Liverpool news: Diogo Jota wants to close the gap at the top

Liverpool forward Diogo Jota is keen to reduce their deficit at the top of the Premier League table. On the back of the shock 1-0 defeat against Leicester City on Tuesday night, Liverpool FC are now nine points shy of leaders Manchester City with a game in hand – the postponed Boxing Day meeting with Leeds United. However, with half of the league campaign still to be played, Liverpool could very much overturn the deficit. Jota wants to do everything he and his team can to close that gap, starting with Sunday’s trip to Chelsea.

“There are still a lot of games. Obviously there is a gap now between us and them,” the Portugal international told Liverpoolfc.com. “We know there is that gap but we also know we are able to close that gap and that’s the plan. But we need to avoid what happened against Leicester because if we keep doing the things we did in that game, it’s going to be hard for us. We know that. So it’s up to us to recover from that game, regroup and go again – because we are able to.”

Jota on Leicester defeat

The attention then shifted to the surprise 1-0 defeat against Leicester. Speaking about it, Jota said, “I think everyone felt it: we were not like ourselves, we were not getting that momentum we often do. Although we had our chances to open the scoring – if we did that, the game changes, like we know. I think that was the missing part.” 

“After they scored their goal, the crowd was really up, the players were doing that extra effort and everything got harder for us and we couldn’t get the equaliser. For me, the key moment was that first goal, that could change everything. But, like I said, we were not really ourselves, we missed those chances. We have nothing to blame, just now recover, regroup and go again.”

Looking back on 2021 as a whole, Jota said, “The year didn’t start well, especially for me – I started the year injured. But I kind of finished strong with the team and we did a good effort in the last third of the season to finish in the top four. We got Champions League. We are in every competition. Obviously we have this gap now [to City in the table] but it’s still possible. So I think, in the end, it was a good year with all the circumstances. Now I just hope 2022 can be even better.”