Liverpool players on parade
Photo: The Sun
This was never meant to happen. Not with a rookie manager replacing a legend, a disaffected Galactico seemingly wanting out and a lack of action in last summer’s transfer window.
Liverpool’s Premier League campaign was so consistently good, and their title win so inevitable for so long, that we have forgotten how few people gave them a hope in hell of winning the title in Arne Slot’s maiden campaign.
The Dutchman isn’t the first boss to be crowned champion in his first season in English football – the Chelsea trio of Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti and Antonio Conte all managed it, as did Manuel Pellegrini at Manchester City, with Arsene Wenger winning the Double in his first full campaign at Arsenal.
Yet the exit of Jurgen Klopp was supposed to be debilitating, the uncertainty over the future of Mo Salah was supposed to be an almighty distraction.
Throw in the frustration of Liverpool’s failure to land any significant summer recruits and there was little expectation that they could dethrone Manchester City and overhaul Arsenal to reach the summit.
Yet here we are, with just weeks of the season still to run, and Liverpool’s record-equalling 20th English top-flight title already confirmed.
The Reds are now able to parade the Premier League trophy at a packed Anfield for the first time – their only previous such success having arrived behind closed doors, during the pandemic.
Contrary to their anthem, Liverpool have walked alone at the top of the table for months.
Since hopes of the Quadruple, a Treble or even a Double evaporated during February and March, Slot’s side have been damned with faint praise, as ‘lucky’ champions during a poor season.
Yet this is nonsense. The Reds were unbeaten in the league for almost seven months between a home defeat by Nottingham Forest in September and a loss at Fulham in early April.
For almost four months, they did not suffer defeat in any competition – winning 15 of 16 games during one run as remorseless as anything Klopp achieved.
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And City’s record 19-point winning margin of 2018 is still very much in Liverpool’s sights, so there has been nothing lucky about it.
Has it been a poor league season overall? Well the scale of City’s mid-season meltdown was extraordinary after Pep Guardiola’s side had rattled off an unprecedented four successive English titles.
Yet Arsenal, who have been Liverpool’s closest – if distant – challengers have been good enough to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League, thrashing Real Madrid.
Newcastle have been resurgent, Forest a remarkable surprise package and Aston Villa a growing force, even if Chelsea flattered to deceive, while Manchester United and Tottenham disappeared without trace.
For Liverpool, stand-out results and performances have been rare – an early-season demolition of United at Old Trafford, away-day thrashings of Tottenham and West Ham and a hugely significant double over City.
After that was completed with a victory at the Etihad – which Klopp never achieved in the league – Liverpool were 11 points clear and Salah declared: “Me and the big guys in the team, we need another title.”
The Sun
