Liverpool welcomed Newcastle United to Anfield on Monday evening, and current form proved an important factor as the in-form Premier League leaders emerged victorious against the struggling visitors.

The first half ended goalless, though Liverpool dominated it completely. Their domination finally bore fruit with just over three minutes of second half gone, when Mohamed Salah broke the deadlock. But at the first instance of Newcastle hitting back, Alexander Isak equalized just five minutes later. Nonetheless, the Reds bagged two more goals in quick succession through Curtis Jones (74′), and Cody Gakpo (78′), and though Sven Botman briefly restored some chance for an uncertain finish in the 84th, Salah stepped up to convert from the spot two minutes later, after Newcastle goalkeeper Martin Dubravka was deemed to have fouled Diogo Jota in the box.

The teams

Injuries impacted selection for both coaches. Jurgen Klopp couldn’t count on left-backs Andy Robertson and Kostas Tsimikas, or midfielers Thiago Alcantara and Stefan Bajcetic. Alexis Mac Allister recovered in time to make the bench, but centre-back Joel Matip has been ruled out for the rest of the season with an ACL tear.

With Alisson Becker in goal, Klopp had no option but to deploy Joe Gomez at left-back, with Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate and Trent Alexander-Arnold making up the rest of the back line. Wataru Endo anchored the midfield, with Jones and Dominik Szoboszlai in box-to-box roles. Darwin Nunez lead the line upfront, flanked by Salah and Luis Diaz.

Meanwhile, Newcastle had no less than 11 players out of contention for this match. Along with the suspended Sandro Tonali, Eddie Howe had some very important names missing in Nick Pope, Kieran Trippier, Callum Wilson, Harvey Barnes and Matt Targett. The likes of Joe Willock, Jacob Murphy, Javier Manquillo and Elliot Anderson were absent as well.

With Dubravka standing in for Pope in goal, Fabian Schar paired up with Botman at the back, with Tino Livramento on the right and Dan Burn wearing the captain’s armband on the left. Young Lewis Miley joined Sean Longstaff and Bruno Guimaraes in the middle of the park, while Joelinton moved up to the left wing, with Anthony Gordon on the right, and Isak upfront.

The game

The numbers from this game leave little for interpretation. One look is quite enough to show that Liverpool not only deserved to win, but Newcastle were actually lucky to concede “only” four goals.

With the ball at their feet for 63% of the time, the hosts took a total of 38 shots, 15 on target. That obviously means that Dubravka made 11 saves, including stopping a 22nd-minute penalty from Salah. Some of the other ones were by no means easy either. By comparison, Newcastle had a total of five shots, just three on target. Liverpool put in 37 crosses, Newcastle five. And despite Liverpool’s obvious dominance, they also had more counterattacks, four to Newcastle’s one.

The first two chances for Liverpool came in the opening two minutes, but Szoboszlai and Alexander-Arnold both saw their efforts blocked. The first really big one fell to Nunez in the 12th minute, and that was the first of the many Dubravka saves as he stopped the Uruguayan striker from scoring from less than six yards. Jones got on the end of the rebound but his shot was blocked. The final effort was sent wide of the target by Endo.

In the 18th minute, Jones split the Newcastle defence with a beautiful pass for Nunez. Nunez laid it off for Diaz who scored, only to see the linesman’s flag raised to signal Nunez was offside. It was the right call, as the VAR confirmed.

Unbothered by the goal being disallowed, Diaz looked very determined as he started an attack two minutes later and received the ball back inside the box. The Colombian winger danced his way past Newcastle’s back line and broke into a clear-cut chance, when Botman caught his foot from the back and brought him down. Referee Anthony Taylor gave the penalty with no hesitation, and the VAR stayed out of it. But Dubravka was immense for his team again, stepping up, guessing rightly and saving Salah’s shot from the spot before Alexander-Arnold mishit the rebound high over the bar.

In the 37th minute, Newcastle appeared to have scored completely against the run of play as Isak sent the ball wide for Livramento, and the right-back lifted it over to the far post where Burn buried a header into the net. But just as the Diaz goal at the other end was ruled out for offside in the buildup, so was this one, with Isak the culprit.

Liverpool started on the front foot again in the second half, and in the 49th minute, Szoboszlai carried the ball far up the pitch before employing Diaz on the left. Diaz sent it across for Nunez, who had pulled out to the right and immediately put it back into the middle, with Salah getting away from his markers to meet it on the six-yard line. It was the Egyptian’s 150th goal in the Premier League – a remarkable feat indeed.

Embed from Getty Images

Three minutes later, Nunez had an opportunity similar to the two goals he scored against Newcastle at St. James’ Park in August. He peeled away to meet a fine vertical pass and hit the ball well, but Dubravka made another fine save.

And Liverpool were finally punished for everything they missed in the 54th minute, when Gordon broke past his marker on the left and passed the ball behind Konate for Isak to run onto. Van Dijk didn’t follow the Newcastle striker quickly enough, and Isak took his chance to equalize.

Dubravka was the hero for his team in the 65th minute again, stopping a trademark shot from Salah from the right, with Livramento putting in a crucial block to stop Jones from scoring on the follow-up.

But there was no stopping Liverpool’s attackers in the 74th minute. Salah was again the instigator on the right. This time he played Jota in behind the Newcastle defence, and as Dubravka stepped out to meet him, the Portuguese pulled it across to give Jones a simple tap-in.

Finally back in front, Liverpool moved quickly to take the game beyond the visitors’ reach. And it was that man – Salah – to play the vital role for his team’s third goal. Employed by Mac Allister on the right wing, the Egyptian took advantage of a moment of indecision from the Newcastle defence to send a cross in with the outside of his foot. Livramento stood rooted to the spot and raised his arm to alert the linesman to a possible offside position, allowing Gakpo to get away from him and tap it in unmarked. The Dutch forward was lucky there, having not caught the ball as well as he wanted to, but it still bounced its way into the net.

In the 81st minute, Botman provided some hope for his team, having produced a towering header from a Longstaff corner to reduce the home side’s lead.

But just three minutes later, Liverpool defended well and Mac Allister employed the run of Jota with a lovely pass in behind the Newcastle defence. Jota was on his way to score, but aiming to get around Dubravka, he was slightly caught by the Slovakian ‘keeper and Taylor pointed to the spot again. This time, Salah made no mistake to make it 4-2.

Five minutes into the stoppage time, Salah could’ve completed a hat-trick, having broken down the right and coming into the box. His shot was eventually blocked, as was Jota’s on the follow-up.

Controversies

Hardly a Premier League goes by without the officiating being discussed at length, and rarely are such discussions objective as tribalism creeps in to distort the perception either way.

Sometimes the criticism is justified. Taylor certainly made a couple of mistakes in this match, getting several calls in the middle of the park clearly wrong and booking players for the ensuing dissent, as well as failing to book players for some obvious offences which require a yellow card to be shown. Most notably, Joelinton was again forgiven for several such fouls, and just as it seemed he would need to break someone’s legs to get into the book, Taylor finally decided enough was enough in the 66th minute.

However, all the big calls were made rightly. There’s nothing to be said about the two disallowed goals – it was close, but both linesmen did their job well and the technology confirmed it. The two penalties to Liverpool were rightly given, with Botman clearly taking Diaz down for the first one and Dubravka himself admitting after the game he had caught Jota’s ankle, even if the Portugal international did make a step or two more before going down.

“I tried to pull my arms and not catch him. I felt the contact but I don’t know what else I should do. In the end it was a penalty so there’s no point in arguing with them.”https://t.co/EhrQ7qsvHi

— Paul Gorst (@ptgorst) January 2, 2024

Nonetheless, it obviously caused plenty of fume among the Newcastle fans, as well as from former Magpies striker Alan Shearer, whose punditry has rarely been unbiased when Newacastle are concerned.

Embed from Getty Images

Looking ahead

Losing to Liverpool at Anfield in itself can hardly be perceived as a big failure for any team – the Merseysiders won eight and drew two of the 10 league matches played at their iconic stadium this term – but this was Newcastle’s seventh defeat (including a loss to Chelsea on penalties in the Carabao Cup) in the last eight games in all competitions. The only exception was a 3-0 win over Fulham in mid-December, and even that happened with the Cottagers playing with 10 men for 70 minutes of the match.

Out of the Carabao Cup and out of Europe, the Magpies are currently in ninth place with 29 points from 20 games, obviously completely out of the title race and with very feeble chances of making the top four. Injuries have surely played their part in their recent failures, but if the drop isn’t arrested soon, Howe could find himself under severe pressure to keep his job.

The problem is, things will hardly get easier for Howe and his players. After the FA Cup clash with arch-rivals Sunderland on Saturday, they travel to face reigning champions Manchester City at the Etihad, and then to face Aston Villa in Birmingham, knowing that Villa are the only team in the league with a better home record than Liverpool.

Meanwhile, Liverpool have started 2024 the same way they ended 2023 – at the top of the Premier League table, still in the Carabao Cup and in the round of 16 in the Europa League as the winners of their group. At the moment, they sit three points above Aston Villa in second place, and five above Manchester City and Arsenal in third and fourth, respectively, though City have a game in hand on all their title rivals.

More difficult tests await Klopp and his men soon – a third-round FA Cup clash against Arsenal at the Emirates on Sunday, followed by a double header against Fulham in the Carabao Cup semifinals, and with a game away to in-form Bournemouth squeezed between the two matches against the Cottagers.