Jordan Henderson scored his first league goal of the season in Liverpool’s 7-0 rout of Crystal Palace on Saturday and praised the team for showing a clinical edge in front of goal.
The Reds moved top of the table in midweek after their late win at home to Tottenham and moved six points clear of the chasing pack by taking the win in the weekend’s early kick-off.
After recent away matches in which Henderson feels the reigning champions have been somewhat profligate despite some dominant performances, the midfielder believes this result “was coming” - but still isn’t a result to get overly excited about in terms of the title race.
Takumi Minamino, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino had all scored by half-time to effectively put the game out of Palace’s reach, but in between the first and second goals the home side had plenty of their own chances, which Henderson noted at full-time.
“We were ruthless today, we took our chances and dominated the game for large periods; we were a little sloppy at times but we’re delighted with the performance and result,” he told BT Sport.
"It was coming, over the last few games we've had chances and not taken them, costing us at times. Today we finished them and its important in football. In the first half they had one or two half-chances, they’ve good players on the counter to create something but we limited that well as the game wore on.
“We don’t just look at the scoreline, we look at overall performance. Midweek we were very good so we’ve just got to keep momentum going, keep working hard. Over Christmas is difficult for everyone so we need to keep picking up the wins.”
Henderson’s finish was a fine, curling, first-time effort into the top corner, a goal of the week contender most of the time, but some outrageous finishes on the day meant he had competition - despite jokingly picking his own strike as the pick of the bunch before reiterating that last season’s formula of consistency and focusing on the next game would be the priority.
"Maybe Mo [Salah]'s last one was the best. They were all good finishes but it was coming because over the last few weeks we haven’t been as ruthless as we like.
“We’ve got to be happy with the result and we’ve got a week leading to the next game before another tough test.”
