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Diaz decision speaks volumes

Arne Slot has been insistent over the last week that Liverpool’s summer transfer business may not be as expansive as many are expecting.

But this performance underlined there’s one area of the team virtually guaranteed a refresh.

With the championship battle not quite done and dusted, it was telling the Reds boss chose to overlook his orthodox number nine options of Diogo Jota and Darwin Nunez and start with Luis Diaz as the central striker for the first time since the 2-2 draw at Everton two months ago.

It wasn’t that the Reds didn’t then create openings against Leicester City.

But the cameo of the other player he was introduced alongside should not be overlooked.

This has been a strange campaign for Harvey Elliott, hampered first by injury and the form of others after an encouraging pre-season under Arne Slot which led to him being outlined by the Liverpool boss as a contender for the number 10 role.

Elliott, though, is still awaiting his first Premier League start, and again had to be content with a run-out of less than half-an-hour from the bench here.

That, though, was enough for the 22-year-old to make a notable difference with his urgency and willingness to shoot adding a fresh and welcome dimension to Liverpool’s attacking effort.

And whenever Elliott emerges, often those around him respond in a positive manner.

Dominik Szoboszlai, who Elliott replaced, was impressive in the first half of the campaign but, as with last season, has found the intensity and sheer slog of the closing months difficult to handle, and was again largely peripheral here.

Whether that problem could have been alleviated had Elliott been given more opportunities is a question Slot must now ponder.

Whatever happened on the pitch, Liverpool supporters were here to enjoy themselves.

Having been unable to fully embrace the championship victory of five years ago due to pandemic restrictions, Reds fans are determined to make up for that missed collective experience, rattling through the Kop songbook with gusto during the first half.

It mattered not that Arsenal, as expected, had thumped Ipswich Town earlier in the day, although as Slot’s side made hard work of finding a breakthrough in the second half, nerves became a little frayed

Well, as much as they could be given Liverpool’s sizeable advantage at the summit.

But after such a systematic destruction of the Premier League, the narrow victories of the last two weeks have given Reds supporters reason to celebrate while releasing some of the frustration and pressure that has built up during recent times.

One win to go
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