Liverpool have been utterly dominant. But cracks are starting to emerge

It wasn’t supposed to be that straightforward. Newcastle United have suffered so much disappointment at Wembley that the assumption had been that the end of a domestic trophy drought that stretched back to 1955 would be fraught, that they’d have to drag themselves over the line, nails bitten to the quick, the countdown to the final whistle having to be earned second by painful second.

As it was, although there was some anxiety after Federico Chiesa’s injury-time effort for Liverpool was ruled onside by VAR, Newcastle seemed to have the game under control from the start, and never really looked like surrendering the advantage given them by Dan Burn’s magnificent header. His story, the local lad rejected at the age of 11 by the club he supported, losing a finger, transforming himself from goalkeeper to defender, touring the country before returning aged 30 to Newcastle and then, a few days after he had been called to the England squad for the first time, scoring the winner with the sort of header, neck muscles thrusting, that wouldn’t have looked out of place when Newcastle last won at Wembley, is almost too perfect. Enough, certainly, to make people believe in the myth of football as a stage for dreams and fairytales, of heroes and emotion and yearning and fulfilment, and to forget, at least for a moment, how the whole sorry business is funded.

But beside Newcastle’s long-awaited success, there was another aspect of Sunday afternoon at Wembley, which is how poor Liverpool were. This is a great season for them. They will – surely – win the league and pull level with Manchester United on 20 titles. No season in which a side wins the championship is ever anything but a success, particularly for a club winning only its second title in 35 years, whose fans were denied the opportunity to celebrate the previous one in person by Covid and the lockdown. But, still, it can’t be denied that, in the space of five days, Liverpool have gone from potentially winning three trophies, from being hailed as perhaps the best side in the world, to being left with just one.

There must be more paranoid fans wondering whether even the league is safe given how flat Liverpool looked against both Paris Saint-Germain and Newcastle. But a 12-point lead with nine games to go, particularly when the chasing side is an out-of-sorts, injury-ravaged Arsenal, is surely enough. (Not for the first time this season, though, the thought occurs of how different this all might have been had Arsenal not frittered away so many cheap points; no side that wishes to be champions can make a habit of losing at home to West Ham). The international break offers respite and should be enough for Liverpool to reset for the run-in.

Still, though, there are questions about Arne Slot that were not there a week ago. Why did he not rest more players against Southampton last Saturday? Why did eight of the players who started both legs against PSG play in that game? Had he perhaps underestimated the physical toll the Premier League takes? He would not be the first manager in their first season in England to be caught out in that way; the difference is that not many have a league title already effectively wrapped up by the time the realisation sets in.

And there are questions too about the squad. It remains the case that, internal appointments excepted, very few managers have ever inherited a squad in quite such good shape as Jürgen Klopp left Slot, but equally any side that makes only one signing in a summer risks being left short. It’s now apparent Slot does not trust Darwin Núñez, while Diogo Jota is beginning to look his age. The midfield, such a strength earlier in the campaign, looks exhausted, Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister in particular. Even Mohamed Salah has been so ineffective in the past week that Liverpool’s caution in offering him the new deal he wants has started to seem more understandable.

Perceptions can change very quickly in football, often ridiculously so, but a team that was dominant six weeks ago now looks like it could do with five or six signings. And perhaps that isn’t so absurd: after only bringing in Chiesa last summer there is some catching up to be done.

And there is a still a title to be sealed. Win that, and for Liverpool this season will have exceeded all expectations. And for all that there is an anti-climactic sense to this campaign, it has succeeded in one hugely important sense, which is that there will be three different winners of the three major domestic trophies, and it remains possible that an entirely different three English sides could all win European trophies. After years of talent becoming increasingly concentrated, it feels for once as though, in England at least, it is happily dispersed.

Newcastle’s win and the almost disbelieving glee of their fans shows why that matters.

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