Never mind the quality, feel the points. At the start of a pivotal fortnight, Liverpool did what was required to ensure the Kop went home happy and Manchester City, at least for a little while, were eclipsed.
“Liverpool, Liverpool top of the league!” came the chant, followed by familiar strains of “We shall not be moved”, and of course, this season’s favourite, “The Reds have got no money”.
Having stood a mammoth 14 points adrift of City mid-January – albeit with two games in hand – that Jurgen Klopp’s side were able to move to the Premier League summit for the first time in six months was a significant, if only temporary, moment. Next Sunday’s meeting between the two front-runners at the Etihad, which could go some way towards determining the destination of the title, has been teed up perfectly.
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Klopp, though, knows Liverpool will have to perform a lot better than they did against an obdurate, organised but limited Watford side if they are to land a potentially decisive blow in a thrillingly tense title battle.
Indeed, only minutes before they began racing through the Anfield songbook, the home fans had grown audibly restless at the prospect of another nervy conclusion as Liverpool looked to see out a lead given to them by Diogo Jota’s 20th goal of the season midway through the first half.
Passes went astray, tackles were missed, chances for an opening spurned. Watford, growing in confidence, could sense the tension until it dissipated two minutes from time in the wake of VAR John Brooks drawing to the attention of referee Stuart Attwell the far-post grappling of Juraj Kucka on Jota, which led to a spot-kick confidently converted by substitute Fabinho.
Phew. This is now the third time Liverpool have won 10 successive Premier League games under Klopp, a 10th home league win in a row.
But if Liverpool are to regain the title they lost to City last year, the time is approaching for them to start cranking through the gears and deliver championship-winning performances. The cliché just results matter at this stage of the season can only stretch so far.
In mitigation, with Benfica, City, Manchester United and Everton all to come this month, the Reds were perhaps wise to conserve as much as possible. And the relentless schedule in chasing down the quadruple, along with the double-whammy of an early kick-off and a first game after the international break, meant there was little chance of them hitting the heights against their relegation-threatened opponents.
While Watford were hardly a constant forward threat, the Reds’ subdued attacking efforts shifted the focus on to a defence that has now kept 10 clean sheets in their last 13 games. Ahead of them, while Curtis Jones floundered in midfield, Thiago Alcantara excelled with an all-action performance that at times had the crowd purring at his precision passing.
Klopp, however, will surely be unimpressed it took yet another scare to kickstart his side into meaningful action.
For the third game in succession, Jota put Liverpool ahead mere moments after they threatened to fall behind. And, as at Arsenal in their last Premier League outing, the Reds were indebted to the heroics of Alisson Becker, the goalkeeper unable to wait for a possible offside call as he stood tall to deny Kucka as the Watford man raced clear on to Joao Pedro’s pass.
Some 34 seconds later, Liverpool had their noses in front. Thiago, inevitably, was at the heart of the move, helping shift the ball out to the right flank. From there, though, it was all down to the quality of delivery from Joe Gomez, who whipped in a cross where Jota got there first before flailing Watford goalkeeper Ben Foster to glance home.
Nobody can be expected to replicate the forward threat of Trent Alexander-Arnold, here an unused substitute. But Gomez was a regular threat to Watford with his searching crosses from the right wing, his assist only the fifth of his Liverpool career.
The competition for places at centre-back has made it difficult for Gomez to find regular minutes this season. This performance, building on his good showing in the FA Cup quarter-final win at Nottingham Forest a fortnight ago, was a further reminder of the versatility that will serve him well in the remaining weeks of the season and beyond.
For Jota, it was a 10th opening goal of a game this term, his sixth such strike in the Premier League. In terms of breaking a game, the Portuguese is now arguably eclipsing Mohamed Salah.
Salah, still smarting from his experience with Egypt in Senegal last week, found Watford left-back Hassane Kamara a far tougher prospect than he had Danny Rose in the 5-0 romp at Vicarage Road back in October, and the tired wide man was hooked long before the final whistle.
While Liverpool dominated possession, chances were at a premium at both ends. Jota drew a good save from Foster before the break and headed over in the second half, Virgil van Dijk nodded too high, while in a rare second-half Watford sortie, Pedro rolled the ball wide of Alisson’s far post after the lively Ismaila Sarr had got in behind. Fabinho’s calm finish from the spot, though, sealed the visitors' fate.
“I didn’t for one second think we would be flying today,” said Klopp later on the occasion of his 250th league game in charge. But Liverpool got the job done once more. A defining month is up and running.
