Roberto Firmino helps Liverpool to thump Arsenal at Anfield and extend lead at top of Premier League

Liverpool 5-1 Arsenal: The hosts duly capitalised on Tottenham Hotspur’s surprise home defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers and moved nine points clear at the summit

Before this thumping 5-1 win over Arsenal, Jurgen Klopp wrote in the match-day programme about the subject of in-game setbacks, the type that his unbeaten Liverpool side have suffered but endured on several occasions already this season.

His players experienced another such setback here, falling behind to Ainsley Maitland-Niles’ opener inside 11 minutes. Was this be the first blow Liverpool would not recover from? Was this another moment twist at the top of the Premier League table in a festive period full of them?

It was not. Through two near-immediate Roberto Firmino goals in response - followed by others from Sadio Mané, Mohamed Salah and a third for Firmino - Klopp’s side showed why they are this title race's nerveless protagonists.

Liverpool duly capitalised on Tottenham Hotspur’s surprise home defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers and moved nine points clear at the summit. Their lead defending champions Manchester City, who play Southampton tomorrow, is now in double figures.

By Thursday evening, that deficit could easily be reduced to four points, with City welcoming Liverpool to the Etihad in five days’ time. It could, on the other hand, be as many as thirteen if Pep Guardiola’s side suffer consecutive league defeats once again.

That is the best case scenario that Liverpool supporters left Anfield dreaming of after this commanding, significant victory. Should it come to pass, a first league title in 29 years would surely be theirs to lose.

The result at Wembley coloured Anfield with a certain tension and expectancy. Standing alone as the only title contenders not to drop points over the Christmas period, Liverpool now needed to once again keep their nerve. Yet there was a skittishness to their early play, particularly when playing out of the back.

One early stray pass by Fabinho played in Alex Iwobi, who was initially a menace on Arsenal’s left, but Alisson was equal to his low effort. Iwobi would be more successful a minute later, exchanging a one-two with Aaron Ramsey then finding Maitland-Niles unmarked at the far post with a low cross. The 21-year-old tapped in.

Klopp’s notes had foreshadowed this moment. “So far, we have shown the ability to absorb these moments, react to them and adapt” he wrote. “Let’s keep doing that.” The response he sought would arrive just three minutes later, though more by Arsenal’s hand than that of his own players.

Xhaka’s tackle on Salah just inside the penalty area to snuff out a threatening counter-attack was executed perfectly, except for the fact that the ball followed through to Stephan Lichtsteiner. His attempt to clear - or, worse, control - the ball hit Shkodran Mustafi, rebounded out of Bernd Leno’s reach and allowed Firmino to apply a no-look finish.

Roberto Firmino scored a quickfire double (Getty)

Liverpool’s second came even quicker than their first. Not long after the restart, Lucas Torreira believed he had found a moment of calm to pause and take in his surroundings after a breathless quarter of an hour. He was wrong. Mané’s dispossession played in Firmino, though he still had a couple of Arsenal defenders to beat.

With the drop of his right shoulder went Mustafi, with the drop of his left went Sokratis Papastathopoulos, leaving only Leno to be deceived by a composed finish into the bottom corner. Firmino, goalless at Anfield in his last 11 league outings, now had two in the space of 90 seconds.

The furious pace eased as Liverpool began to find their feet in the midfield battle and, shortly after the half-hour mark, Mané would make their growing superiority tell. After a corner was cleared back across the halfway line, Andy Roberton’s punt forward sent Salah in behind. His first touch was a square pass, Mane’s was to put the ball into the roof of the net.

Mo Salah scored from the spot (Getty)

Salah, not wanting to be left out, wrote his name on the scoresheet at the close of the first half. The Egyptian had been angling his way in towards Leno’s goal from the right when Sokratis clumsily raked at his heels. The contact was questionable but certainly present and referee Michael Oliver pointed to the spot. For the second consecutive game at Anfield, Salah won and scored a penalty.

An attack as fluid as Arsenal’s could still threaten, as Aaron Ramsey proved when he ghosted a cross-cum-shot towards Alisson’s unguarded far post early in the second half. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was there to apply the required touch but, two yards out, found Anfield Road’s away end. The assistant’s flag was up but the decision was marginal at best.

That was the best Emery’s men offered. “Liverpool, take the piss,” the Kop demanded. The fifth followed. Again, it was from the penalty spot and a preventable Arsenal error, with Sead Kolasinac standing in for Lichtsteiner and Sokratis as the guilty culprit. His foul on Dejan Lovren allowed Firmino to complete his hat-trick and allowed those supporters to leave dreaming.