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Jurgen Klopp’s side played the Blades off the pitch at Anfield to ensure their near-perfect league form continued into 2020
Liverpool took their relentless Premier League form to new heights against Sheffield United on Thursday evening, as they played more passes than in any other league game in the club’s history.
Jurgen Klopp’s side kept up their title charge with a 2-0 win courtesy of goals from Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane at Anfield.
In doing so, they played 969 passes at an accuracy rate of 90.1 per cent – a club record, but not enough to beat the 1015 played by Manchester City against Swansea in April 2018 .
Liverpool were scarcely troubled by Chris Wilder’s side , finishing the game with 74.8 per cent of the match possession.
The only blow for Klopp was an injury sustained by midfielder Naby Keita in the warm-up. Having been due to start the game, Keita was replaced in the starting XI by James Milner.
Sheffield United’s top passer on the night was defender John Egan, who completed 32 passes.
Of Liverpool’s starters, only Mohamed Salah and goalkeeper Alisson failed to beat this figure with captain Jordan Henderson and all four defenders in Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joe Gomez, Virgil Van Dijk and Andy Robertson each completing more than 100 passes during the game.
Van Dijk boasted the best figure of 131 completed passes, at a 95 per cent success rate.
There were a number of other impressive statistics to take from the game.
Liverpool are only the second team to take 58 points from the first 60 games of an English top-flight season, after Manchester City in 2017-18 – even if every season in the past had been three points for a win.
Salah’s early opener ensured the Reds scored for a 29th consecutive Premier League game, though they still have some work to do to catch the all-time record on that front.
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Arsenal managed 55 games without drawing a blank between 2001 and 2005, though Liverpool are closing on next-best Manchester United’s total of 36 between 2007 and 2008.
Salah and Mane combined to double the advantage in the second half, with the Senegal forward scoring his 25th league goal at Anfield since the beginning of last season.
Mane and the Kop clearly get on well – in the same time period, only Lionel Messi at Camp Nou and Kylian Mbappe at the Parc des Princes have more league goals at a single venue.
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