The Warm-Up: It’s name on the trophy time for Liverpool

As statements of intent go, it’s hard to get much more intent-y than trouncing the second-placed team in the league, at their place, by four goals to nil. Liverpool, apparently, are not messing about.

As December began, Liverpool were a mere eight points clear, and the chasing pack had a glimmer of hope. For the European Champions were off to Qatar for a week, which would mean missing one Premier League game and, perhaps, being pretty knackered for a couple more. A chance to put a little pressure on, perhaps?

Fast forward almost a month and, even if Manchester City win today and Sunday, and Liverpool lose to Wolves, the leaders will still be eight points clear. But now with a game in hand.

Liverpool are doing something extraordinary. They have dropped just two points all season. Extend this record back into last season — something the Warm-Up is generally ideologically opposed to, but this seems important — and it’s just ten points dropped since they lost to Manchester City on January 3.

Those optimistic souls pretending that we still have a title race will take heart from the fact that Liverpool definitely wobbled last winter: shortly after that loss to City came a run of four draws in six games, which saw them overtaken at the top. Obviously something more spectacular would need to happen here but, well, if you haven’t got hope, what have you got?

In the first minute of Liverpool’s game against Leicester City, Trent Alexander-Arnold trundled forward and planted a shot straight at Kaspar Schmeichel. Bit feisty, for a right-back. Bit presumptuous. Hasn’t he got some defending to do?

In the 78th minute, with his opponents now three goals down and handily beaten, Alexander-Arnold trundled forward again and hit pretty much the same shot. Except he hit it a bit harder, and Schmeichel was a little slower, and as a result it flew past the keeper and into the net. Problem solved.

Alexander-Arnold is the finest right-back in the country, to a degree that isn’t even funny. Indeed, it’s probably only the fact that he’s so disgustingly, appallingly young that stops everybody acknowledging him as the best in the world. Much of this brilliance is because he spends a lot of time attacking: he’s one of the most creative players in the league, second only to Kevin Du Bruyne when it comes to assists, and he hits long passes and crosses with a purity to make most midfielders weep.

But all that means Liverpool should leak goals down his side, and they don’t. So he must be doing something right going backwards, too.

In fact, you could probably argue that Alexander-Arnold is Liverpool’s most essential player. Perhaps Van Dijk or Alisson are more important when it comes to getting results. But when Alexander-Arnold is missing, Liverpool don’t quite look like themselves. Milner tries his best, bless him, but they have to muddle through with merely a load of brilliant players. With their child right-back where he belongs, they sing. And it’s frankly terrifying.

Back in the land of mere mortals and vulnerable football teams, what’s going on with Chelsea? After their encouraging win over Tottenham — sorry, Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham — they found themselves expertly rolled over at home by relegation-botherers Southampton. That loss makes five in their last seven games, and their grip on fourth place is looking exceedingly shaky.

Much credit goes to Southampton, of course, who arrived with a plan — break quickly and in numbers — and executed it perfectly. But Chelsea’s shiny new three-at-the-back formation, which worked so well to stifle Spurs, looked simultaneously toothless and vulnerable here. The home side had two-thirds of the possession, but only managed three shots on target, a number that was matched by the visitors.

The timing of this mini-slump could not be more intriguing. January is coming, and with it the transfer window. Frank Lampard, having returned to Chelsea promising sweet lemonade from transfer ban lemons, has the opportunity to spend and, perhaps, the motive.

With Leicester now seven points ahead of the west Londoners, and City looking to make it eight today, Chelsea are no longer looking forward but back over their shoulder. Of the other clubs that could spend big this winter, Spurs are just three points behind, and Manchester United four.

We might just have a good old-fashioned Race For Fourth shaping up. And as we all know, those begin with the chequebooks. That Champions League spot looks ripe for the purchasing.

The moment of Liverpool’s win wasn’t Alexander-Arnold’s goal; it was his celebration. Over to the corner flag he went, over to his jubilant away fans, and once he got there he gave it the full Kylian Mbappé. And he almost kept a straight face, too. Bless him.

Obviously Liverpool didn’t technically win the league last night, but … well, they pretty much did. So the Warm-Up looked up the last time Liverpool winning a league happened, a 2-1 win over QPR all the way back in 1990. Wonder what VAR would have made of that penalty?

Here’s Eni Aluko in the Guardian looking forward to Sam Kerr’s arrival at Chelsea and the impending rivalry with Arsenal’s Vivianne Miedema.

Can Manchester City keep the title race alive and cut Liverpool’s lead to only *checks notes* ELEVEN points?! Find out tonight against Wolverhampton Wanderers! Also it’s the Dundee derby in the Scottish derby, if that’s more your slice of cake.