Super-Subs Sink Reds at “Sussex by the Sea”
Brighton 3 Liverpool 2, 19th May 2025
BRIGHTON 3 (Ayari 32, Mitoma 69, Hinshelwood 85)
LIVERPOOL 2 (Elliott 9, Szoboszlai 45+1)
Considering the boss has been relaxing on the sunshine island of Ibiza, his players scattered who knows where in their own search of celebratory sunshine, a party thrown for the now definitely leaving Trent Alexander-Arnold and plans afoot for THE mother of all Champions parties next Sunday (not forgetting the parade of the city the following day too which is already being written into local folklore a week ahead of time), this was a performance fit for Premier League Champions for 25 minutes, a 2–1 half-time lead after 45 and despite yet another inconsequential defeat 45 minutes later, nothing could stop the celebrating Reds in the Away End belting out a rather pleasing old school rendition of “We’ll be running round Anfield with the League”.
Another season ending defeat that means absolutely nothing?
Who cares!
The Mighty Reds won the League weeks ago, and the travelling Kop revelled in triumphant song all evening long.
A much changed Liverpool found themselves leading at half-time courtesy of a supreme opening 25 minutes of football epitomised by Harvey Elliott’s goal after 9 minutes. Dominik Szoboszlai’s sweeping cross-field ball to Mo Salah found an instant, delightful and insouciant first time pass from the Egyptian King into the path of a marauding Conor Bradley and after fainting to cross, hit the dead-ball line before a reverse pass was met on the run by Elliott for a simple tap-in. For 25 minutes it was all rather easy for the newly crowned Premier League Champions as the travelling Reds ran through their songbook of tunes, ancient and modern. There was an early (and very pleasing) airing of the Wataru Endō song (be still my beating heart), “Campione”, “A Liverbird Upon My Chest” and a much louder and newer song of praise for the boss and “He brought us number 20 and his name is Arne Slot”. Although the south coast tide of the game changed on the half-hour with Yasin Ayari’s 32nd minute equaliser, Brighton striker Danny Welbeck should have beaten his teammate to it 3 minutes earlier with a header he guided inches wide, the first of a hat-trick of chances this evening that came the way of the ex Arsenal and Manchester United forward, and in all honesty, Brighton could count themselves unlucky to be behind at the break following Dominik Szoboszlai’s speculative shot on the cusp of the half-time break. Equally, the hosts had gone to sleep following Harvey Elliott’s quickly taken free-kick, goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen flapped like a wounded seagull at Szoboszlai’s cross come shot, and the Reds entered the half-time break ahead.
I saw the second half in three south coast waves with Brighton dominating immediately after the break with a 15 minute spell bookended by Reds goalkeeper Alisson Becker spectacularly denying Danny Welbeck with a flying save from his thunderbolt of a free-kick on 49 minutes and then, a trademark close-in smothering save to deny the striker 9 minutes later. These stunning saves sandwiched another more routine save from Brajan Gruda’s long range effort on 50 minutes before Mo Salah inexplicably ended up in the net rather than the ball 4 minutes later when a simple tap-in goal seemed the surest thing in the world. Alas for the record seeking striker it wasn’t, and although both Harvey Elliott and Salah tested Verbruggen in the home goal midway through the half, it was time for Brighton’s super-subs to steal the victory. Kaoru Mitoma (a player I’ve long admired) brilliantly equalised with a volleyed rebound after Alisson Becker had yet again denied Danny Welbeck a goal his performance deserved before, with only 5 minutes remaining, Jack Hinshelwood’s first touch after coming on as substitute was a winning one and a simple back post tap-in goal that may well still see Brighton qualifying for Europe next season.
This season? Well in 6 days time Virgil van Dijk will be hoisting the Premier League trophy high into a Liverpool sky and so it seems fitting to conclude with:
“We’ll be running round Anfield with the League
We’ll be running round Anfield with the League
We’ll be running round Anfield, running round Anfield
Running round Anfield with the League”
Arne’s Afterword
“A great game of football. Two teams that wanted to play, two teams that wanted to win, had no intentions to do things that people normally don’t like to see if they watch a game of football, so no time-wasting, no tumbling. Two teams that were just for almost 100 minutes trying to win a game of football and with some brilliant individual moments. I’ve seen a few from us but the lead-up to the 2–2, the ball from the goalkeeper towards that midfielder that pretended to play the ball to the outside and then played his midfielder was a great moment from them, and then the lead-up to the 3–2, the way Mitoma bounced that ball behind his standing leg towards the midfielder that came underneath him were from their perspective great moments, and I think there were many of those moments during the whole game from both sides. So, joy to watch, unfortunately not with the result we wanted”.
“But we won this league because we’ve been so consistent, we’ve done so many things right, but we haven’t won it in a way like City did it for the last four seasons where they just could close the eyes and they were even 4–0 up. That’s why it’s also such a big compliment that we won this league by such a big margin, because the quality margins are not so much different between us and some other teams, so that’s why it’s such a big compliment — especially because we’ve had our injuries throughout the season as well. To lead by 12 now is a big compliment to our players”.
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
Those missed opportunities reminded me of last seasons Liverpool which just couldn't take it's chances.
Winning the regular season doesn't mean you end up winning the championship. My hometown NHL team, the Winnipeg Jets, got knocked out by Dallas recently, even though they had the best record in the regular season this year.