With exactly half the season gone, Liverpool is two points clear at the top of the Premier League table. Arsenal had the chance to restore its advantage when it hosted West Ham on Thursday night, but suffered a shock 2-0 defeat that kept the Reds in top spot.
Jürgen Klopp said recently that he isn’t willing to even discuss the title race until April (via NBC Sports), and his primary emotion at this point may be relief. His side will end December — which he calls ‘the toughest month ever’ in English football (via LFC) — in a commanding position.
In an attempt to reduce fixture congestion, the Premier League rescheduled a round of games in the festive period. Where previously teams would play three times between Boxing Day and the first few days of the new year, now they will only play twice. But despite that positive step, the December schedule remains daunting.
Having played either five or six matches in the first three full months of the season (September, October and November), Liverpool has had to navigate eight this month. Six of those have been in the Premier League, while the Reds have also finished off their Europa League group-stage campaign and thumped West Ham in a Carabao Cup quarter-final. It’s worth noting that some of Liverpool’s international contingent would have been playing eight games a month throughout the autumn, but now it’s the whole squad that’s engaged.
While the stalemate against struggling Manchester United was bitterly disappointing and some would regard the 1-1 draw with Arsenal as a missed opportunity, Liverpool should be pleased overall with a record of five wins and two draws, particularly as its solitary defeat came in a dead-rubber European game against Union SG.
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The bigger issue for Klopp, and one that he may have feared when he looked at the calendar, is injuries. Liverpool lost Joël Matip to a season-ending anterior cruciate ligament injury against Fulham, Alexis Mac Allister to a knee issue at Sheffield United, and Kostas Tsimikas to a broken collarbone at home to Arsenal. There were also scares for Ryan Gravenberch and Luis Díaz against the Gunners, but both of them were fortunately fit to feature against Burnley on Boxing Day.
The link between the schedule and the injuries would appear to be limited, given that Mac Allister was on the end of a tackle from Gustavo Hamer that could have happened in any game, and Tsimikas likewise landed awkwardly after a fairly standard foul from Bukayo Saka. Only Matip may have succumbed to an excessive load.
But either way, Klopp will be glad that, come January, his side will have the opportunity for a rare rest. This is the first ‘normal’ season since 2019, with the schedule unaffected by either the pandemic or the World Cup, and that has enabled the Premier League to restore the winter break. As it stands, Liverpool won’t be in action between the Carabao Cup semifinal first leg against Fulham on January 10, and the league trip to Bournemouth on January 21.
This offers a valuable chance, without any international football to worry about, to combat rising fatigue levels. Klopp will hope that his players feel the benefit throughout the second half of the season.
