Liverpool cruised to an excellent 5-0 win over a hapless Swansea side, which means that there will be high scores aplenty as two goals from Firmino and one each from Coutinho, Ox and Trent moved the Reds back into the top four.
Simon Mignolet – 6/10: A virtual spectator for 90 minutes, making a decent enough save with the last touch of the match. Nothing to redeem himself after the Arsenal farce.
Trent Alexander-Arnold – 8/10: What a delightful player. Not only was Trent defensively solid, making several important defensive interventions, he also scored a stunning, Flanagan-esque goal. Let’s hope the rest of his career goes better than Jon’s has.
Joel Matip – 6/10: Was a huge relief to see him back in the starting line-up, but ultimately he had very little to do and didn’t really make a meaningful impact on the game. Not that anyone will mind that.
Ragnar Klavan – 7/10: Big fan of Ragnar Klavan at the moment, as he’s keeping Lovren out the team with consistently strong performances. Liverpool’s best defender on the night again here, really impressive and one or two crucial blocks at 1-0.
Andrew Robertson – 6/10: Very good going forward, really poor defensively. Let Routledge skin him on a couple of occasions, failed to stop some simple crosses, but equally put some wicked balls into the opposition box and created two chances. Mixed bag.
Emre Can – 6/10: Solid from Emre. One of those games where you struggle to think of too many highlights, but absolutely nothing egregious either. Could have been better at dictating the tempo, also could have been much worse defensively and on the ball.
Georginio Wijnaldum – 6/10: I’m still not entirely sure why Wijnaldum is playing, or what indeed he’s actually supposed to be doing when he does. It would be nice to know exactly what it is he’s failing to do. But it’s Christmas and we won 5-0 so I’ll give a six as he wasn’t as bad as usual.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – 7/10: The thing I like about Ox is that he works hard. He didn’t show much quality on the ball for most of the game, but he put himself about, pressed well and he scored a really delightful chipped goal. More of those, please.
Mo Salah – 7/10: Salah is so good that even his average performances are good ones. Two assists without needing to do too much, some really neat and tidy football from Mo and looked good on the ball. Not his day in front of goal though.
Roberto Firmino – 9/10: I love Bobby Firmino. Two great goals, showing he’s really improving his end product through his positioning. But once again it was his pressing that also influenced the game, winning the ball for the opening goal. One missed chance, but a sterling all-around performance.
Philippe Coutinho – 9/10: I’m out of superlatives. I’m grading on a curve. For anyone else a goal of the month contender, a stunning assist, creativity, dribbling, passing, this would be an extraordinary performance. For Phil, it’s just another game. He’s the best player at this club, and I really hope he stays.
Subs:
Dominic Solanke – 6/10: Dom is cursed. There’s absolutely no other explanation as for how he didn’t score today. Unlucky.
Adam Lallana – 6/10: The Cruyff turn is back. Delightful. Sort your hair out though.
James Milner – 6/10: Got himself into good positions back at left-back. It’s strange how natural he looks there.
