Reds just one win from destiny
Leicester City 0 Liverpool 1, 20th April 2025
LEICESTER CITY 0
LIVERPOOL 1 (Alexander-Arnold 76)
Well it just had to be the “Scouser in our Team” didn’t it? In the same week that his skipper finally dedicated the next two years of his career at Anfield and a mere week or so after Mo Salah put pen to paper to do likewise, the third in this season’s mini-saga of will they/won’t they stay or go, Trent Alexander-Arnold, the young man who has won EVERYTHING THE ENGLISH GAME HAS TO OFFER HIM IN THE RED SHIRT OF LIVERPOOL and yet still decried and horribly described as a “rat” in the toxic waters of social media for seemingly wishing to leave in the summer, scored the winning goal to send his boyhood club, and a club he’s been a loyal servant of since he was 6 years of age, to within one more win, or an Arsenal defeat, from the promised land of lifting the Premier League title.
The only rats in this saga are the poisoned Children of the Matrix and clickbait merchants who spew such utter bilge, but let’s leave them to their own amnesiac bubbles of self-importance and self delusion and instead focus on today’s match winner from West Derby in Liverpool.
In a rather pedestrian game in the Leicestershire sunshine, the Reds had tallied over 20 shots on or off the ultimate target of the Foxes goal by the time of Trent Alexander-Arnold’s introduction as a late second half substitute with 20 minutes to go and just 6 minutes later, he smashed home the winner. Kostas Tsimikas’ corner caused mayhem in the centre of the Leicester defence as first Mo Salah headed against the post from point blank range, then Diogo Jota crashed a follow-up shot against the underside of the bar and with the ball pinballing loose and seemingly destined not to find the back of the home team’s net, step forward Trent Alexander-Arnold with his first ever left-footed goal for the club he adores. Ripping off his shirt in sheer jubilation before the obligatory knee slide in front of the travelling Kop in the Away End, it’s over to Peter Drury of Sky Sports:
“Trent Alexander-Arnold, bounced off the bench, belted it through the crowd, ripped off his shirt, and wallowed in the moment”
Quite.
Leicester were dreadful today and although Wilfred Ndidi hit the post with Alisson Becker beaten on 9 minutes, hitting the frame of the goal doesn’t count as a shot on target in today’s weird and wonderful world of football, so they were formally relegated back to The Championship without troubling Alisson into making a single save. They followed hot on the heels of Ipswich Town today, fellow returnees to The Championship, with both teams cast iron certainties to yo-yo their way back to the Premier League next season. Arsenal’s 4–0 win at Ipswich prevented the Reds from wrapping up their 20th League title today but the promised land looms ever larger in everyone’s immediate future, starting this Wednesday at The Emirates. If Arsenal lose to Crystal Palace, the waiting for Number 20 will be over. A draw or victory means the Reds will have to match this on Sunday with their north London neighbours Tottenham at Anfield.
Destiny awaits for Arne Slot’s Liverpool.
Arne’s Afterword
“We dominated definitely, which is also what you can expect if you go to Leicester. But, I think you also have to give credit to Ruud van Nistelrooy, who just keeps trying to play in the best possible way and I saw a few very good moments from them also today. It is not a team that kicks every ball long, they try to play, they try to create. You can expect that we are the team that creates most chances and it is the first time since I am here that we have missed so many big chances because normally we are better in scoring one of them. Today, it was not a big chance that we scored — it was again a set-piece. Another big moment for us to score from a set-piece with us putting so much effort in for nine or ten months now”.
“The only thing the fans want is us winning the league. After one league title in 35 years with them not being involved because of COVID. They were involved, but not as much as they probably wanted. Every moment that it happens, it would be special for them. Definitely looking forward to next week because I assume that Arsenal, because they are such a good team, are able to win during the week. We probably have to do it ourselves and the first chance we have is next week against Tottenham”.
Thanks for reading. I pen my thoughts on every Liverpool game and in recent seasons, with the addition of numerous pieces of retro writing on Reds games of the past, I’ve curated and created the following two self-published books:
"A final word from The Boss" - link to Amazon
"Chasing the Impossible and a Sword of Damocles" - link to Amazon
Whilst you’re here I may as well brag about the release of my trilogy of recently self-published books too. Beautiful covers eh! As the title(s) would suggest, this is my life at the movies or at least from 1980 to 2024, and in volume 1 you’ll find 80 spoiler free appraisals of movies from debut filmmakers, 91 of the very best films appraised with love and absent of spoilers from 1990–2024 in volume 2, and in volume 3 you’ll find career “specials” on Paul Thomas Anderson and Quentin Tarantino together with the very best of the rest and another 87 spoiler free film reviews from 2001–2024.
All available in hardback and paperback and here are some handy links:
"A Life at the Movies Vol.1" - link to Amazon
"A Life at the Movies Vol.2" - link to Amazon
"A Life at the Movies Vol.3" - link to Amazon