Liverpool’s top five performances of the season
Of all the teams you could write this article about in the Premier League, Liverpool are probably the most difficult.
Notorious for putting in big performances in massive games, there are so many great games that I could have chosen from.
The easiest thing to do would have been to rank our five wins this season against top six sides but I’ve decided to mix things up a little.
No doubt, there will be some matches I’ve missed out which people will feel should be included but in reality, an article on our top 10 performances would have been too easy!
So here goes:
5: Arsenal 3-4 Liverpool, 14th August, 2016
Ideally, you start the season at home to a mid-table side. You don’t want a massive game for obvious reasons and you don’t want a newly promoted side full of adrenalin. That said, with what we know about Arsenal’s typically slow start to league campaigns, I went into this game with the standard start-of-season optimism.
Alberto Moreno started the new campaign exactly how he ended the previous one; poorly! He gave away a stupid penalty which was saved by Simon Mignolet but just a minute later, he was caught out of position to allow Theo Walcott to put Arsenal 1-0 up. A frustrating and uninspiring first half from Liverpool was made a lot better when Phil Coutinho curled in a magical free kick from 30 yards out. A fifteen minute blitz after the break led to goals from Adam Lallana, Coutinho again and a wondrous solo strike from debutant Sadio Mane, puttiing Liverpool 1-4 up and cruising.
A deflected Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain effort and Calum Chambers’ header made it a potentially nervy last 15 minuted but in the end, it became one which the Reds saw out expertly, making us all dream of what was to come.
4: Liverpool 6-1 Watford, 6th November, 2016
This was the match where everything really clicked. Probably the highlight of the deadly Mane-Coutinho-Lallana-Firmino front four which struck panic into so many defences, especially in the first half of our season.
Despite it taking a full 27 minutes for Liverpool to break through, the Reds went into the break 3-0 thanks to Mane, Emre Can and Coutinho. It was 5-0 before the hour mark with Robert Firmino scoring and Mane doubling his tally for the day. Understandably, the Reds took their foot off the gas as Watford grabbed a goal back before Gini Wijnaldum completed the rout with his first goal for the club. The win put Liverpool a point clear at the top of the Premier League and we were all really starting to believe.
3: West Ham 0-4 Liverpool, 14th May, 2017
It’s fair to say the second half of the season wasn’t quite as plain sailing as the first. A nightmare January and February meant we had gone from being frontrunners for the title to a team seriously struggling to qualify for the Champions League. A draw with Southampton the previous Sunday had put us 10 points clear of Arsenal but fast forward seven days and the gap was down to one. The mood among the supporters was generally not one of optimism going into the game, especially given that a week earlier, West Ham had derailed Tottenham’s title hopes with a 1-0 win.
The mindset of the players, however, was clearly not resemblant of that of the supporters as Liverpool ran out comfortable 0-4 winners. Daniel Sturridge scored what may yet be his last Premier League goal for the club and Coutinho put in probably his best personal performance of the season adding a brace shortly after half time. Divock Origi rounded off the scoring meaning we simply had to win at home to already relegated Middlesbrough the week after to secure a Champions League play-off in August.
2: Chelsea 1-2 Liverpool, 16th September, 2016
Despite a rather promising start to the season, Liverpool found themselves three points behind Chelsea after four games going into the Stamford Bridge clash. Confidence was high off the back of a 4-1 dismantling of champions Leicester City (back when we didn’t know they were actually rubbish) yet a loss would’ve seen us only amass just seven points from a possible 15 so it was still a massive game to get something out of, even so early into the year.
Dejan Lovren volleyed home before a goal of the season contender from captain Jordan Henderson had Liverpool 0-2 up at half time and in absolute dream land. Every Liverpool fan across the globe simultaneously groaned ‘here we go again’ when Diego Costa pulled a goal back for Chelsea on the hour mark but, similar to the Arsenal game, Liverpool defended excellently and held out for an outstanding 1-2 victory on a Friday night in the capital. The words ‘imagine we had just beaten Burnley‘ were to be echoed for the next four months by everyone affiliated with Liverpool!
1: Liverpool 2-0 Tottenham, 11th February, 2017
The Man City and Arsenal home wins are probably a bit unlucky not to be included in this top five. You could even to a lesser extent make a case for the gritty vital performances away to Stoke and West Brom in the run-in but, given how the previous six weeks had gone, this was the best showing of the season for us at the most critical of times.
A quickfire Mane double in the first 20 minutes put the Reds in the box seat and they never looked back. Perhaps the most impressive thing about this match was the complete shut-out of arguably the best attacking side in the league this season. Dele Alli, Christian Eriksen, Harry Kane and Son Heung-min barely had a sniff all match as we waltzed to another victory over a top side.
Do you agree with the top five I selected? Let me know by tweeting @ReadLiverpoolFC!