As Liverpool cut speculative passes in unmarked spaces and trotted around the pitch during opening hours on Saturday night, you would have thought they had all the time in the world to score.
Unfortunately for the Reds, they had only 90 minutes to break down Arsenal, and that achievement looked less and less likely with each passing second.
This lack of has crept into their game during this miserable title defense, and all Liverpool supporters will tell you, the longer the game remains goalless, the more the feeling that these players have no idea how to create a chance.
Everything Liverpool did in the first hour looked complicated. Even against an Arsenal side that started without intent to score, the Reds could not click in the gear or create the golden chance.
The golden chance, by the way, arrived four or five times in the match when Jurgen Klopp’s men sent the team with ease 18 months ago. Instead, the mood began to flare up, agitation spread through the troupe and ideas were kept to a minimum.
And so Klopp turned to a man who had only arrived this summer, and one who many thought would play a peripheral role in a side that was apparently concrete in the choice from goalkeeper to top three.
What a cross from Alexander-Arnold! Liverpool takes the lead!
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– Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) April 3, 2021
Diogo Jota came on, 61 minutes into the match. Less than three minutes later, the Portuguese striker had pushed Liverpool into the lead and reminded everyone how different this season would have been if he had not missed the majority through injury.
The 24-year-old pulled away from the back of the marker, made a pocket with space for himself in the box and then stepped up to meet Trent Alexander-Arnold’s real cross – the first delivery that had really been attacked all evening.
It was Jota’s fourth consecutive goal for the club and the country, a surprise feature he has added to his armor. With that goal, the forward called his teammates from the dead, and just as Mohamed Salah felt the conversation go away from him, the Egyptians sparked into life.
Jota’s presence on the field was enough to keep Salah on his toes, and he did what he does best, embarrassingly defending and finishing with the wrong ease.
Jota puts Liverpool 3-0!
? Watch Sky Sports PL? Follow #ARSLIV here: https://t.co/x0xe8CO5JC? Download the app @SkySports! pic.twitter.com/QYVUthWxm2
– Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) April 3, 2021
But it was Jota’s night, and he would not be surpassed.
Arriving late in the box, the forward charged at Mane’s heavy touch, and whether the Senegalese forward liked it or not, he would give that chance up to the latecomer. Jota made no mistake and shook an unstoppable shot beyond Leno and put a nice shine on the 3-0 score.
And that was how the match ended. For half an hour, it looked as if Arsenal had pulled Liverpool down to their level and forced them to submit to chronic boredom. But the Gunners did not account for one thing: Jota’s return.
The Liverpool star is the only man who seems to be able to create or take chances at the moment, and when he is off the pitch, the team falls into a dormant corridor from the back to the front.
Diogo Jota on and we are 2-0 up five minutes later.
Coincidence?
I do not think so. pic.twitter.com/VnbGlWiVBm
– Wilco? (@KIopptinho) April 3, 2021
It may feel like this season has gone for the Reds, but there is so much left to fight for.
Champions League qualification is a top priority and Saturday’s victory keeps that dream alive. And let’s not forget, they were able to secure their place in Europe’s biggest competition next year by winning the trophy this time.
The league form suggests that it should not be possible, but with Jota in this form and on the side, anything is possible.
