Liverpool tripped over their own shoelaces in the Premier League title race on Monday night.For all their impressive results against fellow title contenders, Jurgen Klopp's men have looked a shadow of their 2019/20 selves during games against teams lower down the table.And while Southampton are no mugs by any stretch of the imagination, the Reds wouldn't have been aiming for anything less than three points at St. Mary's Stadium along the title path.

Southampton 1-0 Liverpool

However, the difficulty of their challenge became abundantly clear within the opening few minutes as Danny Ings, who resided at Anfield for four years, came back to haunt his former team. 

The Saints profited from yet another James Ward-Prowse free-kick, albeit won under controversial circumstances after Thiago Alcantara's foul, gave Ings acres of space in the penalty area.

Trent Alexander-Arnold won't want to watch back the goal given his failure to clear the delivery, but make no mistake that Ings' finish over Alisson Becker was the sign of a top-level finisher.

No VAR luck for Liverpool

From that moment onwards, Liverpool were left to chase the game and although both sides exchanged blows on the south coasts, VAR hoovered up most of the column inches.

In fact, Klopp must have felt aggrieved in the second-half when the Reds had two penalty shouts waved away that teams like Leicester City and Manchester United have been gobbling up.

Firstly, Jack Stephens looked to have handled the ball in front of goal, only to have his blushes spared, before Sadio Mane was left frustrated when he was felled in the penalty area to no avail.

Huge win for Southampton

But in terms of efforts on goal, Liverpool were hardly knocking on the door and it wasn't until the 75th minute that Mane registered the champions' first shot on target of the game.

In fact, it was Southampton who came closest to scoring a second goal, almost profiting from some poor positioning from Alisson, only for Yan Valery's shot to dribble just short of the goal-line.

Nevertheless, with Mane heading over in stoppage and Alisson marauding forward for a corner in vein, Southampton did enough to secure a historic three points against the Kings of England.