What’s it like being a Liverpool fan in a title race? 144 minutes on Saturday gave us the answer
As Liverpool fans, maybe we had it a bit too easy in 2019/20. Maybe the record-breaking manner in which we claimed our first Premier League title distorted our thought process somewhat.
It’s five years ago today that a 2-0 win over Manchester United sent Jurgen Klopp’s team 16 points clear at the top with a game in hand and Anfield finally dared to sing “We’re gonna win the league!”, a confident declaration which was confirmed as fact with seven matches still to play in that season.
If Arne Slot is to emulate his predecessor in the Dutchman’s first year at the helm, the title will have been a whole lot harder to earn.
For Liverpool fans, Saturday must’ve felt like playing in a live crypto casino game, such was the heart-pumping excitement which ensued across the space of 144 minutes in particular.
4:51pm
The Reds’ match at Brentford enters stoppage time. It looks for all the world as though this’ll be another day on which Slot’s team drop points in the title race. When Mo Salah dragged a shot wide a couple of minutes ago, that felt like the last big chance that the visitors would get. 35 shots and nothing to show for it.
It’s gonna be one of those days, isn’t it? More torment for Liverpool amid the sobering thought of Arsenal potentially drawing with striking distance later on, with a win over Aston Villa reducing the gap to two points. That day when we beat Manchester City to go nine clear feels like a long time ago.
4:52pm
The clock is now at 90+1. Harvey Elliott plays a clever through pass to Trent Alexander-Arnold, who sees his first-time cross blocked down but the rebound gives him a second chance to play the ball across the middle of goal, where Darwin Nunez is about to get on the end of it.
The Uruguay striker – so incessantly maligned by pundits across the country over the past two-and-a-half years, with only four goals all season and none in the Premier League since 9 November – gets a clean contact on it and steers it past Mark Flekken from the edge of the six-yard box.
The away end at the Gtech Community Stadium erupts. Nunez’s teammates race towards him with unreserved glee. He instinctively whips off his shirt and tosses it aside while running towards the exultant Liverpool fans. That act will earn him a yellow card but, frankly, who cares right now?
All the torment of the previous two hours suddenly feels worth it…and the 25-year-old even goes and scores again a couple of minutes later just to ensure that Brentford won’t do to us what they did to Manchester United last March and cancel out a stoppage-time goal with a last-gasp equaliser.
4:58pm
Full-time. Brentford 0-2 Liverpool. Nunez is close to tears as his teammates swarm to congratulate him heartily.
The three points we’ve just gained are factually the same as what we earned from our previous league victory, the 5-0 mutilation of West Ham, but this particular win feels so much bigger given the manner in which it was earned.
Some of us might pretend that Arsenal aren’t playing later and go off for a walk, put on the dinner or enjoy some quality family time. We’ve already been put through the wringer here; we don’t want to go through it all again at 5:30!
6:43pm
Leandro Trossard’s cross picks out Kai Havertz, whose low shot deflects off Emiliano Martinez and into the net to give Arsenal a 2-0 lead. They appear to be cruising and the four-point gap at the start of the day will be maintained.
With the initial euphoria of our win at Brentford having subsided, there’s now an anticlimactic sense that the Gunners will easily shake off the potential psychological blow of Liverpool’s result earlier and score a commanding victory over a strong Aston Villa side. They’re not going away quietly in this title race.
6:56pm
With the Emirates Stadium scoreboard now reading 2-1, Matty Cash floats a teasing cross into the Arsenal penalty area. It’s met by Ollie Watkins, who maintains his freakishly brilliant record of scoring at this venue to poach an equaliser for Villa.
All of a sudden, the glee that we felt when Nunez broke the deadlock in west London a couple of hours ago is replicated. If the Gunners don’t win this after being two goals up, how damaging could that be to their title hopes…and how big a boost could it be to ours?
But relax – we’re still only midway through the second half here.
7:15pm
Mikel Merino’s shot hits the ground and bounces off Havertz before going past Martinez. Arsenal have conjured a late winner after all, emulating Liverpool’s heroics from earlier. Sigh.
Oh wait, it’s going to VAR. Is there another lifeline here?
Replays show that Havertz’s lower arm was slightly extended as it made contact with the ball. On-field referee Chris Kavanagh communicates that the goal will be disallowed. It’s gone from 2-0 to 2-2 to 3-2 and back to 2-2 again. How and why are we doing this to ourselves!
A few minutes later, the full-time whistle blows and it ends all-square at the Emirates. There are pockets of boos from the Arsenal fans, who know all too well that the title race momentum has swung firmly in Liverpool’s favour on a dramatic day of Premier League football.
And guess what…we get to do it all over again next weekend, and 16 more times after that before the end of May. Sales of heart rate monitors among Reds supporters could increase exponentially over the coming weeks and months!
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