Liverpool got a seventh consecutive Premier League victory and a 12th win in a row across all competitions.
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Liverpool registered another crucial win on Saturday to keep their Premier League title bid alive, with a hard-fought 1-0 victory over West Ham United. It was not a dominating performance by the Reds, as they had to defend deep at times and ride a bit of luck to secure all three points. Liverpool got the only goal inside the opening 27 minutes when Alexander-Arnold’s cross-cum-shot found Sadio Mane inside the box and the Senegal forward fired home beyond the goalkeeper from six yards. As a result, Liverpool got a seventh consecutive Premier League victory and a 12th win in a row across all competitions. The win also reduces Manchester City’s lead at the top of the table to three points.
After the match, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was content with the spirit the team showed to grab the victory. He also showered praise on right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold’s performance. Speaking about Alexander-Arnold’s defensive work, Klopp, in his post-match press conference, said, “Absolutely, I don’t understand that [criticism of his defending], that’s true, but I don’t think I will change that with whatever I will say tonight. But if he couldn’t defend, he would not play here – at least not that in that position. He improved in all departments and defending of course as well. But he is that young that he can improve and has to improve, but yes, his defending is not a problem we have.”
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He added: “So, when you see him playing I think we help him a little bit with positioning and stuff like this. We try to bring him into positions, formation-wise, where he can be that influential but of course it’s all about him and his skillset and his quality and his right foot and his overview. That’s it, that he is really in the situation and focused to set up goals in these moments, that he knows where are the dangerous situations and positions in the opposition box or around that and really tries to bring the ball there.”
“It’s very helpful if you work together for a longer time because the strikers obviously expect that as well. It was a brilliant run from Sadio for the goal – and I don’t think it was a shot, by the way, I really think he wanted to… bring the ball in the box and then you need somebody who picks it up. That was Sadio in this moment, a really good goal.”
Saturday’s victory was a must-needed one for the Reds to stay in the title race, with Manchester City still continuing to lead the pack. Speaking about winning seven Premier League games in a row, Klopp replied, “We had to. There was no other choice. We will come to that point pretty soon probably that when you win seven – or for us, 12 in all competitions in a row – then you cannot not only win the ones where you are flying. Today we were obviously not flying, we had to dig really deep and that’s what the boys did. It is necessary to get something out of this season that we keep on going and [there is] no time to rest, so just keep going.”
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