The cast may change, but the plot doesn’t.
It’s becoming a familiar story, this.
Liverpool go on the road, people ask questions. Will they keep their run going? Will their luck run out? Can Jurgen Klopp really make THAT many changes to his starting line-up and get away with it?
Yes, they will. No, it won’t. Yes, damn right he can.
It doesn’t matter which players Klopp plugs in at the moment, the result is the same. The Premier League leaders march on.
Is anyone going to stop them this time?
Bournemouth couldn’t. Eddie Howe’s side were not in the same league here. They’ve lost their last five now, but rarely can they have been so thoroughly outclassed. They couldn’t get near Liverpool.
June, July, August, September, October and November have been pretty kind to the Reds, and December has started nicely too. The challenges come and the challenges go.
Bournemouth were dismissed as Everton were in midweek. That’s 15 wins from 16 now, and 33 league games unbeaten. Their lead at the top of the table is up to 11 points ahead of Leicester's trip to Aston Villa on Sunday.
The star turns just keep on coming. On Wednesday, it was Divock Origi and Xherdan Shaqiri; here, it was Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Naby Keita. Derided for so long, Liverpool’s squad is starting to bare its teeth.
Both Oxlade-Chamberlain and Keita decorated their performances with goals, smartly-taken ones too. Liverpool have now had 16 different goalscorers in the Premier League this season. The club record, set in 1911-12 and 2015-16, is 17.
Getty
Klopp had made five changes against Everton and he made seven here. There was no Gini Wijnaldum or Adam Lallana in the 18-man squad, while Sadio Mane and Trent Alexander-Arnold started among the substitutes.
It didn’t affect Liverpool. If anything, they looked better than they have in recent weeks. Second gear was all they needed, but they worked that out pretty quickly. They were, as you might expect, dominant, superior in every department.
Those that came in looked like they’d been playing every week.
Oxlade-Chamberlain, starting on the left side of the attack, opened the scoring on 35 minutes with his first league goal since January 2018, and his first away from home in more than two years. He scored his first goal as a professional against Bournemouth, for Southampton back in 2010.
Keita, making his first league start since April, doubled the lead just before half-time, and then set up Mohamed Salah for a third after the break.
Jordan Henderson and James Milner bossed it, Virgil van Dijk could have played in his dressing gown. Alisson Becker could have sat next to Klopp if he’d wanted.
The clean sheet will please the manager. It is only the third Liverpool have managed in the league all season, and their first since September. Rarely was it threatened.
"The most used word in the dressing room at the moment is clean sheet – finally!" Klopp told the BBC afterwards. "A nearly perfect day."
Indeed, was one blemish, with Dejan Lovren taken off in the first half with an apparent hamstring worry that Klopp hopes is merely cramp.
The Croatian was starting for a sixth successive game but, just as he did the last time that happened, failed to last the 90 minutes. His loss could be Joe Gomez’s gain.
And so the Reds press on. Next up Salzburg, and a decisive Champions League tie on Tuesday night.
They go there in marvellous form. Never mind the cast, follow the plot. It's only leading in one direction.