Arne Slot sat in his seat in the stand and looked down on the green acres on which his coronation will surely soon take place. His coronation as only the second Liverpool manager to win a league title for 35 years. His confirmation as a worthy successor to Jurgen Klopp and some of the others who have passed before.

The gap between Slot’s Liverpool and stuttering, stumbling Arsenal is now 13 points. Arsenal have a game in hand but given their current trajectory there is no guarantee they will win it. So, yes, it may still be February but the Premier League trophy feels now as though it belongs once more at Anfield.

Slot was in the stand here because of his brief loss of control two weeks ago after his team’s fractious derby draw at Everton. How long ago that disappointing night seems now. Liverpool looked rather shaken that night across the park. They don’t look like that now. Now they stand imperious. At the top by a distance. In control. Champions-elect.

 

They didn’t play brilliantly here. Hope for Newcastle maybe ahead of next month’s Carabao Cup Final. But they did enough and that’s what matters. A goal early for Dominik Szoboszlai and one to calm nerves midway through the second by Alexis Mac Allister.

And – as news filtered through of Arsenal’s failure by the Trent – the Kop sang its heart out in a way it couldn’t during their last triumph, in the Covid season of 2019-20.

It used to be transistor radios held to ears. Now the news from afar comes via screens refreshed manically on smartphones. But the impact is the same. Joy. Relief. A growing sense of certainty. ‘We are gonna win the league,’ they sang and who really is going to argue?

Dominik Szoboszlai put Liverpool in front after just 11 minutes on Wednesday night

Alexis Mac Allister doubled Liverpool’s lead with a fine finish past Nick Pope

Arne Slot watched from the stands as he served a touchline ban, with his team taking another big step towards the title

 

Their team was still going at the end, too. As the clock edged towards the final and 97th minute, it was Liverpool who were doing all the running.

Mo Salah hadn’t scored for once and looked decidedly insulted by it. He was still working Newcastle goalkeeper Nick Pope until the end. Darwin Nunez – on as a sub – was trying to prove a point after recent difficulties while Szoboszlai looked exhausted by end. If you ran as much as the Hungarian does, so would you.

So this is Slot’s Liverpool. Full of gas, bubbling with optimism. The weekend’s results had propelled them into this fixture on a wave of hope and with Newcastle missing their centre forward Alexander Isak due to a groin injury, Liverpool were ascendant in the opening stages. Indeed they probably should have had a penalty in just the second minute.

Salah ran on to a super pass inside Newcastle full-back Lewis Hall and as the defender fell, he appeared to bring his opponent down with his flailing arm. Referee Stuart Attwell blew his whistle but penalised Salah for a foul that simply didn’t exist and VAR chose not to become involved. Strange.

So on we went and on Liverpool went, pushing and probing against Newcastle’s ranks of black and white. Slot had made only two changes from the weekend but Liverpool’s midfield was not short of energy and Liverpool broke to score in the eleventh minute.

Mac Allister led an attack from deep through the middle and fed the ever-dangerous Luis Diaz down the left. Diaz eased inside before feeding Szoboszlai to score first time from 12 yards with his left instep. Pope seemed to see the ball late and go down slowly but Liverpool didn’t care. They had a valuable lead.

The home team smelled the chance to put the game away early. A Diogo Jota cross was cut out by Hall with Salah lurking before Diaz broke from the halfway line to feed Kostas Tsimikas who shot over. Salah also curled over while Jota fed Szoboszlai 18 yards out and his effort arced across goal and missed by a couple of inches.

Not that this was one-way traffic. Newcastle had come to play and were in the game. Callum Wilson threatened the Liverpool goal with a run and shot across goal at the Kop End and Eddie Howe’s team enjoyed some territory and some possession and were the better team for the first 15 minutes of the second period.

Callum Wilson fired wide in the first half as Newcastle threatened to spark into life

Wilson was handed a rare start as Alexander Isak watched on from the sidelines due to a groin complaint

Virgil van Dijk was as solid as ever at the back as Liverpool kept Newcastle at bay

MATCH FACTS

Liverpool (4-3-3): Alisson; Alexander-Arnold (Quansah 77), Konate, Van Dijk, Tsimikas; Gravenberch (Endo 77), Mac Allister (Jones 87), Szoboszlai; Salah, Diaz (Nunez 87), Jota (Gakpo 62)

Goals: Szoboszlai, Mac Allister

Manager: Arne Slot

Newcastle (4-3-3): Pope; Livramento (Trippier 69), Schar, Burn, Hall; Tonali (Miley 69), Guimaraes (Longstaff 88), Willock (Barnes 68); Murphy, Gordon, Wilson (Osula 69)

Booked: Murphy

Manager: Eddie Howe

 

Liverpool looked a little sketchy at this point and will have to be a level above when they travel to Paris in the Champions League next week. But their defending was stout and they broke beautifully to seal the game with 25 minutes left.

Mac Allister won the ball hungrily and ran forcefully with it towards goal. With players arriving on either side, he had options but wisely chose Salah who checked inside to return the ball and watch as Mac Allister swept it beautifully across Pope with his right foot.

Up in the gods, Slot was on his feet. He was not alone.