Liverpool match verdict after the Premier League clash against Leicester City at Anfield
A convincing Boxing Day victory over Leicester City to strengthen what was already a healthy Premier League advantage at the top? Liverpool are chasing this title down like it's 2019 all over again. And on a day when every other result that was worth checking for went his way, Arne Slot could not have asked for a more perfect Christmas gift for his first one on Merseyside.
For all the neat symmetry of 2019, however, this game bore all the hallmarks of a clash from last time year when the Reds would concede first before being made to find a way back into the contest. It was an occurrence that happened all too often last season and eventually sapped at the energy levels when it really mattered on the home stretch.
Scotland captain Robertson was excellent in Sunday's 6-3 win over Tottenham but the legendary left-back is enduring something of a rough patch of form in more general terms just now and it was perhaps a surprise Kostas Tsimikas wasn't preferred after so much energy was exerted at Spurs. Only Salah and Luis Diaz have more than the former PSV Eindhoven man now and his Reds career has been given a new lease of life by Slot and his refusal to deviate from selecting the attacker in the left-wing position where he made his name in the Eredivisie. Two years into his Liverpool career now and Gakpo has never been as influential to the cause.
Gakpo's finish was ruled out after a remarkably long VAR check with Darwin Nunez eventually judged offside after Salah had just about kept himself on. It was harsh on Gakpo, who smashed home like a man in form. A 20-goal haul before New Year's Day remains firmly in the play for the club's fourth highest scorer of all time and you can be certain he is targeting Gordon Hodgson's total of 241 before the season is out. He is now just 12 away from moving past Hodgson into third.
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