Jürgen Klopp claimed the dominance of the Premier League’s leading pack will create an intense title race with no margin for error against the lesser lights after Liverpool returned to the top of the table with a 4-1 win over Cardiff.
Sadio Mané scored twice while Mohamed Salah and Xherdan Shaqiri were also on the scoresheet as Liverpool equalled their best start to a Premier League season set in 2008-09. Callum Paterson’s consolation strike for Cardiff cost Liverpool a club record 10th consecutive clean sheet at home in the league and it was the first league goal they had conceded at Anfield for 918 minutes. It was the only blemish on a comfortable afternoon for the league leaders.
“Not really,” said Klopp on the importance of being top after 10 games. “What makes the difference is the number of points because the difference between 23 and 26 feels like 20 points.
“It’s really important to stay on track. We will all meet each other, it’s unbelievable that five or six clubs have such a big number of points but it only makes it even more intense. It’s good for the people and the supporters of different clubs.
“Today it was clear that if we win it would be like that. We won, but for us it’s just the next step, that’s cool. Now we have time to recover. It’s the first time for a lot of the boys that they don’t play in three days’ time. We will use the time to recover then prepare the Arsenal game, which will be another nice challenge.”
Klopp said Liverpool were not at their creative best due to the effects of the Champions League win over Red Star Belgrade on Wednesday and that Shaqiri was rested after an intense period for club and country.
“We had very good moments and periods where we could have done better,” he said. “But we played on Wednesday and we had to create and create and create. That is really hard work to be honest. It’s so difficult. For your most creative football you need fresh legs and fresh players. That’s how it is. You cannot change a full team because you need rhythm as well. It was a similar game to the Belgrade game, possession-wise. I heard we had 85% possession? That’s a crazy number, especially after Wednesday.
“We conceded a goal, and that’s not something you want, especially when you can get a record. But it’s always possible. And today it helped even a little bit, because now Cardiff thought there was something more for them but we were there in those moments and finished the game off.”
