Neil Atkinson’s post-match review for The Anfield Wrap after Bournemouth 0 Liverpool 2 in the 2024-2025 Premier League season…
THAT was Liverpool’s toughest away game since Arsenal.
Tougher than any Champions League away. Tougher than Brentford or Nottingham Forest.
Tougher than them all.
Did they deserve the points? Well, change that – did they deserve to lose? And did Alisson Becker and Mo Salah deserve to win?
These are the questions which define the game more than any other. Bournemouth are full of character and full of determination and quality. Bournemouth are an excellent side. But Liverpool match them for character, match them for determination and then surpass them for quality. Because Liverpool have Alisson Becker. And Liverpool have Mo Salah.
Mo Salah is currently the best player in the league and therefore is high in the rankings for best player worldwide. He has more goals than anyone else. More assists than anyone else. More key moments that count than anyone else. He is currently the sun around which the solar system of the Premier League orbits. He shines.
His smile shines. He is the greatest living Liverpudlian and he inhabits all the values that matter. He grafts when grafting is needed. He brings his teammates into play. And then he shines when the time to shine is present. Look at him, walk around him. Orbit him or contemplate the fact he came into our orbit. He is one of ours and we are a blessing upon him and he is a blessing upon us.
But Becker. Listen, I was a teeny bit irritated a few weeks back when I’d have liked more actually saving of shots. Today though, Bournemouth got the full experience, the full hit. What they got was the bear who plays handball at the highest level. The aggression is something, but so too is the anticipation. The joke is that the goalkeepers aren’t footballers. The joke. But the truth about Becker is that on his best days no one is more of a footballer. No one is more involved, more alive.
Listen (again), you’ll know if you have indeed listened that I like a number nine. I like a false nine too; ultimately I like a centre forward. Roberto Firmino was a centre forward. At times Luis Diaz has looked like Robert Pires lashed into centre forward. But today he looked like a centre forward rather than a winger. Not least in that it looked like a slog, it looked hard. It was dropping anchor and being hit. It was muck and bullets all the way through and it helped Liverpool get beyond the endlessness of Tyler Adams.
Going the other way there was the endlessness of Ryan Christie. Christ, he’s good. He anticipates the drop of every ball, he finds the angles and backs up every teammate while still being in position when the game flips.
But he was the second best Scottish international on the pitch. Andy Robertson was excellent, was all business, was actually the most Liverpool’s grown-up, a position usually held by Virgil van Dijk. Today though, Robertson was the steward who mattered most. He swept everything up around him brilliantly and showed over and over again.
They are good, though. Justin Kluivert should equalise after Marcus Tavernier hit the post, Antoine Semenyo is constantly all in. Lewis Cook passes the ball brilliantly all game but it isn’t enough.
Because Liverpool are top. Liverpool are nine clear. Liverpool are the best team in the country. This is the essence of what today is about – Liverpool are clear of the field and they have fences to negotiate and this, this my friends, is one which suddenly has legendary status thrust upon it. Bechers, The Chair or Velky Taxisuv Prikop. Something that has tripped everybody else.
This is one of Liverpool’s biggest remaining moments. Those moments, though, line up. In February, if Liverpool beat Tottenham in the EFL Cup, Liverpool will have Bournemouth, Everton, Villa and Manchester City away from home. And if they take 10 points from 12 there it is hard to imagine how they don’t become Champions. Even eight could well prove to be enough.
They have three from three. We have three from three.
We’ll know soon what we are up against, but today tells Arsenal what they are up against – a Liverpool side with the best player in the league. The best goalkeeper in the league. And other bests such as Virgil van Dijk. Arsenal walk out tomorrow and the gauntlet is thrown down to them. Because that just then was 100 minutes on how Liverpool are that good and are not going to stop.
That gauntlet, though, is the same one that Arne Slot has thrown down to his own players – the one he threw down on Friday in his press conference. Work as hard as Bournemouth. Bournemouth are good. Bournemouth are so hard to play against. But Bournemouth are vanquished, chalked off. Six points against the lads who leg you everywhere. Imagine how hard that is. Imagine how hard you have to run. Consider how hard we have ran.
There is a league title to be won. Fight every fucking fight, Liverpool.
Another massive step forward.
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Like the Velký Taxisův Příkop reference, love the three points (and Mo’s second)!