Trent Alexander-Arnold Talks About That Beautiful Strike Against Newcastle

Liverpool were able to take full advantage of Chelsea dropping points on Thursday as they ensured another victory - this time from behind against Newcastle at Anfield. Diogo Jota found the equalizer after Jonjo Shelvey scored early for the Magpies, and Mohamed Salah (naturally) made it two, but it was Trent Alexander-Arnold’s rocket of a strike that made it three and gave the Reds a little less stress.

“I’ve been waiting for that for five years now, waiting to hit it clean like that,” Alexander-Arnold said to BT Sport following the match.

“I’ve had a few from the edge of the box and I’ve dragged them and things like that. I’ve caught that one sweet and it’s nestled in the top corner. It was a clean strike and obviously kind of put the game to bed.”

Newcastle certainly did their jobs in not making it easy for Liverpool to claim victory early on, but the lads’ lack of finishing certainly didn’t help things either. The flow of play wasn’t much of a surprise, though, for the Scouser.

“I think we limited them to little chances. We kind of knew the game would flow like that: we’d dominate possession and they’d come and make it hard for us with counter-attacks and set-pieces and things like that,” added Trent.

“It was always going to be a difficult one for us and obviously them scoring an early goal made it harder. Disappointed with [not getting] the clean sheet but three points at this time of the season is vitally important.”

With nearly two matches every week until January, he’s right. And with the title race so close nearly halfway through the season, there’s no room to be dropping any points. Chelsea drew with Everton on Thursday, and no doubt Trent and the rest of the Reds are thinking about that chance.

“Obviously you don’t want the teams around you to be doing well, but the focus is on us,” Alexander-Arnold continued.

“This time of the season it’s about making sure we’re consistent, making sure we’re winning every game we can because the games come so thick and fast that any minor slip can prove costly come April and May.

“It’s about making sure we pick up as many points as we can; we’ve done that so far but we need to keep going.”

All eyes now point towards Sunday’s match against Tottenham, with the potential postponement looming large. Liverpool had three players test positive for Covid-19 on Thursday that prevented them from taking part, but Spurs have had at least two matches postponed because of their own coronavirus outbreaks. Thankfully, due to everyone at Liverpool being vaccinated, those breakthrough cases shouldn’t be too troublesome.

And so far it looks like the Reds are the only ones planning to play.

The right back finished: “Hopefully [it goes well]. We’ll focus on our football. Until we’re told otherwise we’ll be in there every day – recovery again tomorrow and making sure we’re fit for Sunday. We’ve got a big game going down to Tottenham. It’ll be an interesting one. All we can do is focus on that and prepare for the game.”