The safer approach would be merely to look for incremental improvement, to eye the dotted line that traditionally separates the European elite from the rest, to say the objective for Liverpool’s season was simply to return to the Champions League. But then, as anyone who has seen Trent Alexander-Arnold pass a ball knows, he can eschew the risk-free option. There is ambition to his distribution; to his rhetoric, too.
“Our aim as a team is to win the league and that’s the aim again this season,” said the Liverpool vice-captain. And if he was neither saying Liverpool will win the Premier League or are the favourites to do so, the right-back is unafraid of setting a lofty target. “Our ambition is to be as successful as possible and to maximise the potential we have got as a team and as a club,” he added. “At the start of last season it was the same as at the start of this season: our ambition was to win the league. We were nowhere near good enough to get anywhere near that last year and that’s where we needed to put it right this year.”
That his ambition is underpinned by honesty was underlined by that last sentence. Liverpool go to the Etihad Stadium on Saturday in second place, in the familiar position of being Manchester City’s closest challengers, the side on the shoulder of Pep Guardiola’s frontrunners in case they stumble. Yet last year, there were 22 points between them. Liverpool slipped to 10th in their bleak midwinter. They were as low as eighth in early April, closer in points to the foot of the table than to City.
“Last season there were too many of us guys who never hit the levels we were expected to and demand of each other; ultimately, that’s how you end up being in fifth place,” said Alexander-Arnold. Perhaps he was among them: it was the toughest year of his career, amid a focus on his defending while a malfunctioning midfield had a tendency to leave him exposed. And Liverpool, who only lost six league games over the course of their three best seasons under Jurgen Klopp, were beaten nine times by the beginning of April.
“Last season wasn’t good enough,” said Alexander-Arnold. It included a 4-1 defeat on their last trip to the Etihad Stadium. Yet in almost eight months since then, they have only lost one league game, courtesy of an unlucky, injury-time own goal after they were controversially reduced to nine men at Tottenham. In all competitions, they have only been beaten twice in 29 matches.
If offers an explanation for his confidence, so does Liverpool’s past. They have proved they can string together extended winning runs, that they can find a consistency which eludes almost everyone else. Almost because Alexander-Arnold knows what it is like to earn 97 and 92 points in Premier League seasons and become champion in neither.
“Being in three campaigns where we should have won the league if it wasn’t for City – obviously we won one but were close in two more – you get a feeling for what you know you are capable of doing,” the England international added. “Looking around the dressing room, looking at the players we have got, the team, the spirit, the vibe around the team, that [challenging for the league] is something that we feel is achievable. If that wasn’t the case, I would be here saying, ‘I want to get back in the top four.’
“Because, genuinely, there is nothing wrong with that for this team, a team that has just finished outside the Champions League places. There is a rebuild going on, and new players and a lot of senior players have left, it would be very normal to say, ‘get back in the top four and push on from there’.”
Mohamed Salah has been in sparkling form this season— (AP)
Now Liverpool have the joint best defensive record and the highest xG, with the most shots. Among the arrivals, Dominik Szoboszlai has made a particular impact in midfield. Of the old stagers, Mohamed Salah has been in spectacular form in attack. Liverpool’s fixture list, especially away from home, has scarcely been easy and they are only a point behind City. It is why their vice-captain is willing to target a title push.
“That is where our sights are at,” Alexander-Arnold said. “If it doesn’t happen, we have ourselves to blame. Right now, we have put ourselves in a good position, we have built a great foundation it is just about consistency. The hardest thing in football is consistently winning games, but we have shown that we are more than capable of passing it.”
So are City, of course, the side who have claimed five of the last six Premier Leagues. Yet Liverpool have shown a refusal to be intimidated by Guardiola’s winning machine. “I think the players who are experienced in being successful with the club all understand what it takes and what’s needed to even challenge a team like City,” Alexander-Arnold said. “It was about getting that message across as quick as possible to the new players and young players. We need everyone to perform and if we do get players who play really well over the course of the season it will get us closer to the top of the table.” And perhaps even to the summit.
