Liverpool fans have hardly dared look at the Premier League table in 2023, well-aware that it won’t have made for pretty reading after each disappointing defeat.
When beating Leicester City 2-1 at Anfield in their final game of 2022, the Reds were sixth in the table and just two points off the top four. However, heavy losses on the road to Brentford, Brighton & Hove Albion, and Wolverhampton Wanderers saw them fall as low as 10th as an 11-point gap opened up.
Suffering a miserable January as a result, not aided by Liverpool’s decision not to strengthen their midfield mid-season, their hopes of qualifying for next season’s Champions League quickly evaporated as Kopites were left facing up to the possibility of missing out on Europe altogether. Yet, while the Reds have been woeful at times and the 2022/23 campaign, coming in the shadow of a nearly delivering unprecedented quadruple, has certainly been one to forget, perhaps their plight wasn’t quite as bad as feared.
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Victory over Everton in Monday’s Merseyside derby at Anfield offered a rare taste of positivity. Having beaten the Blues, supporters tentatively turned to the Premier League table as they peered through clasped fingers to inspect the damage.
Leap-frogging Chelsea into ninth, a nine-point deficit now awaits them as they look up to fourth-placed Newcastle United. But rather than the doom and gloom Kopites have grown accustomed to over the past six weeks, now they felt cautious optimism as Jurgen Klopp’s men look to rescue their season.
Admittedly ninth is still hardly pretty reading, especially for a side that have spent recent seasons challenging for Premier League and Champions League titles. Meanwhile, it’s a daunting prospect looking up and needing to usurp two of Tottenham Hotspur, Newcastle United, and Manchester United, while also needing to power past Brentford, Fulham, and Brighton. And that's all whilst still having Chelsea breathing down your necks, trying to achieve exactly the same.
Yet Klopp’s Liverpool have been in such a position before, playing catch-up when the odds were stacked firmly against them.
In 2020/21, the Reds found themselves down in eighth in the table, seven points off the top four and 25 points behind league-leaders Man City with 10 games left to play after their dismal 1-0 loss at home to Fulham. What made it worse was that all the teams around them from fifth down to 11th had at least one game-in-hand on Klopp's out-of-form side, who had lost six of their last seven Premier League matches and won just three of their last 14 in the English top-flight.
Yet they would pick up 28 points out of 30 as they remained unbeaten across those final 10 games of the season to finish third and qualify for the Champions League.
Meanwhile, albeit in rather different circumstances, they trailed Man City by 14 points last season after Pep Guardiola’s side beat Chelsea in mid-January. Third in the table at the time, the Premier League title-race seemed over, even though Liverpool boasted two games-in-hand.
Yet the Reds would win their next 10 league matches to leave them just a point behind City heading into their trip to the Etihad in mid-April. Win and the title-race was in their hands, yet they were held to a 2-2 draw.
While they remained unbeaten in the Premier League for their final seven matches, dropping points just once as they drew at home to Tottenham Hotspur, City recovered from 2-0 down to beat Aston Villa 3-2 on the final day of the season to win the title by a solitary point. Admittedly deflating, it was still impressive that Liverpool had gotten themselves in such a position in the first place considering the deficit just a few months earlier.
And now they must complete such a turnaround again if they are to finish in the top four against the odds. Having to overhaul at least five teams above them is a daunting prospect, but there is plenty of football still to be played with the Reds only 21 games into their Premier League season.
Meanwhile, on this occasion they boast games-in-hand with all the teams below them playing 22 matches. They also have a game-in-hand on eighth-placed Brentford and fourth-placed Newcastle United, and two games on seventh-placed Fulham, fifth-placed Tottenham, and third-placed Manchester United with Brighton the only other side in division who has played just 21 times.
As a result, if Monday's win over Everton can act as a turning point, there are plenty of opportunities for the Reds to make up ground on the sides above them. Win away at Newcastle on Saturday evening and they'll be six points behind the Magpies, still boasting a game-in-hand, for a start.
Meanwhile, they can actually cancel out that advantage entirely by the start of March, courtesy of gameweek 25 when they travel to Crystal Palace before hosting Wolves in the first of their two outstanding matches. Newcastle aren’t in Premier League action that weekend due to the League Cup final with Manchester United, with Brentford and Brighton also not playing as a result.
While Newcastle and Brighton would then have games-in-hand on Liverpool come the final whistle of that home meeting with Wolves, they could still be on the very cusp of the top four once again, with 14 games still to be play, if victory over Everton doesn’t prove to be a false dawn.
They'd also still have their second game-in-hand still to play, away at Chelsea, while their home clash with Fulham next month could be postponed due to the Cottagers' progress in the FA Cup. Meanwhile, home clashes with Manchester United, Brentford, and Tottenham Hotspur also all await with Brighton the only team above the Reds that Liverpool have already played twice.
Granted, there are no guarantees that the Reds have turned a corner. Klopp still has an ageing squad stuck in transition and boasting glaring issues in midfield, while the first half of their campaign was littered with one step forward being cancelled out by two steps back.
But in a week where Liverpool have put in a performance much more befitting of their normal standards for the first time in months, while Man City have belatedly toppled Arsenal to claim top spot in the Premier League, perhaps we have just taken a step back towards ‘normality’.
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