Jurgen Klopp has dismissed Liverpool’s 13-point lead at the top of the Premier League as “not relevant” after his side maintained their relentless march towards the title with a 4-0 thrashing of Leicester.
Despite a one-sided first half at the King Power Stadium, Liverpool had only Roberto Firmino’s header to show for their dominance, but three goals in eight second-half minutes underlined their superiority against a second-placed Foxes side they made look second rate.
A James Milner penalty was followed by Firmino’s second of the night, and his fourth in three games following his goals in the Club World Cup, with Trent Alexander-Arnold wrapping up the victory with the goal his exceptional performance deserved.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp celebrates with Trent Alexander-Arnold (Tim Goode/PA).
However, when asked about the 13-point cushion, Klopp said: “The only thing that changes in the question is that the number is different.
“It was 10, 11, now 13. But we actually don’t feel it, we don’t think it and we didn’t mention it once before the game because it’s just not interesting. We all know that.
“I can write the stories by myself. The first story is that never before in the history of British football has a team had a bigger lead and lost the lead. That sounds, in my ear, negative, so why should we think about something like that?
“We are focused on the next games – Wolves, Sheffield United, Everton, Tottenham, Manchester United – the next five games. It doesn’t sound like anything is decided in my ears.
Get FourFourTwo Newsletter
The best features, fun and footballing quizzes, straight to your inbox every week.
“We have to play all of them and we try with all we have to make sure we are ready for these games, so the number is not relevant to us.”
Alexander-Arnold suggested it was “probably our best game of the season”, yet Klopp did not agree with his right wing-back.
On whether Liverpool have played better this season, Klopp added: “Oh yes, I would say so.
Liverpool’s Virgil Van Dijk leads the celebrations after the final whistle (Tim Goode/PA).
“We played an exceptional game against Manchester City, a super game against Arsenal. We’ve played good games this season. I’m not sure it was better, just different.
“Tonight was exactly the performance we needed. We had no real problems in because the boys were 100 per cent in the game. They played a really good football game, really, really good. Completely focused.”
Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers conceded Liverpool were now “going to be very, very hard to stop” in their bid for the title.
Rodgers said: “They are a fantastic team with confidence high after not losing many games over an 18-month period.”
The last two matches have served as a chastening experience for Rodgers’ side, who were beaten 3-1 at Manchester City on Saturday before suffering a first home defeat in emphatic fashion to Liverpool.
Rodgers added: “Because of how well we’ve done, we’ve been catapulted into this title race.
“But then you’ve seen in the last couple of games, the quality of the opposition we’ve played, and Liverpool were terrific.
“There is still a lot to play for, but the last couple of games we’ve come up against the best two teams in the league.”
Thank you for reading 5 articles this month* Join now for unlimited access
FourFourTwo was launched in 1994 on the back of a World Cup that England hadn’t even qualified for. It was an act of madness… but it somehow worked out. Our mission is to offer our intelligent, international audience access to the game’s biggest names, insightful analysis... and a bit of a giggle. We unashamedly love this game and we hope that our coverage reflects that.
