday, every single moment from here on carries greater and greater weight.
That may perhaps help to explain why Nunez took to social media after the match and vowed to “give my all until the last day I am here in Liverpool.”
Nunez has unfortunately wasted many great scoring opportunities throughout his Anfield career, but his decision to publicly address this particular one underscores the reality that the consequences of dropping winnable points have indeed started to become heavy.
However, while it’s inexcusable for Nunez not to put that chance away, it’s fair and at this point necessary, to ask why that one moment of wastefulness was proved so costly.
That is a question for the other 14 players who either started or came off the bench for Liverpool as well as for Arne Slot to contemplate.
Diogo Jota also blew an excellent opportunity to put his side back in front in the first half with the score at 1-1.
At the other end of the pitch, Liverpool’s failure to spot Ollie Watkins’ run saw it instead fall behind after its failure to sufficiently clear a Villa free kick allowed the hosts to draw level.
That the Reds allowed an unmarked Watkins the space to freely head in Villa’s second underscores the need to tighten up at the back as Slot’s side has now conceded twice in two of their last three matches.
Control must be restored
For the majority of the campaign, Liverpool has successfully carried out Slot’s game plan of controlling matches when ahead by keeping the ball and slowing the tempo.
However, once they led against Villa, and Wolves and Everton previously, the Reds have noticeably fallen short of Slot’s expectations by permitting each of those opponents a path back into the match.
A week ago, Liverpool’s failure to mark James Tarkowski resulted in it squandering a 2-1 lead in the eighth minute of stoppage time when defender volleyed home Everton’s equalizer.
Liverpool did squeeze out a narrow 2-1 victory at home to Wolves between the two draws at Everton and Villa, but had to dig deep in a nervy second half to see out the result.
After Liverpool dropped four points and struggled to reach their typical standards in its last three fixtures, the tension is certainly greater around Anfield.
Anything less than three points from Liverpool’s blockbuster fixture against Manchester City at the Etihad on Sunday will further dilute its sense of security at the top of the table.
An important weekend ahead
By the end of the weekend, Liverpool could find itself well within sight of nearest chasers Arsenal with a five point advantage but having played one match more.
Even in that scenario, however, there is considerable context to recognize before we begin to harbor any significant doubts about Liverpool’s title prospects.
Firstly, Liverpool would still maintain its hold on first and its toughest remaining away fixture will be behind and out of the way.
Secondly, while one win from four fixtures is hardly ideal this deep into the campaign, every team suffers a dip in form at some point throughout a 38-game season.
It is completely unrealistic to expect that the entirety of the Reds’ campaign would unfold as smoothly as it had prior to the draw at Everton.
Draws at Villa, whose only defeat at home this season came to Arsenal in August, and at Everton, where Liverpool had won just once since the 2016/2017 season shouldn’t warrant great concern just yet.
Thirdly, the Gunners will surely drop points themselves before the season concludes. When City edged Liverpool to the title in recent seasons, their ability to embark on unprecedented winning runs from February to May meant that even one rare draw could tilt the race in its favor.
That exhausting experience of contesting for the title against a side of City’s caliber may just induce greater panic than is truly necessary over any drop in points.
Arsenal, while a formidable title contender, has yet to prove that it can replicate the consistency of City’s title winning sides.
Finally, and perhaps most decisively, the Reds will still host Arsenal on the 36th league match of the campaign.
Anfield is exactly where Liverpool would want to contest a potential title decider. The Anfield crowd has time and again proven its ability to power the home side over the line in season defining matches and the fact that the Reds will have it behind them could prove a massive advantage for the current league leaders.
Regardless of how comfortable Liverpool’s lead at the top of the standings is at the end of the weekend, the most important thing is that it actually has that lead.
As long as the Reds can swiftly regain their consistency, a minor, but understandable drop in form shouldn’t prevent them from maintaining it.