Two conclusions as Liverpool revive top-four hopes and Newcastle’s Pope suffers Carabao heartbreak

We probably should have done 16 Conclusions on this game, but alas you’re going to have to settle for two.

Both are pretty important, and both were pretty much locked in after 22 frantic and intoxicating minutes of action at a febrile St James’ Park.

Conclusion one: Liverpool are right back in the top-four race.

Conclusion two: Newcastle keeper Nick Pope is out of the Carabao Cup final and Loris Karius is in.

Both of those things are absolutely wild in their own way, but let’s deal with them in turn.

First up, Liverpool. Well done, Liverpool. Despite a near season-long commitment to being very crap they are now firmly in the picture for the top four. Given Newcastle’s now quite long-running struggles to pick up victories and the fact Spurs are Spurs, you could even argue that a resurgent if still deeply questionable Liverpool might even now be favourites for fourth.

They’re only six points off the Champions League places with a game in hand (which would be finessed to seven points with two games in hand if Spurs beat West Ham tomorrow) after maintaining their record as the only team to beat Newcastle in the Premier League, but now doing it twice.

Go back a bit further, and Liverpool are now responsible for three of Newcastle’s last four Premier League defeats. Manchester City claim the other. So this is very clearly the level Newcastle are at now.

And the really weird thing about this game, one that Newcastle had basically lost in catastrophically self-inflicted fashion with only 22 minutes on the clock is this: Newcastle actually played quite well. Apart from the three terrible moments inside those first 22 minutes when they were absolute shite.

Which, it turns out, is a bad number of terrible moments to have in such a short amount of time.

For a team whose success this season has been built on being incredibly difficult to beat even when not playing well, it was deeply discombobulating to see them so very easy to beat despite playing well.

They started at a hundred miles an hour, roared on by the crowd. The idea mooted by one national newspaper that this fixture has become some kind of El Toxico was always a far-fetched nonsense, but this was a big game with much riding on it and the atmosphere was incredible in a first 10 minutes where Newcastle ran Liverpool off their feet.

And then Liverpool took the lead. Both Liverpool’s goals combined three ingredients. A world-class assist, a great touch and finish from a maligned Liverpool…