LEICESTER, ENGLAND - Thursday, December 26, 2019: Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold celebrates scoring the fourth goal during the FA Premier League match between Leicester City FC and Liverpool FC at the King Power Stadium. Liverpool won 4-0. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)

The key stats and praise behind Trent Alexander-Arnold’s latest world-class display

Trent Alexander-Arnold was lauded as “world class” after his match-winning display as Liverpool extended their lead at the top by beating Leicester.

It is rare our No. 66 has an off day, and it is increasingly regular that he is at top-level standards.

As a Champions League and now Club World Cup winner, he is rightly considered among the best in the world in his position, and is convincing as the very finest.

Two assists for Roberto Firmino and a goal of his own helped the Reds sealed a 4-0 victory over Leicester on Thursday night, and Alexander-Arnold was rightly named Man of the Match.

Setting up Firmino twice brought his Premier League tally since the start of last season to 19 which, as Opta revealed, is more than any other player.

This was acknowledged by a former team-mate in Lucas Leiva, with the Brazilian—now at Lazio—labelling Alexander-Arnold “world class”:

The right-back created three chances at the King Power, which brought his Premier League total for the campaign to 55, which is behind only Dimitri Payet (64) and Kevin De Bruyne (69) in Europe’s top five leagues.

He has clearly caught the eye of those around the continent, and even beyond, as another ex-Red, Javier Mascherano, delivered a simple acknowledgement of his quality:

His low, side-footed effort from outside the box to make it 4-0 was only Alexander-Arnold’s second goal of the season, and he marked it by emulating Kylian Mbappe’s trademark celebration.

This was endorsed by the PSG forward himself, with Mbappe ‘liking’ a tweet from Bleacher Report which has only further fuelled tongue-in-cheek speculation of a future move to Liverpool:

It was a chastening night for Brendan Rodgers, who suffered a crushing defeat to his old side, at the hands of a player who had his first taste of the Liverpool senior setup during his reign.

Rodgers called Alexander-Arnold into his squad for pre-season ahead of the 2015/16 campaign, and he featured as a 16-year-old in the 2-1 friendly win over Swindon Town that summer.

It would have been predictable for Rodgers to take credit for the Scouser’s rise, but after the game he issued praise for how he has stepped up having been given the tools by Jurgen Klopp:

“For me, when I see him, he plays full-back as a midfield player.

“His range of passes is phenomenal for a young player; of course, he was a midfield player at Liverpool as a youngster.

“But his quality, his range of pass and the experiences he’s gained in these last few years, for Jurgen he’s been absolutely amazing.

“You see with his goal, as soon as the switch came he was up there supporting—his intent to get up, and then his strike from outside the box, was absolutely brilliant.

“So we’ve got one here at Leicester who’s amazing as well, Ricardo Pereira, he’s been outstanding for me this season and since I’ve came in.

“But Trent’s up there and very much England’s No. 1 right-back, and playing consistently for a young player at a very high level.”

The notion of Alexander-Arnold being a natural midfielder playing at right-back is a familiar one, and taking to Twitter after the game, Jamie Carragher compared him and De Bruyne once again:

Later, Carragher concluded that Liverpool are the “best team in the world at the moment and their playmaker is from West Derby!”:

Alexander-Arnold made more touches (106), attempted the most crosses (17) and created the joint-most passes (three, along with Sadio Mane) of any player at the King Power on Boxing Day.

It was a remarkable performance, and one deserving world-class status.