A few minutes afterLiverpooltook potentially their penultimate if not final step towards the title, Virgil van Dijk gave the match-winner a gentle nudge, a little lumbar support.
For a moment Van Dijk’s duty as captain extended to ushering Trent Alexander-Arnold towards the fans who are resigned to him departing for Real Madrid this summer, but only after the club win a 20th league title. Alexander-Arnold applauded and then clenched both fists overhead, a nod to the incoming crown.
The party atmosphere was not lost on Alexander-Arnold, Arne Slot or, indeed, anyone of a Liverpool persuasion. “The scouser in our team,” sang the travelling support on loop. Then there were the giant red “2” and “0” balloons, floating between jubilant fans, and the Courteeners-themed flag that simply read: “It’s Not Nineteen Forever.”
It was the 76th minute when Alexander-Arnold whipped off his No 66 shirt, uncovering his cartoonish torso, and hurtled towards the pocket of giddy Liverpool fans and spread his arms as wide as humanly possible, his teeth sparkling, as if to say: “Well, isn’t this what you came for?” In many ways, yes, his vicious left-foot strike, a collector’s item in itself, earning an inevitable victoryagainst a team that lost hopea long, long time ago. “And now you’re going to believe us, we’re gonna win the league,” the 3,292 travelling supporters cheered long after the rest of this stadium emptied. The only thing is they are going to have to wait that little bit longer. The crown could arrive as early as Wednesday if Arsenal lose at home against Crystal Palace. If Arsenal win that game, then Liverpool can clinch it with victory against Tottenham at Anfield on Sunday.
“I think the only thing the fans want is us winning the league,” Slot said afterwards. “After one league title in 35 years with them not being involved [in 2019-20] as much as they probably wanted because of Covid. It would be special for them. I’m definitely looking forward to next week because I assume that Arsenal, because they are such a good team, are able to win during the week. So we probably have to do it ourselves, and the first chance we have is next week against Tottenham.”
For Liverpool, delight at moving one step closer. For Leicester, failure to overcome the league’s best side confirmed another fact known for a while: Leicester will play in the Championship next season. A penny for the thoughts of the Leicester chairman, Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, as he surveyed the scenes at full time. Ruud van Nistelrooy was jeered by some fans as he headed down the tunnel, hands in pockets. But Leicester’s difficulties run deeper than Van Nistelrooy, even if the Dutchman has made a negligible impactsince succeeding Steve Cooperin November. Now Leicester’s hierarchy have another decision to make.
Before a ball had been kicked almost all of the juice of this match had been slowly siphoned out over the course ofArsenal’s win at Ipswich. Slot said he caught the first 10 minutes before heading into a pre-match meeting and boarding the bus to the King Power Stadium. Liverpool quickly got to business. Mohamed Salah saw the first of his several efforts pinball off one post and against the other before Ricardo Pereira hacked the ball clear inside three minutes. Luis Díaz saw an acrobatic effort drop wide before the interval.
The only surprise was how long it took Liverpool to kill off the second‑leakiest defence in the division. Wilfred Ndidi hit a post in the first half and a few minutes before Alexander-Arnold struck, a VAR review also went in Liverpool’s favour. Conor Coady headed in from a recycled free-kick but Patson Daka was deemed to have fouled Alisson when bumping the goalkeeper a couple of seconds earlier.
That meant Leicester would suffer the ignominy of failing to score in a ninth successive top-flight home game. In league history, only Mansfield in 1971-72 and Wolves in 1984-85 have also such an unedifying feat.
Liverpool finished up with 28 shots to Leicester’s five, 10 on target to none respectively. Díaz volleyed over from a Conor Bradley cross. Mads Hermansen saved well from Kostas Tsimikas, who was again preferred to Andy Robertson at left-back.
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Another full-back sealed Liverpool victory instead. Alexander-Arnold arrived in place of Bradley for his first appearance in five weeks after an ankle injury on 71 minutes. He made a lasting impact five minutes later.
Tsimikas’s corner caused a headache in the Leicester box and Salah saw his shot strike a post before Diogo Jota, a second-half substitute, rattled the crossbar. Would it be one of those strange days? The ball dropped for Alexander-Arnold and he wellied a left-foot shot back where it came from and made sure to bask in the occasion. Who could blame him?
After seven minutes of second-half stoppage time, Leicester’s fate was sealed, relegation rubber-stamped. Liverpool wait for their confirmation.