It was probably just as well the decisive match came against Tottenham. Liverpool fans object to the suggestion this season has been anti-climactic, as though that somehow diminishes their achievement, but it is not a criticism to point out no side has come close to staying with them, that the title was effectively won on the January afternoon when Darwin Núñez scored twice in injury time to beat Brentford then Arsenal threw away a two-goal lead to draw against Aston Villa.
That was the season in microcosm: Arsenal carelessly squandering points, Liverpool always having enough, turning games their way in the second half. Nine times this season in the league, Arsenal have led in games that they have failed to win. On 13 occasions, Liverpool have improved their result in the second half (that is, turned a draw into a win, or a defeat into a draw or a win). It has not been a thrilling conclusion – they’ve wrapped the title up before the end of April with four games to spare and have looked probable champions for at least three months – but at least they had their day of celebration of Anfield.
And because it was Tottenham, after the early blip of Dominic Solanke’s goal, there was a grand procession, a carnival of largely pressure-free attacking football, five goals including one for Mohamed Salah, a fitting way to round off what has been an excellent season for him personally. Liverpool lost the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final 1-0 to Spurs, but they have scored 15 against them in their other games this season. That in itself is telling of one of Liverpool’s great strengths. They may not press quite as aggressively and extravagantly as they did under Jürgen Klopp, but they press effectively nonetheless; Tottenham, who have spent most of the season almost pathologically playing out from the back despite having very little capacity to do so successful, are almost the perfect victims for them.
Historically, this triumph matters because Liverpool move level with Manchester United on 20 English league titles; Arsenal are seven behind them in third. If your tiebreaker is how often you have been second, United remain the most successful side in English history; if it’s total trophies won, it’s Liverpool. Such arguments, though, are perhaps best left to the darker corners of fan media. (20 league titles, compared to other leading leagues, is a relatively small tally – Real Madrid have 36, Juventus 36, Bayern 33 – as useful an indicator as any of how successful English football was for a long time in resisting a super-club elite).
More interesting, perhaps, is that while United’s titles have come under just three managers, Liverpool’s have come under 10 (although that tally does include Matt McQueen, who took over from David Ashworth three months before the 1922-23 title was won). No other side has triumphed under so many; their success has been, if not exactly consistent since they claimed their first championship in 1900-01, then at least better spread than most. The 30 years they had to wait between their last title under Kenny Dalglish in 1989-90 and the Klopp title in 2019-20 represents their longest drought. English football may have remained equitable longer than most, but there has rarely been an age when Liverpool have not been challengers.
How this title comes to be viewed probably depends on what happens next. On the one hand, very few managers have ever been handed a squad in quite such a good condition as the one Klopp passed on to Arne Slot, and yet at the same time there has been a growing awareness as the season has gone on that Liverpool’s squad needs strengthening in as many as five or six positions. Those are not contradictory statements, and to an extent the need for new blood is a result of Liverpool signing only one senior player last summer, but they do explain the slightly ambivalent feeling many seem to have towards this side. Is it the last great triumph of the Klopp era, with Slot as a latter-day Matt McQueen? Or is he more of a Bob Paisley, building on the great legacy of his predecessor?
Either way, it has been a hugely impressive achievement. Nobody can claim the title race has been particularly exciting, but that is not to denigrate Liverpool. They have been very good and none of their rivals have been, and the result has been a largely uneventful march to the title. There was perhaps a slight wobble in recent weeks as fatigue began to bite and focus slip, but nobody else looked remotely equipped to take advantage.
Had the title been sealed by Arsenal losing to Crystal Palace on Wednesday that would have been a damp squib but, in the end, it was won gloriously, on a sunny afternoon of red smoke and raucousness, with a rampant display against a compliant Spurs.
It was neither tense nor dramatic, but Liverpool have been by far the best side in the Premier League this season and that’s all that really matters.
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On this day …
Wembley has always been a slightly strange mecca. It was originally built as part of a complex to house a 1924 trade fair. Early photographs show it to have been surrounded by fields, emphasising just how far it was from central London (it may only be 20 minutes now on the Underground, but on a match day, rammed in with tens of thousands of others, those can feel like very long minutes). Even the endlessly romanticised Twin Towers, built to recall the designs of Edwin Lutyens in New Delhi, actually housed a generator and a storeroom for flags.
Wembley needed events, and the FA needed a venue for the Cup final; a deal was soon reached, and on 28 April 1923 Bolton beat West Ham 2-0 in the first FA Cup final at Wembley. The game is most famous, though, for the scenes of PC George Scorey and his horse Billy clearing crowds well in excess of the 127,000 capacity off the pitch. So was born the legend of the White Horse Final, although actually Billy was mid-grey, appearing white in the famous photograph because it was such a murky day it had to be overexposed.
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This is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look from the Guardian US at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Have a question for Jonathan? Email [email protected], and he’ll answer the best in a future edition.