Liverpool’s title ambitions suffered yet another huge setback as Brighton knicked a 1-0 win to make it back-to-back defeats at Anfield for Jurgen Klopp’s side.
The defending champions secured away wins at Tottenham and West Ham and looked to have got back to their relentless selves, however, that didn’t look like the story as Steven Alzate’s scrappy winner was enough for brilliant Brighton.
Graham Potter’s side played such football no one expected them to do against the defending champions. Their performance levels was exemplary, playing confidently and bravely in attack while defending with great cohesion at the back.
Having gone 68 games unbeaten at home, Liverpool, have now found themselves on the back of back to back losses at home to Burnley and Brighton and have not scored in the last 348 minutes of action at Anfield.
They had just one shot on target against the Seagulls in a toothless attacking showing.
The defeat means Liverpool are seven points off league leaders Manchester City ahead of Sunday’s meeting between the two teams.
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Jurgen Klopp blamed “mental fatigue” for Liverpool’s shock defeat to Brighton while defender Andy Robertson admits his side are out of the title race.
“For me the team looked, and it’s long ago since we looked like this, but we looked fatigued, mentally fatigued. That leads to not the best legs as well,” Klopp said.
“It was a tough week and today we were not fresh enough, and that means then not good enough to break the formation of Brighton.”
Klopp also pointed to the recent form of Brighton, who have now picked up 10 points from their last four games and registered back-to-back scalps with this win following another over Tottenham by the same scoreline last Sunday.
“We played against a really good opposition,” Klopp told BT Sport.
“For us this week looked too tough, we were not fresh, we didn’t look mentally fresh. If you are mentally not fresh, your legs normally sort your problems, but tonight they didn’t.
“They have a good plan and they deserve to win, but of course we wanted to play better and more convincing than we did tonight.
“I know the guys can play a pass from A to B, but tonight B did not seem reachable in some moments. I don’t have a real explanation for it, other than we had a really tough week, twice going to London and coming here tonight.
“We didn’t create enough. They came through and we didn’t come through.”
Stats and facts from the match (Backed by Opta)
- Brighton beat Liverpool for the first time in 13 meetings in all competitions, since a 2-0 FA Cup win in 1984. Meanwhile, this was the Seagulls’ first away win against Liverpool in the league since March 1982.
- Brighton have won three of their last four Premier League games (D1), as many as they had in their previous 23. This was the first time the Seagulls have won back-to-back league games since November 2019.
- Brighton have conceded just 10 goals in 11 Premier League games with Robert Sánchez in goal this season (5 clean sheets), compared to 19 in 11 with Mat Ryan in goal (2 clean sheets).
- Brighton have kept four consecutive top-flight clean sheets for the very first time.
Other Premier League results
Wednesday 3rd February
- Burnley 0-2 Manchester City
- Fulham 0-2 Leicester City
- Leeds United 1-2 Everton
- Aston Villa 1-3 West Ham United
- Liverpool 0-1 Brighton and Hove Albion
Waooo!
Yaassssss!!