Liverpool's 14-match unbeaten Premier League run came to an end at the Liberty Stadium tonight as bottom-of-the-table Swansea City earned a shock 1-0 win.
There was no sign of the sumptuous Liverpool who beat runaway leaders Manchester City last weekend as they struggled to break down a resilient Swansea defence.
The Swans did not create much from open play themselves but scored from a set piece on 40 minutes when Alfie Mawson swept home a poor Virgil van Dijk clearance.
Jurgen Klopp's men did not launch a barrage on the Swans goal as may have been expected, but did come within inches of snatching an equaliser when Roberto Firmino's stoppage-time header hit the post.
Relive how the action unfolded with our minute-by-minute updates from Wales.
Good evening everyone! The transfer window has taken centre stage this Monday but there is also the small matter of Jurgen Klopp's Manchester City-conquering Liverpool travelling to struggling Swansea in the Premier League. Let's get straight to the team news at the Liberty Stadium...
SWANSEA: Fabianski; Naughton, Fernandez, Mawson, Van der Hoorn, Olsson; Ki, Fer, Clucas, Dyer; Ayew
Subs: Nordfeldt, Bartley, Roque Mesa, Carroll, Narsingh, Bony, McBurnie
Subs: Nordfeldt, Bartley, Roque Mesa, Carroll, Narsingh, Bony, McBurnie
LIVERPOOL: Karius; Gomez, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson; Can, Wijnaldum, Oxlade-Chamberlain; Mane, Salah, Firmino
Subs: Mignolet, Milner, Klavan, Lallana, Alexander-Arnold, Ings, Solanke
Subs: Mignolet, Milner, Klavan, Lallana, Alexander-Arnold, Ings, Solanke
Virgil van Dijk makes his Premier League debut for Liverpool after shaking off a hamstring strain. Joel Matip is the Dutchman's partner with Dejan Lovren our through illness. That is the only change made by Klopp from the starting lineup and bench which ended Man City's unbeaten run.
Loris Karius continues in goal with the German promised his run as number-one goalkeeper ahead of Simon Mignolet. The German was at fault for Manchester City's first at Anfield last weekend but that error has not prompted Klopp into another change of heart.
With Jordan Henderson still on the sidelines and deputies Lovren and Mignolet also missing from the starting XI, Emre Can is handed the captain's armband which is perhaps a last-ditch attempt to try to convince him to commit his future to Anfield with his contract winding down.
One player who is determined to leave Merseyside this month is Daniel Sturridge, who is absent from the squad again. The England international striker appears to have a choice between a loan move to either Sevilla or Inter Milan as he aims to salvage his World Cup place.
Klopp resists the temptation to draft Adam Lallana into the team. Many people suspected that the former Southampton midfielder would step into Philippe Coutinho's shoes, but so far it is Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain who has slotted into his place in the 'fab four'.
Swansea manager Carlos Carvalhal appears to have switched to a 5-3-2 system, restoring Federico Fernandez who reclaims the captaincy as well as his place from Kyle Bartley. Mike van der Hoorn completes the back three, alongside Alfie Mawson, after recovering from a minor muscle strain.
The hosts will be relieved to have Kyle Naughton back after he missed their last three league matches through suspension. Van der Hoorn was a weak link filling in at right-back in the 1-1 draw with Newcastle United, and Naughton's return allows Carvalhal to change to this formation.
Leroy Fer is preferred to Tom Carroll in the middle of the park - his first league start since the 5-0 thrashing by Liverpool on Boxing Day. The Dutchman provides a goal threat from midfield which should help take the pressure off Jordan Ayew, whose scored four of Swansea's last six goals.
Young Scotsman Oliver McBurnie led the line against Newcastle but is dropped to the bench to allow Ayew to take up a central role from where he can be more of a threat. Nathan Dyer, whose last Premier League goal for the Swans was in August 2014, is the Ghana international's main support.
That Dyer statistic is indicative of Swansea's struggles scoring goals this season. The Welsh outfit have only found the net 14 times in 23 top-flight matches this season - the lowest in the division.
I'm sure Carvalhal would love to have either Tammy Abraham, who is still sidelined with an abdominal problem, or Wilfried Bony in attack alongside Ayew, but he does not think that the Ivorian is fit enough to manage two games in a week, and he started Wednesday's FA Cup replay with Wolves.
Kristoffer Nordfeldt, Connor Roberts, Luciano Narsingh and Roque Mesa are others who had opportunities to play in the 2-1 victory over the Championship leaders but are back on the bench today.
Roberto Firmino has scored 5️⃣ goals in his last 3️⃣ #PL games against Swansea, including braces in each of the last two #SWALIV 👀 pic.twitter.com/4d6ZOLYlA9 — Premier League (@premierleague) January 22, 2018
Swansea have always known how good Roberto Firmino is, but it seems that it is only now that the Brazilian forward is getting the recognition he deserves from the entire Premier League. Firmino was outstanding against Man City to take his tally to 17 goals and nine assists for the season.
Firmino may have received a lot more credit had it not been for the form of Mohamed Salah. The Egyptian has undoubtedly been the signing of the season, averaging a goal every 94 minutes - second only to Harry Kane in the Premier League - and adding six assists as well.
Thanks to Firmino, Salah and company, the Reds have scored 85 goals in all competitions this season, which is just seven shy of their total for last season. Although, that record is slightly misleading as Liverpool have had extra European games this campaign.
STAT: Liverpool have also scored 29 Premier League goals on the road this season, more than any other team and twice as many as Swansea have managed home and away.
Last weekend's groundbreaking triumph over Man City extended Liverpool's own unbeaten run to 14 matches, which has included 10 wins. This form, and the signing of Van Dijk to hopefully address some of their defensive problems, has seen the Reds strongly backed to make the top four.
While four of the top six have already won during this gameweek, Tottenham's slip up at Southampton has presented Liverpool with an opportunity to open up a five-point cushion on Spurs in the race for Champions League football. Victory would also take the Reds level with third-place Chelsea.
Swansea's situation couldn't be more contrasting, with the weekend's results seeing them fall six points adrift of safety. The Swans have won just once in their past seven Premier League games, which was Carvalhal's debut match at Watford courtesy of two late goals.
The Welsh outfit hold just two home league victories to their name all season - against Huddersfield and West Brom. They did at least taste success at the Liberty in midweek with the 2-1 win over Wolves.
Swansea are not the type of team who leak loads of goals - they have only conceded more than two goals in a match four times this season - but they have also kept just one clean sheet in 10 outings.
Carvalhal previously tried the 5-3-2 formation at home to Spurs and they did restrict Mauricio Pochettino's side well before succumbing to an unfortunate 2-0 defeat. Some vicious Welsh weather also played a part in disrupting Tottenham that night; no sign of the same wind and rain this evening.
HEAD TO HEAD: Liverpool have won seven of the past 10 Premier League meetings, although their two defeats in that run have come in their last four encounters with the Swans.
STAT: The subject of premature managerial sackings has been brought to the fore again this week with Marco Silva's departure from Watford, and this stat will make painful reading for the purists.
Swansea have had five different managers since they last faced Liverpool at the Liberty Stadium in October 2016 - Bob Bradley, Alan Curtis, Paul Clement, Leon Britton and now Carlos Carvalhal.
Kickoff is less than five minutes away at the Liberty. Before we bring your our detailed updates from Wales, just a reminder of tonight's huge transfer news: Alexis Sanchez has officially joined Manchester United in a swap deal which has seen Henrikh Mkhitaryan move to Arsenal. Read more here.
PREDICTION: Liverpool should be on a high after their conquering of Man City, and I don't see Swansea posing the attacking threat to trouble a Reds defence which may or may not be less vulnerable with the addition of Van Dijk. I expect the visitors to run away with a 3-0 win.
KICKOFF: Referee Neil Swarbrick blows the whistle to get the game underway, after the Liberty had rised to applaud footballing greats Cyril Regis and Jimmy Armfield, who both passed away this week.
It looks as though Carvalhal has sprung another tactical surprise, with Sam Clucas playing on the left in a forward three. Clucas has got previous in a similar role in his lower league days with Chesterfield.
Swansea will be fairly pleased with this start. They have had more of the ball than the visitors and have not allowed that electric Liverpool attack to spring on them on the counter as of yet.
The Swans continue to stroke the ball around nicely but pass up a chance to break on Liverpool when Mawson, after good initial work, overhits his pass to Ayew, out of play for a throw. Ayew would have been one-on-one with Van Dijk and able to test the Dutchman's pace had the pass been better.
CHANCE! Swansea's defenders are caught ball-watching as Can knocks a ball over the top for the out-to-in run of Mane, who brings the ball down but is thwarted by the brave Fabianski. There is no way that Mane should get in like that, with three big Swansea centre-backs.
Firmino has the chance to release Salah but tries a pass to the winger's feet, rather than inside the defender Van der Hoorn, and Naughton tracks back from wing-back to intercept.
Fer and Ayew find themselves in a similar situation at the other end, but again the pass is slightly wayward and Matip calmly steps in.
Robertson whips a low cross into the box which is hard for Mawson to deal with. It hits Firmino on the arm, and handball is given, before the Brazilian pokes the ball towards goal, although Olsson cleared the ball from underneath his own crossbar to minimise the controversey.
After a decent start from the Swans, Liverpool have seized control of this game and it has settled into the type of attack versus defence battle that we have seen a lot in the Premier League lately. At least when they do attack, Swansea are committing some numbers forward.
Ayew squeezes a shot through Karius at his near post but the German had already stopped for the referee's whistle, with the ball having already gone over the byline for a Swansea corner.
Salah makes a run into the right channel but even he can't keep up with a Gomez pass which had too much heat on it.
Leroy Fer catches Emre Can with a slide tackle to concede a free kick midway into the Swansea half. I do think the Swans are a better team with the Dutchman in it though. He is helping them compete physically with Can and Oxlade-Chamberlain and offers more offensively than Carroll.
CLOSE! Van Dijk scored on his Liverpool debut against Everton in the FA Cup and came close there to marking his Premier League bow for the Reds with a goal too. He meets a wicked Oxlade-Chamberlain corner with a near-post run and glances his header just wide.
Liverpool are starting to push Swansea back but so far haven't found the quality that opened up Man City last weekend. What should be an easy pass by Firmino to tee up Robertson on the overlap is overcooked and the ball goes behind before the left-back can whip his foot around it.
Carvalhal's 5-2-3 system is working well to combat the threat of Salah and Mane so far. Clucas and Dyer are doing really well to help out their full-backs and thus we have seen very little of Liverpool's speed merchants.
CHANCE! Swansea's defenders get away with trying to play offside against Salah, who allows a Van Dijk dink to drop over his shoulder but volleys a few yards over the crossbar.
The hosts have kept Liverpool at bay so far but are just letting their standards slip in the last few minutes. There have been a few stray passes and they have started to look backwards rather than forwards more often than not.
SHOT! Oxlade-Chamberlain rifles a 20-yard shot on target which Fabianski does well to hold. That opportunity came from a good run out of defence from Matip, whose one-two with Salah nearly spurned a chance for the centre-half.
Van Dijk clips Dyer over by the right touchline, giving Clucas the chance to swing in a set piece which the Dutchman heads away. Naughton collects the second ball but cannot control a difficult left-footed-volley that much more skilful players may not even have attempted.
Poor end product again from Naughton. This time he had plenty of space to deliver a cross from the right but sent it straight out of play to groans from the Liberty Stadium crowd.
Swansea enjoy their best passage of play so far, stringing together 20 passes before spreading the ball to Olsson to deliver a really good cross into the box. Van Dijk hooks the ball behind for a corner.
GOAL! SWANSEA 1-0 LIVERPOOL (ALFIE MAWSON)
The Swans take a shock lead through Alfie Mawson, who sweeps the ball into the bottom corner like a striker after the ball eventually richocheted to him in the box from a corner. Nothing Karius could do about that one, but it was Van Dijk's initial header that failed to clear the danger.
Swansea's celebrations were so exhuberant that Fernandez took a blow to the face and is off the field receiving treatment!
YELLOW! Robertson becomes the first player to enter the book tonight for having a little kick out at Ayew while the Swansea forward was already on the floor following a foul by Can.
YELLOW! Matip follows his fellow defender into the book for hacking down Clucas on a Swansea break.
CHANCE! Ki's slack pass concedes possession on the halfway line and two passes later, Liverpool are through on goal. Salah stands up a cross for Mane, who loses his footing just as he goes to make contact with his volley and slices it wide from 10 yards.
HALF TIME: SWANSEA 1-0 LIVERPOOL:
This is not the half-time scoreline that many would have expected in Wales, but Liverpool have not been as penetrative as they were against Man City and have been undone by a set-piece goal.
Carlos Carvalhal deserves credit for the way that he has set Swansea up this evening, with his two advanced wide men Clucas and Dyer doing an excellent job in doubling up on Salah and Mane.
Liverpool's wingers have been restriced to just one chance apiece in that first half, and there has been nothing from Firmino, who has been lavished in praise this week but quiet tonight.
This is the first time that Swansea have led at half time in the Premier League since October against Arsenal. That lead lasted only six minutes into the second half and Swansea lost 2-1. The same thing happened at the Liberty against Liverpool last season, with Mawson the scorer that day too.
This second half is very important to Liverpool, for whom defeat tonight would render their win over City much less meaningful. If they continue to drop points against bottom-half sides due to defensive frailties then it doesn't matter how many big scalps they claim at Anfield.
BENCH WATCH: That first half passed Wijandlum by somewhat and the introduction of Lallana might give Liverpool some more creativity. Without Sturridge on the bench there isn't an obvious goal threat as Ings and Solanke have a lot to prove.
KICKOFF: The action is back underway in Wales with both sides unchanged for now...
Ayew nearly executes a clever turn away from Matip but the Cameroonian is lucky that the ball strikes his midrift. Good defending at the other end from Van der Hoorn and Fernandez stops Firmino from getting a shot away after a ball over the top.
Nervy moments for Swansea as Liverpool move the ball around the edge of the home box. Olsson eventually swipes the ball clear to give Swansea some respite, but it appears as though the Reds are just starting to go through the gears now.
Ayew needs to be careful with some of his hold-up play. He is attempting some difficult first-time layoffs back towards his teammates and giving the ball away, inviting Liverpool to spring on the Swansea defence which they do better than anyone.
SHOT! Things open up for Salah but the Egyptian shoots wide with his right foot from 20 yards. Swansea backed off him and could have paid the penalty had that been on his stronger left foot.
Crucial tackle from Naughton to slide in on Robertson after Firmino had delicately turned the ball around the corner for the left-back, who was lining up a shot at Fabianski from 12 yards out.
Liverpool are starting to knock on the door a little heavier now, with Salah slipping a ball through to Firmino, who is denied a close-range chance by Fabianski's quick thinking off his line.
Mane's burst through the middle forces a trip from Ki 25 yards out in the centre of the goal. If only Liverpool had a Brazilian who was decent from this sort of range...
SAVE! In this post-Coutinho world, Salah takes the Liverpool free kicks and he bends it over the wall only for Fabianski to turn the shot over the crossbar. The left-footed effort was curling back towards the Pole but it was still a decent save to get up that high.
No goalkeeper has made more Premier League saves this season than Fabianski. He hasn't been at his busiest tonight but has made some vital interventions off his line, and does so here to prevent Mane running onto the end of Oxlade-Chamberlain's lofted pass.
SUBSTITUTION: Great covering work from Dyer as he tracks back with Robertson and slides to make an interception as Liverpool threatened to break away. That is the winger's last contribution as he is replaced by Carroll - a conservative change this early in the match.
Excellent reading of the game again from Fabianski, who races off his line to head the ball away from the path of Salah after another Liverpool ball over the top, which looks their most likely route to goal at present. The Swansea goalkeeper is leading a good defensive display so far.
SUBSTITUTION: Lallana is on for Liverpool in place of Oxlade-Chamberlain. This is the opportunity that the England playmaker has been waiting for to make an impact upon returning from injury.
SHOT! Ayew bursts in from the Swansea right and unleashes a left-footed shot which Karius catches at his near post.
Liverpool are beginning to get frustrated and Can and Matip have tried their luck from range to no avail. Both efforts ended up in the stands behind Fabianski's goal, which remains unbreached after 72 minutes. Liverpool had got four by the point last week against Manchester City.
SUBSTITUTION: Klopp needs to make something happen and he's brought a second striker on in the form of Danny Ings. Wijnaldum is the midfielder sacrificed, so Lallana may drop a little deeper.
Swansea's supporters are in good voice around the Liberty Stadium. They are sensing a famous victory but there is still 15 minutes plus stoppage time for their side to see out.
Lallana plays the ball into the feet of Firmino, who is allowed to turn in the penalty area but Mawson - the potential match-winner - stands up well and makes a strong and vital tackle.
CHANCE! Substitute Ings passes up a chance to be a Liverpool hero as he fails to connect with a left-footed shot from 12 yards out, allowing Fabianski to make a simple stop.
SUBSTITUTION: Ayew has got through a good night's work and is spared the final 10 minutes for Bony, who may help Swansea hold the ball up and give their defence some respite. The Ivorian cult hero is greeted by what was the catchiest song in the Premier League until last week...
SHOT! Gomez drives forward from right-back but drills his 25-yard shot wide.
Liverpool are getting the ball out wide to Robertson and asking him to whip some crosses into the box, but so far Swansea are defending them well, both at source and in the penalty area.
This is a time when both team need leaders, and it is stand-in captain Can who is trying to drive Liverpool forward. His character is one of the reasons that he is rated so highly within the dressing room at Anfield and that is shining through here. Can he inspire a late Liverpool rally?
Klopp is incensed on the touchline with what he perceives to be time wasting by Naughton, who is certainly taking a relaxed approach to a succession of throw ins on the Swansea right.
Matip finds a ball into Firmino in between the two Swansea lines, and the Brazilian spins to get a shot away which is deflected behind for a corner. Swansea defend it without any damage.
A hoof clear from Mawson is greeted with huge cheers from the home fans. Only four minutes of stoppage time for the Swans to survive now - what a boost this would be to their survival chances.
CHANCE! The ball bounces off Naughton and in the air above Can, who can't get over an acrobatic volley.
Van Dijk has been thrown up front now by Klopp, Steven Caulker style. But Swansea are getting their head on everything. Salah has a half-chance in the right channel but slices a shot wide.
Firmino crosses and Fabianski comes off his line to claim the ball. The Swansea goalkeeper has not put a foot wrong all night, and his team are closing in on a massive three points.
POST! Van Dijk stands a cross up to the far post and Firmino meets it with a bullet header which cannons back off the post. Lallana can't steer the rebound on target!
FULL TIME: SWANSEA 1-0 LIVERPOOL:
What a magnificent result for Swansea! Firmino came within inches of taking it away from them with the last kick, or header, of the game, but Carlos Carvalhal's boys hung on for a three points which you could argue were deserved due to their defensive organisation and concentration.
Back down to earth with a bang for Liverpool, all their good work against Man City undone.
That's it from the Liberty Stadium, but before you go to bed you can read our match report on tonight's action. Thanks for joining us tonight. We'll be back with coverage of the EPL Cup semi-final second legs tomorrow and Wednesday, and with FA Cup coverage at the weekend. Until then, goodbye.
Written by
Joe Fish
Joe Fish
