Anger shaped Jürgen Klopp’s reaction to Sadio Mané’s winning goal against Bournemouth. Joy, laced with relief, fuelled the return of his trademark celebration after
Liverpool put the one bad week in their phenomenal season behind them. Three punches in front of the Kop: one for each victory Liverpool require to guarantee their first league championship for 30 years.
Mohamed Salah marked his 100th
Premier League appearance for the Anfield club with his 70th league goal before Mané brought Liverpool a new English top-flight record of 22 consecutive home league wins. Those are just the headline figures. This was a dogged fight back to winning ways after three defeats in four matches, one that began with conceding a controversial early goal to Callum Wilson, involved a spectacular goal-line clearance from James Milner and ended with a let-off from Nathan Aké in the 90th minute. Liverpool needed cool heads to get over the line rather than polished feet and Milner and Virgil van Dijk delivered with outstanding second-half displays. They were also indebted to cheap Bournemouth errors for the goals that restored invaluable confidence before Atlético Madrid’s visit in the
Champions League on Wednesday.