These midtable away games tell a lot about the top teams. In the last two months Liverpool have had two unconvincing wins and two defeats away v Wolves, Palace, Leicester,& West Ham. Today lucky to win with Firmino offside and clearly interfering for the 2nd goal and the soft pen. Liverpool had weathered the storm a bit before the pen but at 1-2 the last 5 mins would have been interesting. Bad sign when your (someone say dodgy?) keeper is your best player. Really need Thiago back after the break to have a chance of making a contest of the league. Jones is a fine young player but lost control of midfield.
Two of the Brazilians off to Quito now for the first of two WC qualifiers. Fabinho is suspended for first game but is in the squad while Bobby is not. FA Cup v Cardiff is next then 4 PL/CL matches in 10 days from 10th to 19th Feb. Will need a full fit squad for that run. In other countries teams never play on the Sunday before a big CL match but Liverpool seem to have PL matches on the Thurs and Sunday before the away leg in Milan.