Maybe, or you look at Villa and Watford where we scraped a win and lost 3-0. Or ground out 1-0 away to Norwich. Got a bit lucky against southampton, won by a single goal at sheffield united due to a keeper error, single goal at crystal palace with an 85th minute winner,
We don't steam roll teams away from home. We find ways to get through most of the time. We're actually quite a cautious team away from home in the last 18 months. We didn't find a way tonight or Brighton. What's worrying is how badly we've played in the first half of all 3 games you mention but if it weren't for the brighton pen we're two points clear. And interestingly people will talk about low block a lot but both villa and brighton went straight at us from kick off tonight and Brighton kept trying to get in behind in the first half. There's something not quite right in the gap between midfield and defence which is making us vulnerable in the wide areas, but we're not miles off.
Yep, we had some poor quality games in general against weaker sides the last two seasons, but that seemed designed for us to not go too gung ho constantly. We were always grinding out wins and not just blowing teams away. We tend to save the best performances for the big matches/tests but then use game management to get through the other games. We pulled it out of the fire on numerous occasions (even this year we've done so at home and should've had 2 more away wins but for VAR).
However, to your point, Villa, Brighton, and Fulham got players in behind quite a bit, and created some decent opportunities. Normally in these slog type of matches, there aren't many openings either side, and then we take control for the win. Nowadays, teams are finding ways to create some decent chances (runs by the likes of Watkins, Connolly, Cavaleiro, etc are timed well).
Just need some of that killer instinct back, and Villa aside, we've been able to keep teams at bay overall defensively (better goalkeeping helps too), so just need to find the killer instinct in front of goal again.
Jota's absence hurts as he's in great goal-scoring form. Firmino, as been discussed plenty on here, is not a consistent source of goals these days, and with Mane now scoreless in 6 straight PL matches (and Origi still totally off form), we'll need other players to step up for goals. Mane, despite not scoring as much, still looks dangerous and can create something out of nothing, so it would be nice if Bobby can improve in front of goal to take some pressure off Salah. Bobby was a good match-winner last year in tough matches (see Wolves away, Palace away, CWC, etc). Neither Curtis nor Ox are shy shooting either, and though you wouldn't want to rely on that constantly, the midfield chipping in with a few would be nice (Gini's always capable of a big goal or two). It's also ideal to keep Matip fit as not only is he a top-class defender, he's also a good threat on set-pieces and good for a goal here and there.