Liverpool still have a lot to learn about winning in the Premier League

It’s tempting, when looking at the Premier League table, to think in terms of the Big Six. After all, there are six teams in the league that will have begun the campaign with a minimum target of Champions League qualification — Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, and Tottenham Hotspur. Sure enough, there they are in positions one to six.

That said, it’s something of a Really Big One and Then Five More, as Chelsea’s ridiculous run of form has put them nine points ahead of second with just 14 games to go. And Manchester United, down in sixth, are 14 points behind the leaders but only five ahead of Everton. A couple of dodgy results here and there, and we might be reduced to a Chunky Five, or swollen to a Thumping Seven.

Still, they’re the Big Six in terms of profile, in terms of hype, in terms of money made and spent, and since this is the Premier League we should pay due deference to its driving forces. Instinct might suggest, then, that the games between the Big Six should play a significant part in determining the destination of the title, since all the other teams, faced with such Bigness, will surely tug their forelock and surrender their points. But instinct, this season, hasn’t quite got it right. Particularly when it comes to Liverpool.

We’re only two-thirds of the way through the season and we haven’t yet completed all the fixtures, but when it comes to games between the Big Six, Liverpool have the best record of them all. They’ve won away at Stamford Bridge and the Emirates, drawn at White Hart Lane, drawn home and away with Manchester United, and beaten City at Anfield. That’s 13 points from seven Big Six games, one more than Chelsea, and just eight points dropped.

So, as Tottenham head up to Anfield for this weekend’s big game, the home side should be feeling pretty confident. Yet, the mood is bleak: having been up in second they’re now in fifth, 13 points behind Chelsea, sifting through the wreckage of another dead title bid and wondering what the hell’s gone wrong this time. And the answer comes from the games outside the Big Six, where Liverpool have been, frankly, bobbins.

Last weekend’s loss away at Hull City, currently 18th in the table, was funny. It was also Liverpool’s fourth defeat of the league campaign, following away games against Burnley (12th) and Bournemouth (14th), and a home loss to Swansea City (17th). Add to that a couple of draws away at Southampton (13th) and Sunderland (20th), and that’s a total of 16 points dropped to teams in the bottom half.

Chelsea, by pointed contrast, may have dropped nine points to the rest of the Big Six, but have dropped just two to teams in the bottom half. And that was a 2-2 draw with Swansea in the fourth game of the season, before Conte decided to embrace wing-backs and euthanize John Terry.

Exactly what this all says about Liverpool’s deficiencies is a matter for debate. The lack of a win in their five most recent league games suggests that perhaps teams have started to work out how best to nullify them. The failure to score against Hull suggests that perhaps their attack isn’t quite fizzing as it was early in the season. And the consistency with which they concede important goals in amusing or risible fashion strongly suggests that the defensive unit, including the goalkeepers, just isn’t good.

More generally, it suggests that Liverpool, so devastating when everything clicks, haven’t yet discovered the knack of regularly winning despite themselves. That this is a team of great variance: sometimes brilliant, but unable to compensate when the attack doesn’t quite click or when Jurgen Klopp has to rotate his squad.

The traditional solution for a big club in this situation is to have one or two brilliant players hanging around the pitch. Chelsea, for example, can look to Diego Costa to poke one in, or Eden Hazard to slalom around a couple of defenders. But unless Philippe Coutinho’s long-range shots are going in, Liverpool don’t quite have this way out.

Klopp has (quite rightly) mocked the English obsession with the transfer market, and his commitment to coaching as a method of improvement is both admirable and, with respect to plenty of Liverpool’s players, productive. It’s also why he deserves time, and will get it. But at the same time, you couldn’t blame any Liverpool fan who was a little underwhelmed with their options in midfield, or in goal, or with the fact that Alberto Moreno still draws a wage.

More generally still, there’s interesting lessons here about how to win the Premier League. The big games between the Big Six are the marquee occasions, and sometimes they’re even excellent games of football. Spurs-Liverpool should, in theory, be brilliant. But the real business of picking up three points one week, then three points the next, on and on through the season, takes place between these big games.

Last season, Leicester lost twice to Arsenal and finished 10 points ahead of them. The season before, Chelsea drew away at Manchester United, away at Arsenal, home and away with City, and got thumped 5-3 by Spurs. They won the league by eight points. This season, even if Liverpool romp past Tottenham tomorrow, the title will be going elsewhere, and by quite some margin. The big games are where the entertainment lives. But more often than not, it’s the other games where the title can be found.