Liverpool is 13 points clear at the top of the Premier League table and as has long been clear now, will soon be lifting the trophy that its fans covet the most. At the first time of asking, Arne Slot is going to be a league champion.
But with Manchester City flailing, despite an impressive comeback victory over Crystal Palace this weekend, and Arsenal having failed to keep pace at the top, even though it impressively beat Real Madrid in a Champions League quarter-final first-leg a few days ago, the accusations of this being a “weak” league have come thick and fast.
They were as inevitable as they are nonsensical. Only one team can win the title and in a world of tribalism, those who are against that team — whoever it might be — view it as their job to talk the achievement down.
Liverpool, right now, and with six more games to play this season, has more points than Manchester United did when it won the Premier League in 1997. It could still end up on an impressive 94.
And you only have to look at some of the teams that are lower down the division to see just how good the overall level of the top flight is right now. It is mainly about money — and there is a bigger conversation to be had about the health of the global game if the 19th-best team in England is able to buy almost any player it wants from abroad — but that doesn’t make it any less true.
This weekend, Liverpool only just beat a West Ham team that is sitting just one place above the relegation zone. Graham Potter, for context, can select the former Ajax star Mohammed Kudus, who was excellent at Anfield and cost an initial $50 million (£38 million), the England international Jarrod Bowen, who Jurgen Klopp was a huge fan of, and the Brazilian superstar Lucas Paqueta, to name just three.
“I think they are 16 or 17th in the league but I can name you one or two players that could have easily played with us today in terms of quality,” Arne Slot said. “That is what the Premier League is about.”
Slot also said he celebrated so much at the final whistle — and made a point of drinking in the atmosphere — because this was one of the few games this season where you could argue Liverpool didn’t deserve to win. It speaks volumes for the quality of those near the bottom that he admitted that after facing the 17th-best team in the division.
Above West Ham on goal difference after it beat Spurs, Wolves — coached by Vitor Pereira — has the likes of Matheus Cunha, Rayan Ait Nouri and Goncalo Guedes among its ranks. Above them are Tottenham and Manchester United — having terrible seasons by their standards, but so low down as much as anything else because of the quality above.
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Aston Villa, a side that could have gone further in Europe had it not drawn PSG, is seventh. Brighton, one of the cleverest operators in the transfer market, is ninth. Crystal Palace, who brought in Oliver Glasner last year and has since spent around $105 million (£80 million) on new players, is 12th.
The argument that this is a poor league simply does not hold water. Liverpool is winning it with ease in part because it has been the most consistent side and in part because it got ahead at the start and was able to hold the momentum. Arsenal could viably win the Champions League and yet it has been left in Liverpool’s dust.
While it remains true that a big summer lies ahead at Anfield and lots of players could move on, Slot will be a deserving winner of the Premier League with the Reds. He’s not done it because it has been easy, but rather because he has the best team in league where anyone — Southampton aside — can beat anyone.
