Losses for Liverpool are about as rare as penalty misses by Mohamed Salah, but both happened on Tuesday and, even at the halfway stage of the season, it could cost Juergen Klopp’s team the Premier League title.
Liverpool were beaten 1-0 by a patched-up Leicester City and could find themselves nine points behind Manchester City heading into the new year, with the leaders to play Brentford early this morning Taiwan time.
It is a cushion that might prove to be insurmountable, given that City are on a nine-match winning streak in the league and are looking unstoppable, scoring 17 goals in their past three victories.
Photo: AP
Liverpool also will soon be without their two star forwards, Salah and Sadio Mane, who are heading to the Africa Cup of Nations next week. They were granted permission to delay joining up with their national teams ahead of the tournament so they could play for Liverpool over the festive period, but they could not make the difference at the King Power Stadium.
Salah won a penalty, but his weak effort was saved by Kasper Schmeichel in the 16th minute, thereby failing to convert a spot-kick for the first time in 16 attempts.
His previous penalty miss was against Huddersfield Town in October 2017.
Photo: AP
Liverpool ultimately slumped to only their second loss in all competitions this season when substitute Ademola Lookman found space between Joel Matip and Virgil van Dijk, and shot inside the near post in the 59th minute.
“There were too many performances below normal level,” Klopp said. “So often these boys give me the opportunity to say: ‘Wow, what a game.’ Tonight it’s: ‘Wow,’ but in completely the other way.”
Elsewhere, Tottenham Hotspur were denied victory against 10-man Southampton after having two second-half goals ruled out in a 1-1 draw, while Norwich City are to end the year in last place in the league after a 0-3 loss to Crystal Palace and Watford lost 1-4 to West Ham United.
The 20th round was reduced to seven fixtures when the match between Everton and Newcastle United was postponed because of COVID-19 cases and injuries in the Newcastle squad.
The games between Arsenal and Wolverhampton Wanderers and Leeds United and Aston Villa had previously been called off.
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