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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Mark Jones

Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold make Liverpool's growing obsession crystal clear

The bookies make it around 50/1, but inside the Liverpool dressing room the odds will be much lower.

In fact, they might make it more likely than not.

Under Jurgen Klopp, Reds players have long mastered the art of not getting too high or feeling too low, with the familiar "take each game as it comes" cliche rolled out after every three points gained or cup progression secured.

The players have become aware of it too, often warning an interviewer that they are about to launch into the answer that you'll expect to hear. The mantra that comes from the manager. The idea that you don't want to run before you can walk, but you're well aware that you can gallop.

That, or something akin to it, is common for many a football team, but the edge with which Liverpool have been playing almost ever since their disappointing defeat at Leicester City between Christmas and New Year means that the idea of winning absolutely everything before them suddenly doesn't seem as far-fetched as it could be. Does it?

Liverpool picked up their first trophy of the season on Sunday (AFP via Getty Images)

Or is that just us falling for their inner belief? Their single-mindedness? The idea that in attempting to get back to that relentless 26 wins in the first 27 Premier League games of 2019-20 best, will mean that new heights are scaled?

They've certainly got the strength in depth for a good go at it now, the addition of the exciting Luis Diaz to a relatively clear injury list making for a much clearer picture than the one that was visible a few short months ago.

Although they still thought they could do it back then, of course.

"We believe we've got the squad depth, because that's what's going to be needed," Trent Alexander-Arnold exclusively told Mirror Football back in November.

"We're going to need everyone over the course of the season, but we want to be able to go and win both trophies [Premier League and Champions League], and the cups as well.

"We want to push on all fronts and prove that we're a world-class team, and a team that should be winning multiple trophies every season.

"It's just about executing game-by-game and having consistency. We just need to keep winning games, then after Christmas in February and March is when it really comes into play."

Alexander-Arnold has set Liverpool the target of winning three more trophies (Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

And here we are as February turns to March, with Liverpool having one trophy in the cabinet already and facing an FA Cup fifth round tie at home to the team bottom of the Premier League this week.

Then there's the 2-0 lead they've amassed after the away leg of their Champions League last-16 tie against the Italian champions, and the gap they've eaten up in the Premier League title race.

They are still six points behind Manchester City but with a game in hand, a superior goal difference and City at the Etihad in a little over a month.

Thus, you could say that the title is effectively theirs to lose. If you ask Mo Salah it always has been.

It was after the 1-0 win at Wolves in early December courtesy of that late, late Divock Origi goal that such a simple message was sent out from Salah's social media accounts. It read: "It's in our hands."

It caught plenty of people off guard, if anything, as quick sums were added up to see if the Egyptian - or more likely his social media people - had made the kind of online gaffe that we'd certainly have taken the mickey out of around these parts. But it was technically correct.

Salah is refusing to think negatively as Liverpool go for glory (AFP via Getty Images)

That single-minded pursuit of success is often a theme of the messages Salah likes to convey to the world.

The forward is always positive and never reflecting on things that haven't gone to plan. You can't find a reference to Egypt's Africa Cup of Nations final defeat on either his Twitter or Instagram account, for example.

He's already celebrated the Carabao Cup success on there though, a post of him lifting the trophy along with the simple vow of "One down..." If you didn't know that he expects more to come, then you do now.

Alexander-Arnold does too. And after his initial social media jubilation on Sunday evening came the Monday promise that this win was simply "1/4. Hungry for more..."

Liverpool have already achieved his stated aim of winning at least one trophy every season when he spoke ahead of the recent trip to Inter Milan, but again there was the determination and the desire that one could turn into two and then two into more.

In many ways the squad could feel that the first success could end up being the toughest hurdle to pass, with the tight nature of Sunday's game against Chelsea and slices of luck enjoyed along the way all adding to a sense of euphoria, a sense that it might not be that hard again - at least not in the vast majority of the league games, where every remaining opponent bar City is at least 13 points below them.

Salah and Alexander-Arnold are targeting more trophies (Mohamed Salah Instagram)

With Norwich and a handicapped Inter to come soon then it would be surprise if Liverpool are not in the quarter-finals of both of the other cup competitions in just over a week's time, then where do they go from there?

They are still, rightly, the second favourites for the Premier League, but with this momentum and a fairly unshakeable, deeply-entrenched self-belief, it would be no shock to see those 50/1 odds tumbling quickly.

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