Not at the races this time - but Reds have to saddle up for the title run-in

THE images that emerged from Cheltenham Festival on Thursday were at least proof that at some point last week, Liverpool were indeed at the races.

- PAUL GORST

Sadly for Arne Slot, that did not extend to Sunday's Carabao Cup final, where the club meekly relinquished their hold on the competition on what was an historic day for Newcastle United.

And having followed up Tuesday night’s Champions League shootout defeat to Paris Saint-Germain with one of the worst showpiece performances in modern memory against the Magpies at Wembley, Liverpool are in danger, to take the cliched horse-race analogy further, of now stumbling at the final furlong.

With a 12-point advantage at the summit of the Premier League, a collapse seems unthinkable in the last nine games for a team who have lost just once all season and some perspective is required to keep the worst week of Arne Slot’s fledgling reign to date in check.

Many supporters would gladly have sacrificed every other competition to be in the position they find themselves in at the March international break.

But the manner of the first-ever sequence of back-to-back defeats for Slot’s Reds will sting.

And while the damage is still largely cosmetic, there is much to sift through, particularly as there is more than a fortnight now until the side can get back to winning ways when they entertain Everton in the Merseyside derby on April 2.

Having played a punishing 120 minutes before losing to PSG on penalties on Tuesday night, the Reds looked like a team bereft of its power on Sunday afternoon as the Magpies bullied their opponents with sheer physicality.

Newcastle won 51 duels to Liverpool's 38 on the day with Bruno Guimaraes winning nine alone compared to the combined eight of the Reds midfield trio of Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai. The post-match stats were proof that Slot and Virgil van Dijk’s frustrations of falling into the type of game Newcastle would have preferred held weight.