‘Fantastic’ Liverpool ‘very hard to stop’: Brendan Rodgers

Former Liverpool manager and current Leicester gaffer Brendan Rodgers opined that it will now be “very, very hard to stop” Liverpool in winning the Premier League after watching the Reds thrash second-placed Leicester to open up a 13-point lead.

The Foxes were given a reality check at the King Power Stadium on Boxing Day, after a brace from Roberto Firmino and goals from James Milner and Trent Alexander-Arnold inflicting a heavy 4-0 defeat.

The hosts although suffered a crushing defeat at the end of full-time, however, they were remarkably still in the game by the 70th minute as The Reds were just a goal ahead courtesy of Roberto Firmino’s 31st-minute header.

But following Caglar Soyuncu’s handball which resulted in a James Milner penalty, Liverpool’s 17th league win from 18 matches this season was wrapped up with Firmino’s second and Trent Alexander-Arnold’s exquisite drive to cap an exceptional performance.

The former Celtic boss while speaking to media professionals after the game said: “The last two games have been great benchmarks for us.

“Because of how well we’ve done, we’ve been catapulted into this title race, but then you’ve seen in the last couple of games, the quality of the opposition we’ve played, and Liverpool were absolutely terrific.

“They are going to be very, very hard to stop. There’s no doubt. They’re a fantastic team, with confidence high. They’ve become winners now, and haven’t lost many games now over an 18-month period.

“They’ve enough players, enough experience and enough quality to stay focused and get the job done.”

Liverpool are now 13 points clear having played one less game than Leicester. When asked about the 13-point cushion, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said: “The only thing that changes in the question is that the number is different.

“It was 10, 11, now 13. But we actually don’t feel it, we don’t think it, and we didn’t mention it once before the game because it’s just not interesting. We all know that.

“I can write the stories by myself. The first story is that never before in the history of British football has a team had a bigger lead and lost the lead. That sounds, in my ear, negative, so why should we think about something like that?

“We are focused on the next games – Wolves, Sheffield United, Everton, Tottenham, Manchester United – the next five games. It doesn’t sound like anything is decided in my ears.

“We have to play all of them, and we try with all we have to make sure we are ready for these games, so the number is not relevant to us.”