Our 3️⃣ points as Liverpool celebrate new year with victory | OneFootball

In the first Premier League game of 2024, Liverpool defeated Newcastle 4-2 to move three points clear atop the table.

This is what we made of it.

Four going on more

Given the score was level at half-time, Newcastle went on to equalise and then appeared to set an anxious finale by pulling another back, this wasn’t as close as that may suggest.

Even in the first half in which the Reds couldn’t score, they still managed an incredible 18 attempts on goal.

By the end of play, their 7.27 xG was the highest ever recorded in a Premier League fixture since such data began being tracked in 2010.

Even when they themselves thrashed Bournemouth 9-0 last season, they did so with an xG of just 3.32!

It could have been much worse for Eddie Howe’s side and were it not for some outstanding interventions from Martin Dúbravka between the posts, it would have been.

He was one of the few Newcastle players who can emerge with his head held high for his performance.

Milestone Mo

The evening didn’t start particularly well for Mo Salah when he missed an early penalty, something that has become a rather alarming trend of late for him.

But it didn’t take long for his quality to come to the fore and it was he who claimed the distinction of netting the first Premier League goal of 2024.

That was his 150th in the Premier League for Liverpool and he is the third fastest player to reach that landmark total for them in the top flight after Roger Hunt and Gordon Hodgson.

He is also only the fifth player to hit that amount in the Premier League era for one club after Harry Kane, Sergio Agüero, Wayne Rooney and Thierry Henry.

And the march towards 200 has already begun after his late penalty to wrap things up took him to 151.

Worrying form continues

There are plenty of reasons for Newcastle’s worrying form of late and most relate to the injury problems that keep plaguing their season.

Nonetheless, they would still have hoped to deal with the mounting crisis better.

The loss at Anfield means they have now lost seven of their last eight games in all competitions and next up in the league is a clash with Manchester City.

However, before that there is perhaps the perfect fixture to get things back on track and provide a much-needed tonic for squad and supporters alike: a long-awaited Tyne-Wear derby clash at Sunderland in the FA Cup.

Their record in that fixture has also been poor of late but there is no better way for them to turn around their fortunes than claiming north east bragging rights.