Why Liverpool’s dominant league campaign is more impressive than many are giving it credit for

Sports

add

If this was a week to highlight the strength of the Premier League, then perhaps Liverpool will start to get the credit they fully deserve when the title is — surely — wrapped up before the end of the month.

It would be an exaggeration to describe the quest for top spot as a ‘race’ given Liverpool set the early pace and have never really looked back. With Manchester City blowing up early into the campaign, Arsenal dropping points regularly since the turn of the year and the rest of the pack offering up little resistance, the lazy narrative is that Arne Slot has had it easy in his first season at the club.

Yet there’s more to their incoming title win than the inadequacies of those around them. Just like Rory McIlroy should be praised for winning The Masters when the World No 1, Scottie Scheffler couldn’t handle the heat and his final-day playing partner, Bryson Dechambeau, crumbled under pressure, it was still the Northern Irishman’s brilliance that earned him the win.

And that’s the same with Liverpool — the best team from start to finish — who have simply found a way to get more points than their rivals through a combination of technical brilliance and astute planning.

Slot was told to keep a lid on his emotions when Liverpool cruised past some of the lower-ranked sides in the division early into the season. But by the time they had played every opponent at the turn of the year, only one side, Nottingham Forest, had found a way to defeat the runaway leaders.

Nottingham Forest are one of only two sides to defeat Liverpool in the league this season (Carl Recine/Getty Images)

And even though some think they are ‘limping’ over the line, five wins from their past six games is not a bad way to wrap it up, either. The notion that this is a weak Premier League is nonsense and the results in Europe in recent days only highlighted that.

Arsenal embarrassed Champions League holders Real Madrid in their own back yard after smashing the Spanish side 3-0 at home a week earlier. Aston Villa also gave Paris Saint-Germain, a team touted as the best in Europe, the scare of their lives with a 3-2 win at Villa Park that was almost enough to squeeze Unai Emery’s side into the semi-finals.

Laugh at Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United playing on a Thursday night all you like, but both clubs made it through to the Europa League semi-finals despite occupying 14th and 15th place in the Premier League, while Chelsea have progressed to the last four of the Europa Conference League, almost without breaking a sweat.

As the rest of the continent are finding out, it’s not easy coming up against English opposition because of the strength in depth of the Premier League, so it’s about time that the team at the top of that pile is recognised for their efforts.

There’s an understandable thirst for an epic title race and a relegation battle that goes to the wire. Neither has been forthcoming and therefore a perceived lack of genuine entertainment has upset some neutrals. But to take anything away from Liverpool would be wrong because Slot’s side were utterly dominant until February, with Mohamed Salah scoring and assisting at a historic rate. Only in more recent months has their form begun to regress. And, even then, it’s still been enough to pull away from the rest.

The consistency of Cody Gakpo, Virgil van Dijk and Mo Salah has been crucial to Liverpool’s dominance (Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images)

This was supposed to be a campaign of transition under Slot, where winning trophies became even tougher. It hasn’t been as easy as many make out, though. Arsenal were impressive in a 2-2 draw with Liverpool back in October and Newcastle United showed their undoubted ability in a 3-3 draw a few weeks later.

The improvement at clubs such as Nottingham Forest, Bournemouth, Fulham, Brighton & Hove Albion and the continued threat of Aston Villa has hurt some of the so-called bigger clubs in the Premier League, who have been used to finishing in the European places for years. Look at the last teams left standing in the FA Cup for proof of that. Next weekend we’ll see Nottingham Forest take on Manchester City, with Aston Villa lining up against Crystal Palace. The eventual winner might still be the most obvious of those four, but this is a season that suggests a democratisation of threat.

And Liverpool have largely handled that threat from a wider pool, at least in the Premier League. Now they are on the verge of celebrating their record-equalling 20th top-flight title.

Were any of the previous achievements more deserved? And how many points in the closing weeks of the season will it take for those not convinced by the strength of this Liverpool team to change their mind?

Manchester United won Premier League titles in 1999-2000 and 2000-01 by 18 and 10 points respectively, which, at the time, generated some of the same discussion points about quality of opposition. Yet, as time passes, all that people remember is who won the league.

Arne Slot no longer need keep a lid on his emotions (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

Picking up the six points that guarantees Liverpool the title is the most pressing concern for Slot ahead of a defining fortnight. There’s the potential to still reach 94 points, which might not quite have the same sheen to it as the 99 points achieved by Liverpool’s last title-winning side in 2019-20 but should still be recognised as a wonderful achievement.

Regardless of the points haul, though, this is a team that has taken on fresh instructions from an intelligent new coach and that has mastered the requirements without flinching. If Arsenal lose today and Liverpool win, the title will be wrapped up on April 20.

Not bad for a team that was supposed to be in transition this season.

(Header photo: Carl Recine/Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

Share on

email

Previous

trending_flat

Where does Manchester United’s Lyon win rank among the club’s greatest European comebacks?

Sports

Next

trending_flat

Sam Rak-Sakyi and a very familiar Chelsea dilemma: Should he stay or should he go?

Sports