Liverpool take title race to final day after Joël Matip header sees off Southampton

Liverpool are going the distance. And so is their pursuit of the Premier League title. It is a remarkable detail of their season that they will play in every game of the four main competitions, with the Champions League final against Real Madrid on Saturday week set to be the last one. Before that – and with the domestic cups already secure – they will attempt to complete the third leg of an unprecedented quadruple.

They will still need the league leaders, Manchester City, to slip up at home to Aston Villa on the final day and what a storyline that could be. City have injury problems in defence and one particular Liverpudlian will be keen to capitalise – the Villa manager, Steven Gerrard.

Liverpool will have to beat Wolves at home and hope that City draw or lose but it will go to the wire after Jürgen Klopp’s team proved too strong for Southampton. Klopp rotated heavily, retaining only Alisson and Ibrahima Konaté from the lineup that had started the FA Cup final defeat of Chelsea on Saturday and, for the opening 20 minutes, struggled for their bearings. Southampton were bright and they led through Nathan Redmond.

But thereafter, it was an exercise in Liverpool reeling them in. Takumi Minamino, who was on loan at Southampton last season, got the equaliser and, although Joël Matip’s winner was undercut by good fortune, it was merited on the balance of play.

Klopp had been expected to make changes but perhaps not to this extent. Trent Alexander-Arnold and Sadio Mané were given the night off; Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah missed out with knocks.

It was a balancing act for the manager, the calculation taking in the likelihood of City messing it up on the final day and the possibility of getting injuries ahead of the