A week to define Liverpool’s season, Jurgen Klopp had said. A Champions League week, he called it. And so it proved: except that it was a week to all but rule Liverpool out of next season’s Champions League. Over nine days, they took two points. Newcastle secured nine and now Liverpool are 12 points and four places off the top four. Jurgen Klopp has orchestrated some stunning comebacks in his time, and recovering from 2-0 down against Arsenal to halt the league leaders certainly wasn’t bad, but salvaging a top-four finish from here looks beyond him.
Their week showed different aspects of their season: the second-half collapse at Manchester City of the side Klopp once called the mentality monsters, but who now feel unable to deal with the setbacks; a second mediocre stalemate of the campaign with Chelsea; a wretched first half-hour against Arsenal, featuring more defensive deficiencies and in yet another game when Liverpool conceded first, and a barnstorming final hour.
They exited the top-four battle with a reminder of what they are capable of, and a tribute from Mikel Arteta. “When you look back at what they’ve done to big teams, including this season, they’re an exceptional team,” said the Arsenal manager. “They’re very difficult to dominate for 90 minutes. They have moments where they shift the game and they create the momentum that they want. When they raise the level to that there are few teams that can keep up.” Arsenal barely could as Liverpool had 19 shots from inside the box alone.
But it reflects some of the frustration about Liverpool’s season. Their best has been good enough, and they have often produced it against those who can call themselves the finest. The top five can testify: they have away wins at Tottenham and Newcastle and a home victory over Eddie Howe’s team. They have beaten Manchester City twice, in the Community Shield and with a terrific display at Anfield. They have hit Manchester United for seven in a historic hammering.
And yet perhaps the week that did define their season came in March, when they seemed to have propelled themselves into the position of favourites for fourth. They destroyed United and then lost to Bournemouth. If their 2018-19 season was defined by Barcelona, this was one by Bournemouth: Liverpool walloped them 9-0 on a day when everything went right and lost 1-0 when it went wrong.
It illustrates their inconsistency in a campaign when much of the damage has been done by the relegation-threatened: by the defeats to Leeds and Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth, who all kicked off in the bottom three, and Wolves, who were then 17th. Much has been done on the road, too: Liverpool have the 13th-best away record, with as few points as Southampton. There have been shocking showings at Brentford and Brighton and Wolves.
Bournemouth had another significance. Salah missed the target with a penalty there, just as he did against Arsenal. Score both and Liverpool might have four extra points. The Egyptian was otherwise sensational against Arsenal, his tally of 10 shots a sign of irresistible he felt. He ends his season without a goal against Bournemouth: not in the 9-0 win or the 1-0 defeat. His goal return has dropped, but not against the elite. He has eight league goals against the top five, but just five against everyone else.
When Aaron Ramsdale made a brilliant injury-time save from Salah – and then another from Ibrahima Konate – it underlined another theme. Liverpool used to be great escapologists but have only one late winner in the league, and that, from Fabio Carvalho against Newcastle, came in August.
It is a reason why Liverpool have never acquired the momentum that powered them in previous campaigns. Injuries help explain that, too. Liverpool won four straight games either side of the World Cup, yet given that seven-week interlude, in effect they have never won more than two in a row. Now they have not triumphed since beating United 7-0. The most relentless side in the league have become one of the most unpredictable.
“We lack consistency and confidence, these are the two things,” Klopp said. “We don’t have enough positive moments. We have these ups and downs in games and over the season. That’s something we didn’t have ever before, since six or seven years. This situation we are going through it is not cool and not something we wanted.”
For much of it, there has been the prospect of salvation, that they could go from stuttering to storming, that inconsistency could give way to an inspired run. Liverpool are the team who got 92 points last season, who took 26 points from their last 10 games two years ago. Now even the maximum 27, which looks improbable for an erratic team, probably would not be enough. Champions League winners in 2019 and finalists in 2022 won’t be in it in the autumn of 2023.
