“Tottenham are winning!”
“Are Spurs still ahead?”
“Damn, VAR’s disallowed it.”
“What’s the City score?”
As journalists sat down in the Anfield press room on Saturday evening to interview Jurgen Klopp and Dean Smith, one eye was inevitably on proceedings 35 miles away at the Etihad Stadium as Manchester City hosted Tottenham Hotspur.
Liverpool had survived a scare against Norwich City to narrow the gap at the top of the table to just six points, with the feeling inside the stadium during the second-half that of a crowd who knew just how vital a comeback it was to keep the Reds’ title hopes alive.
But even when Dejan Kulusevski had put Antonio Conte’s side ahead early on, there would have been little expectation that Pep Guardiola’s side would actually lose.
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City find a way. They always find a way.
And sure enough, that appeared to be the case once again when Riyad Mahrez equalised in stoppage-time after VAR awarded Pep Guardiola’s men a penalty.
But suddenly, when walking around the Main Stand, there were huge cheers from all directions as the Anfield pubs, filled to the rafters with jubilant Liverpool fans, celebrated an unlikely Spurs winner.
Moments later they erupted again as the night air was left carrying chants of Diogo Jota and Wembley around Stanley Park. And of course one of this season’s gallows humour favourites.
“The Reds have got no money but we’ll still win the league!”
Suddenly there is a bit more purpose to this tongue-in-cheek terrace ditty.
Liverpool host Leeds United on Wednesday in their game in hand knowing, with their own trip to the Etihad Stadium still to come in April, a victory would leave them just three points behind the reigning champions.
If the Reds win their 13 remaining Premier League matches, they will be champions. It’s a big ask, but you wouldn’t bet against them.
With the race now in their own hands, these are the standards that Klopp and Guardiola’s men are both setting and demanding of the other. And it’s a run of results they have both managed before.
The stage is set for a fierce battle that the Premier League has promised but ultimately failed to deliver since that final day showdown of 2018/19 when Liverpool missed out on title glory by a solitary point and were left cursing a goal-line clearance at the Etihad.
It’s the finest of margins.
It’s ironic that the man to breathe fresh life into the title-race could easily have been scoring the goals that would have turned Man City into runaway winners had Daniel Levy not been so stubborn.
The reigning champions saw a £100m bid rejected for Harry Kane last summer despite the striker’s desire to join, so ended up bringing in Jack Grealish from Aston Villa for the same fee instead.
Grealish has two goals and two assists from 17 Premier League appearances for his new side, and is currently out injured.
Meanwhile, Kane, who missed Tottenham’s opening day win over City back in August as he continued to push for an exit to the Etihad, had five goals and two assists from 22 appearances before his brace on Saturday that could now cost Guardiola’s side dear.
When missing out on the forward, Guardiola resisted signing a different striker and opted for a solitary signing by bringing in another playmaker instead.
Despite such decisions, City are still scoring goals. Their total of 63 is just one less than Liverpool’s division high while Raheem Sterling’s hat-trick last week leaves him as the third-highest scorer in the division with 10.
Yet that total is off the pace when it comes to Premier League’s top two, with Mohamed Salah leading the way on 17 goals, having scored his 150th goal for the club, and 25th of the season in all competitions, against Norwich.
Meanwhile, the injured Diogo Jota sits behind on 12 goals, while Sadio Mane’s overhead kick against the Canaries leaves him in joint-fourth behind Sterling with nine goals.
Yet Guardiola can’t be criticised for such stubbornness, even if it does cost his side come May. Klopp has often done the same in the past, resisting the urge to sign an alternative player just for the sake of a signing, having missed out on the desired target.
The Reds were also subjected to such frustrations in the summer when Ibrahima Konate was their only signing, arriving in a £36m move from RB Leipzig, with owners FSG criticised for not investing in Klopp’s squad further.
It was easy to see why after Gini Wijnaldum was not replaced and Takumi Minamino and Divock Origi were left as the reserve options to Salah, Jota, Mane and Roberto Firmino in attack.
But out of such discontent, Liverpool’s latest witty chant concerning their lack of funds was born, more out of hope than expectation.
Only then FSG parted with £49m to bring in Luis Diaz from FC Porto in January, with the Colombia international scoring his first goal for the Reds against Norwich on Saturday.
As Guardiola remained content with his City options after adding only Grealish, despite a lack of striker, the arrival of Klopp’s newest attacking recruit appears to be giving Liverpool the required shot in the arm to turn the title-race on its head.
If it was ironic that it would be Kane who inflicted defeat on Man City in such circumstances on Saturday, it was fitting that it was Alisson, again straying from his primary role, who turned creator to set the Reds on their way to this crucial victory on a game-changing day over Norwich.
When the goalkeeper claimed his first Liverpool assist against Manchester United in January 2020, it was the day the Kop finally declared, “We’re gonna win the league!”
When the Brazilian scored his outrageous stoppage-time winner against West Bromwich Albion last May, it was the day the Reds believed that, against all odds, they would still qualify for the Champions League.
Now Alisson has contributed at the other end once again and while this time it’s too early to call if the Premier League title will be going to Liverpool or to Manchester, he has given his side fresh hope, if not yet expectation.
The Reds found some money and now can win the league.
