Is Liverpool’s ‘special’ ability a strength or sign of weakness?

Can Jurgen Klopp's side keep winning narrowly and late, or are knife-edge victories a result of a difficult schedule?

Liverpool’s last-gasp win at Villa Park on Saturday was already their sixth victory by a difference of one goal this season. All of their last five wins have come by that most slender of margins. In the last three of those wins, they have scored crucial, result-shifting goals as late as the 75th, 87th, 94th and 95th minutes.

But it has been this way for a while now. Just ask Pep Guardiola. He believes the late, dramatic and narrow wins that Manchester City’s title rivals are collecting do not come by chance.

“We arrived in the locker room and it was 1-1 and after it was 1-2,” he said on Saturday. “It happened many times, what Liverpool has done in the last years… When it’s one or two times, ‘we are lucky, we are lucky’. What happened in the last two seasons many many times, they have a special character to do that.”

Over the last year, Liverpool’s challenge to Guardiola and City has developed a breathless, knife’s edge quality. It began with Divock Origi and the Merseyside derby last December continued against Crystal Palace, Fulham, Tottenham, Southampton and Newcastle down the stretch. All of these wins came late, decided after the 75th-minute.

Only two Premier League teams – Manchester United and Tottenham – recorded more one-goal wins than Liverpool last year. No team performed better in the final 15 minutes of games, with Klopp’s players scoring 25 and conceding five. Now, Liverpool are still winning narrowly and scoring late, picking up more points from losing positions than any other team so far this season.

With around three-quarters of the Premier League campaign left to run, the question is whether the “special character” Guardiola speaks of is a sign of strength or whether it points to an underlying weakness. Does the dramatic manner of such victories embolden Liverpool – inspiring them to do the same again and again - or will it eventually exhaust them? In short, can they keep this up?

Guardiola seems resigned to believing they will, and he may well be right. After all, Liverpool’s most recent victories have not necessarily been as closely-fought as they seem. On Saturday they did enough to deserve all three points, even if Aston Villa defended their lead admirably for more than an hour.

Trezequet’s relatively early goal changed the game’s dynamic, forcing Liverpool onto the front foot until Andy Robertson’s equaliser and Mané’s stoppage time winner, but they had the opportunities to settle the game earlier. 25 shots to Villa’s four tells part of the story, as do the underlying expected goals models dominated by the title challengers.

It was a similar story against Tottenham at Anfield a week earlier and against Leicester, who offered very little on their visit to Merseyside. Victories over Chelsea and Sheffield United were more of a close-run thing – particularly the Chelsea win, which becomes more impressive and significant as a result with every week that passes – but the sense is that Klopp’s side are turning the draws which ultimately scuppered last year’s title bid into victories, picking up three points in difficult places.

In fact, Liverpool’s record since August – seven wins and a draw – has come amid a run of challenging fixtures. Only Newcastle’s visit was likely to be a comfortable victory. Leicester and Tottenham will be among the more testing Anfield afternoons this season. Five of the eight games were away from home. Stamford Bridge, Old Trafford, Turf Moor, Bramall Lane and now Villa Park have been safely negotiated.

This testing two-and-a-half months ends with the most testing visit of all: that of City on Sunday. Whatever the result, Liverpool will still be league leaders this time next week and will not play another established ‘top six’ side until the new year, away to Tottenham on 11 January. A Merseyside derby at Anfield and an away day at Leicester late on Boxing Day are the most intimidating of their games in between. Otherwise, their schedule does not truly stiffen up again until the spring.

Guardiola will hope that, by then, Liverpool are feeling the effects of a title race which has picked up from where it left off in May, as if it lasts two seasons rather than just one. But for now, Klopp and his players show no signs of losing momentum. They have played every team to compete in the Premier League this season and last since their defeat at the Etihad on 3 January. They have not lost to a single one of them.

On Sunday, avoiding defeat will complete the set, but you sense that even if the scores are level deep into stoppage time and their six-point lead appears safe, this relentless team will not simply settle for a draw.