Resurgent Naby Keïta keeps Liverpool going when the limbs are screaming

By the end, Alisson was trying to waste time. Sadio Mané was listlessly dribbling the ball into the corner in an attempt to burn away a few more seconds. Deep into injury time Naby Keïta started rolling around on the turf in apparent agony. Was it a cruciate? A broken leg? A debilitating muscle tear that would put him out for the season? Happily, as a victorious Keïta disappeared into the embrace of his teammates just a few seconds later, we have to conclude that he may just survive the night.

Curiously, given his famously forthright views on teams adopting cynical tactics in an attempt to win games, Jürgen Klopp had very little to say about any of this afterwards. But then, perhaps it was understandable that aesthetics would be the last thing on his mind at Villa Park. This was the sort of win you have to extract like one of your own teeth, the sort of win that almost feels too debasing to truly celebrate, the sort of win you pull out on the day your title rivals sign Erling Haaland for next season.

But it was a quietly crucial win too, for no other reason than because there was no real alternative. Liverpool know deep down that they will probably finish second in this year’s Premier League, and more painfully they know they probably deserve to. Those seven dropped points over Christmas and new year, an entire month without a league win, have likely done for them. Hope is the most precious commodity of all to retain at a time like this. But there are two major finals still to be played and this is no time to start feeling sorry for themselves, as it briefly appeared as if they might.

You could even see the fatigue and lethargy in Klopp’s face as he did his post-match interviews: a coach of boundless energy whose tank