They have always known how to party on Merseyside, but this is stretching the point even for them.
Because at this rate, Jurgen Klopp’s Anfield farewell is going to turn into the longest leaving bash in living memory.
Conor Bradley roared in delight after scoring his first Liverpool goal
Darwin Nunez hit the woodwork four times, including with his penalty
All those Liverpool loyalists certainly weren’t joking when they said they’d make his final few months in town extra special.
The way they have reacted to the news that stunned football suggests a quadruple isn’t such a fanciful dream after all.
Not if tonight’s demolition of Chelsea is anything to go by anyway. Although when your opponents are as witless as the Blues, admittedly, it does help.
And so much, too, for everyone who thought losing Mo Salah’s firepower first to Africa Cup of Nations duty and then to the treatment table would leave them firing blanks.
In five games without the Egyptians, they have rattled in 17 goals. And by rights, they should have had a whole lot more as well.
Tonight it was four; it should have been at least double; it could have been even more. They flew out of the traps, never broke stride, and never looked like losing.
Poise, class, energy, determination, persistence… The men in red had them all; the ones in blue had none.
The goals came from Diogo Jota, the magnificent Conor Bradley, summer signing Dominic Szoboszlai—thank heavens they missed out on Moises Caicedo, eh—and Luis Diaz.
But really, there could have been half a dozen others in Liverpool shirts who ended up on the scoresheet.
Liverpool were red-hot; they were rampant, and they simply ran riot from start to finish. The way Klopp is beaming his way through matches these days, they could use him to light up the city.
Mind you, no one did that quite as brightly as young right-back Bradley, making only his second preseason start.
Well, however many games this kid—he only left his teens in the summer—plays by the time he does hang up his boots, he will rarely have an evening like this one.
Bradley’s sweet strike nestled into the bottom corner
Jurgen Klopp congratulated Bradley on his superb performance
By the time he finally took his bow, 20 minutes from the end, everyone inside Anfield was on their feet and applauding. Rarely has a standing ovation been so richly deserved.
In a game when they were hardly short of heroes, Bradley outshone all the likely candidates. He was stunning. He was superb. He was unstoppable.
It was Bradley’s toe that initially nicked the ball from a marauding Ben Chilwell for the first 23 minutes, followed up by drilling the ball to Jota just outside the box.
Diogo Jota opened the scoring
Jota’s left foot and right foot step bundled him between Thiago Silva and Benoit Badiashile, and although he got lucky with the ricochet, the finish couldn’t have been more clinical.
Seven minutes before the break, a night to remember became a never-to-be-forgotten one for the youngster from the Northern Irish town of Castlederg in County Tyrone.
When Luis Diaz picked it up halfway, Bradley headed off down the right. One touch earned space, and the next was a perfect finish for his first Reds goal.
Sensational stuff. And more to come—this time in a laser-guided delivery from the right flank midway through the second half for Szoboszlai to thunder in a header.
Dominik Szoboszlai thundered in a superb header
Had Darwin Nunez not gone on a one-man mission to set a new record for striking the woodwork, Chelsea’s faces would have been redder than their opponents’ shirts come the end of it all.
A record four times he rattled the bar or post, once from the penalty spot after Jota was sent tumbling by Badiashile’s clumsy foot. And he was superb, as well.
Darwin Nunez had an unlucky day
Perhaps this is the reason he finally decided to blow this for a game of soldiers and turn provider instead, setting Diaz up for the fourth with 11 minutes remaining.
When Christopher Nkunku pulled one barely inside the far post, Chelsea had already received the most meaningless of lifelines.
They have every right to be aggrieved because Virgil van Dijk’s escape with fouls on Conor Gallagher and Nkunku should have resulted in spot kicks for them.
Yet don’t for one minute think Chelsea were unfortunate. They were damn lucky not to get an even bigger hiding. Party time, anyone?
Christopher Nkunku pulled one back to make it 3-1
Luis Diaz sent Anfield wild with the fourth
It was another frustrating night for Chelsea
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