Liverpool 3 - 1 Newcastle United

Liverpool: Mané 28’, 40’, Salah 70’
Newcastle United: Willems 7’

Pre-Match

Klopp gives Firmino and Henderson a break, starting the match with Divock Origi and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. It should be enough to get the better of Newcastle, but that remains to be seen.

First Half

Goal 7’ - Willems. The match starts out at a nightmare, with Jethro Willems getting the better of Trent Alexander-Arnold and sending an absolute thunderbolt of a strike into Adrian’s top right corner. That’s not at all what we wanted to see, but Liverpool have 83 minutes to make it right.

The Reds are getting themselves more into this game, picking up corners and trying to work something. At Anfield, it always feels like Liverpool can pull something out, but so far Newcastle looks the brighter side. Nothing seems to be coming off for Liverpool at the moment.

Jonjo Shelvey tries a shot in his own half when he sees Adrian off his life. It goes widely off and the ball ends up going out of play nearly at the corner flag, but that one brought back memories. Ah, Jonjo.

Liverpool are denied a clear penalty on a corner when Matip is held in a choke hold in the box for a corner. That was dreadful from Andre Marriner, who was clearly waiting for VAR to do his job for him. The VAR team appears to have not wanted to overturn the referee’s incorrect decision, and so here we are.

GOALLLLL!!! 28’ - Mané evens things up with a gorgeous strike off his right foot, just moments after they are denied a clear penalty from a hold on Matip. The look of righteous determination on Mané’s face is all of us right now. I can feel Marriner’s relief from here.

Divock Origi seemed to tweak something in his ankle, and he gets taken off and replaced by Roberto Firmino. Klopp had wanted to give the mad Brazilian more of a break, but it looks as though that wasn’t to be.

GOALLLL!!!!! 40’ Mané - With nearly his first touch of the ball in the game, Firmino sends an inch perfect throughball into Mané’s feet. The first shot is blocked weakly, and Mané hops over the keeper to nudge it home.

Second Half

Liverpool come back to start the second half leading 2-1. Some creativity nearly sees them make it 3-1 in the first few minutes when Wijnaldum tries a clever, lofting strike that barely sails over the net.

Newcastle begin this second half with more verve, having fallen behind. Van Dijk snuffs out a good opportunity from Newcastle when it just forces Krafth to take an extra touch on the ball and wing the shot over the net.

Andy Robertson nearly gets Liverpool’s third. Firmino plays in Robbo, but the shot, at a wide angle, is saved by Dubravka, who is having quite the game. I assume be seeing him served a three-game ban after this for the offense of Denying Andy Robertson A Goalscoring Opportunity, the monster.

The energy that Newcastle started this half with has slowly ebbed away as the time has ticked on, and it’s once again all Liverpool in possession.

I just want a Mané hat trick.

GOALLLL!!!! 71’ - Oof, a filthy flick-on from Firmino, who has engineered almost everything great about this game since he’s come on, sets up Mohamed Salah. Salah collects the ball in a crowded space inside the box, gets it on his left foot and sends it safely into the far corner.

Oxlade-Chamberlain comes off for James Milner as Klopp makes his second substitution of the day. The final one will be in the form of Xherdan Shaqiri for Gini Wijnaldum.

Bobby thisclose to setting Mané up for his hat trick and earning a hat trick of assists himself, but he had drifted offside and Mané’s goal is waved off.

Final Thoughts

Still top of the table. Five league wins in a row this season, 14 in a row between this season and last season. Bobby Firmino is perfect. The Reds are very, very good. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, folks.