After this round of league play, Liverpool has 22 wins, 0 draws and 1 loss, ranking first in the standings with 66 points; Chelsea has 18 wins, 1 draw and 4 losses, ranking second with 55 points, and the point difference behind Liverpool has exceeded double digits. , reaching 11 points.
Behind them are Tottenham in third place, Arsenal in fourth place, Manchester City in fifth place, and Manchester United in sixth place.
Arsenal is in fourth place in a speechless manner again. The top four demons seem to have no motivation as long as they enter the top four. Once they fall out of the top four Champions League quota areas, their fighting power is overwhelming and they immediately win and return to the top four.
However, third-placed Tottenham only has 47 points, a full 19 points behind first-placed Liverpool. It is almost impossible to pose a big threat to Liverpool's top position, unless there is a complete collapse of Liverpool in the following games. , Willard is unable to participate in the game and other situations.
After winning against second-place Chelsea and widening the points gap between the two sides, even though the next round of the league was only four days apart, Klopp still gave everyone a day off to let everyone rest before returning to training. .
On February 4, in the 24th round of the Premier League, Liverpool challenged Hull City away from home.
Hull City is a newly promoted team, and is currently only ranked second from the bottom in the standings, deep in the relegation zone. No matter who looks at it, this game is a waste for Liverpool who have played all their main players. It is just a matter of winning a few goals. .
But what is unexpected is that Hull City fought very tenaciously at their own home court in this game. They performed like a strong Premier League team on both offense and defense.
In the second half of the season, it is difficult to beat the relegation teams, which is reflected in these places, because Liverpool's competition for the championship is honor, while Hull City's relegation is survival. The gap between the Premier League and the British Championship is very large.
After being promoted to the Premier League, everyone wants to successfully avoid relegation and does not want to return to the Championship. Therefore, regardless of goalkeeper, defender, midfielder or forward, Hull City's performance in this game was perfect. Almost most of the players showed a better on-field state than usual, and Liverpool achieved two goals. Goal results.
This result can be called brilliant, because now that Liverpool's defense is equipped with Willard, it is really difficult for ordinary people to score within 30 meters of the goal and complete high-quality shots.
Even if the goalkeeper completes the shot after passing five levels and hits it within the goal frame, there is still a goalkeeper guarding the goal. There are not many situations where you can completely avoid the goalkeeper's defense zone and hit the blind spot. No one is like Willard. Perfect "shooting" skill at full value.
This shows how rare it is for Hull City to score Liverpool's goal twice in this game.
It is a pity that Hull City's own defense failed to withstand Liverpool's attack, especially Willard's attack.
Willard alone completed the hat-trick achievement. In addition, Mane also put the icing on the cake and scored the last goal.
In the end, Hull City lost 2-4 at home, lost to Liverpool, and suffered another defeat on the road to relegation. As for other teams in the next round, it's hard to say whether they will be in the same state as they were against Liverpool today. After all, this kind of state is something that can only be met but not sought. Not any team can only lose to Liverpool by 2 goal differences.
Most teams suffered defeats of more than three goals. From this perspective, Hull City can be regarded as a glorious defeat.
After playing this round of games, Liverpool has rarely entered a one-match-a-week cycle. In the past two weeks, there have been only weekend league games and no other events. Everyone can finally take a good rest for a few days.
After a few days of recuperating, Liverpool sat at home on February 11 and faced the challenge of Tottenham Hotspur, who is third in the standings.
Tottenham have performed very well this season and are currently ranked third in the standings, surpassing Arsenal, Manchester City, and Manchester United. If it weren't for the huge gap in points between them and Liverpool at the top of the list, Tottenham might also have to compete for the championship.
However, although there is not much chance of competing for the championship now, the points gap between them and the teams behind them is even smaller. If they do not live up to their expectations, they are currently ranked in the top three. After the season, they will be squeezed out of the top four and not even qualify for the Champions League. possible.
Therefore, Tottenham should fight against Liverpool to try the possibility of not losing. But in fact, when the game started at Anfield, everyone discovered that Tottenham played a defensive counterattack, and their formation was very deep. When they did not have the ball, even Kane quickly retreated to his own goal. The front edge of the penalty area participated in the defense.
With this level of retreat and intensive defense, and possibly special targeted drills, Velarde failed to score a goal in many shots in the first half. Either he was interfered with and missed the target, or he hit the goal frame. He was saved by goalkeeper Lori within range.
However, when Tottenham successfully defended Velarde, the price paid was quite heavy. Not only did some players suffer losses in the fight with Velarde, and their foreheads were bruised, but also because of heavy soldiers. Marking Willard led to a lot of open opportunities for other Liverpool players.
In the 32nd minute, Liverpool finally seized one of the opportunities. Coutinho crossed the ball from the left and Firmino got ahead of defender Dier and successfully shoveled the ball into the goal. .
Goalkeeper Lori's reaction was not unpleasant, but Firmino's shot was too close. Lori's subconscious save didn't even touch a hair, and he watched the ball fly into the goal.
At the end of the first half, Liverpool led 1-0.
After the second half, Tottenham did not attack aggressively because of the score behind, but still focused on defense as they did in the first half.
At this time, everyone can already see that Tottenham has actually given up on this game, and just lose less and treat it as a win.
Otherwise, if they are only one goal behind, Tottenham will definitely have to fight hard.
But in fact, Tottenham devotes very little time and effort to attack. Usually Harry Kane leads one or two players to try an attack, and once the ball is lost, he immediately returns to defense, denying Liverpool a chance to quickly counterattack.
This strategy prevented Tottenham from scoring even a goal until the end of the game.
However, due to the stubborn and intensive defense and Liverpool's bad luck, Liverpool only scored one goal in the second half, which was scored by Willard through a direct free kick. It was rare for Willard not to score even a single goal in a sports battle. ball.
This can be considered a very successful aspect of Tottenham's game today.
It's a pity that no matter how hard they struggle, it's really difficult to beat this Liverpool team now. It's difficult to even draw. At most, it's just a matter of losing a few goals.
After the referee blew the full-time whistle, Liverpool defeated Tottenham 2-0 at home and won the 25th round of the Premier League, continuing to widen the points gap with third place.
The Red Army is one step closer to winning its first Premier League title in team history.
