Neil Atkinson’s post-match review for The Anfield Wrap after Liverpool 4 Newcastle Utd 1 in the 2025-2026 Premier League at Anfield…
START at the end. Because you get what you want. Maybe you’d forgotten, in the maelstrom, that you wanted it but suddenly there is Ibou Konate with the goal gaping and you remember it all.
And Nick Woltemade blocks.
But you, we, are not to be denied. The ball comes in again and this player you’ve seen had a tough trot recently but which, in the name of all that is good in the world, you’ve loved, you’ve deeply loved, gets a scruffy moment.
If we’re honest Alexis Mac Allister should make sure but he knows not to. He knows it is worth the gamble and there it is.
Sometimes, Liverpool magic happens. Sometimes the Anfield spirits decide a person needs a thing, a moment, a goal. You don’t need to believe in any god to feel the love on the 93rd minute, but you see so many of his teammates moved by love. The goalkeeper jogs 100 yards in neon because he knows. He knows as well as any human could.
It is a collective act of love and we’ve talked about this before. Love is just care intensified. And care is everything. Care is a verb. You see the verb and you feel it and you remember – all of us. Yes against all of them but forget them. Remember all of us. It is the most important thing.
In the end we are all relieved, of course we are. Liverpool versus Newcastle has such form. Two sets of fans who know this game can go off. An 8pm kick off, Saturday night, in the rain. It’s emphatic in the end, a certain result in a season of uncertainties and doubt.
But it doesn’t start that way. It starts with a strident Newcastle United. Anthony Gordon is fast and determined and his movement is electric. Well propped up by Trippier from the back and Elanga to his right, he pushes Newcastle forward all the time. A little like Gerrard in his pomp, you see a team all play better focused on the space he creates and the chances he makes.
I hate that Gordon doesn’t play for us. It keeps me up at night and I know all the reasons and I have heard all the criticism and I just don’t care. Nights like tonight you see in patches how hard he can be to live with. I want all the great Liverpudlian players to play for us.
Liverpool struggle for the first half an hour and Gordon caps it off with an excellent strike on the 36th minute. You wonder if this is bad timing for Liverpool. Will the dressing room at half-time need yet more recriminations, yet more doubt?
However matters had already begun to change. The goal was already against the run of play. Yes Newcastle had had the best of the first 20 but after a contretemps involving Ibou, Liverpool had begun to be aggressive and were just on top.
In any case: Fuck doubt. Here’s Hugo Ekitike. Liverpool’s number 22 has decided he can’t be bothered losing and decides to fight back. Sharp passing in front of goal with Florian Wirtz being utterly irresistible sees Hugo Ekitike slot it away then wheel away in front of the Newcastle fans in celebration. He has swagger, this guy. As he turns the corner towards the Main Stand he lifts his arms toward the crowd. Fuck. This. Let’s just win.
And just minutes later he does it again, this time aided by Kerkez. From behind to in front in ten minutes with two snazzy goals from a player in form and he knows it. He bows elegantly and pulls his shirt showing the Liver Bird on his chest to the massed ranks of the Main Stand. Ekitike’s speed and trickiness helps this Liverpool side, desperate for outlets. Today he is scoring for fun.
Liverpool come out much, much stronger in the second-half. Florian and Hugo have shown exactly what the magic is meant to show and now the rest of the side needs to respond.
Dom Szoboszlai and Ryan Gravenberch are in control of their areas and there is just much better passing and retrieving of the ball. Our shape seems to work for once. This makeshift back four look okay with it all. The front three are never going to be the best combination upfront ever to play in red, but it is very respectable.
Mo Salah isn’t at his best but he needs constant attention and that creates space for others. Sixty percent Salah is one hundred percent better than many, and he still manages to get involved. Especially towards the end of the game, as Newcastle tire, he looks on the verge of scoring, on the verge of making an impossible goal.
Meanwhile, Wirtz is continuing on his upward journey and nets a great strike – assisted by Salah – half way through the second-half. It’s a key goal. It is a deserved goal. Liverpool deserving what they get.
Liverpool, now 3 goals to Newcastle’s 1, are on top at last. Defensively, we got the better of Anthony Gordon, got the better of Dan Burn. No mean feat to overcome physically overbearing players desperate to get somewhere at Anfield.
Beyond the front two and before the goal there are suddenly candidates for man of the match everywhere. Ibou Konate is a perfect defender today. Again and again he makes the right intervention, the right tackle, his head finds the ball and directs it from danger.
Time and again, he and Virgil van Dijk touch hands. Well done, keep going, you’re good. For a man who has just lost his father, these words of encouragement must have a new meaning. An importance. Anfield chants his name, again and again. Keep going Ibou, well done, keep going. All of us. Keep going.
The fourth could come with Cody Gakpo’s involvement. It is his best day at Anfield of the season. It could see a hattrick or could be a deserved brace or one more from Mo Salah.
But instead you get what you want. In this season of that being so hard and so rare, cherish it. Forget building blocks or turning corners. Forget that for now; speak of it when in rearview mirrors or when the building is almost built. Remember instead the eternal truths – everything good is worth doing together and everything worth doing together is worthy of all of our care.
And we walk away from Anfield happy. Simply happy. We needed that. We wanted that.
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