With the Foxes trailing Jurgen Klopp’s men by 10 points, Brendan Rodgers needed his team to put in a gap-closing performance as Denis Praet and Harvey Barnes started while the Reds were at full strength.
The rest of the country might be feeling sluggish after two days of Christmas feasting, but not these 22 men. Leicester went close with Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson showing excellent awareness to cover behind the defence before Mohamed Salah hit the side netting after rounding Kaspar Schmeichel.
After the frantic start the game started to slow down and patterns started developing. Jordan Henderson pinged those cross-field balls, Salah and Naby Keita linked up well down the right. But the Foxes wouldn’t be shackled and continued to show that their position in the table isn’t a fluke with some excellent attacking play.
Inevitable
But then Liverpool struck, as they always do. Alexander-Arnold swung in a delicious, inviting ball which had Roberto Firmino and Salah attacking behind Ben Chilwell. The Brazilian won the race, gave Kasper Schmeichel no chance and hit his five league goal for the season.
The floodgates were nearly opened then as Mane pounced on a defence error but the Dane spread himself big and denied the forward, who should have scored. Liverpool are an incredible side and it showed as the last five minutes of the first half seemed like a training exercise as they strung together pass after pass after pass and barely let Leicester have a sniff of it.
If you thought Rodgers would send his men out fired up and ready to challenge for possession, you’d be wrong as the theme of Red dominance continued. Liverpool hardly ever relinquished the ball and when they did it was swiftly won back - although that second goal proved elusive as Salah and Firmino missed good chances.
As the game continued at 1-0, Leicester would always prove to be a threat and Klopp would have known that. Leicester barley had a sniff but all of a sudden Vardy got in behind, won a free kick and sparked life into the Foxes.
Game defining
If Liverpool couldn’t do it from open play, they would put that right from the spot as Michael Oliver awarded a penalty after Caglar Soyuncu handled in the area from a corner. James Milner’s first action and his first touch of the ball would be to stroke home after 70 minutes.
That goal seemed to drop Leicesters heads and lived up Liverpool as Ginii Wijnaldum started to bomb forward and it wasn’t long before Firmino had his second. Alexander-Arnold hammered a ball across the box straight to the Brazilians feet, who wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth as he finessed it home.
The right-back had a part to play in the first three goals with two crosses and a pass before stamping his authority over the fixture with a beautifully driven shot from outside the box was past Schmeichel before the Dane could react.
The only remaining worry to Liverpool was how Henderson went down clutching his leg before the final whistle - but with such a commanding lead they could afford to substitute their skipper out and count down the clock on another commanding performance.