Liverpool has won a 20th league title, drawing level with Manchester United, and Arne Slot has written himself into the history books in his debut campaign at the helm.
An emphatic victory over Spurs in front of a packed Anfield, teaming with fans outside who didn’t have a ticket for the game but simply wanted to be there for the occasion, was a fitting way to be crowned. And once Alexis Mac Allister scored a screamer to put his side in front on the day, the result was never in much doubt.
This is how the UK national media rounded up what was a historic afternoon at Anfield. Slot was rightfully praised in all quarters for the work he has done, with Liverpool set up perfectly to kick on again next year.
BBC Sport: “Liverpool’s relative stroll towards a 20th title carries a heavy warning signal to the rivals who must now attempt to knock the Premier League crown off their heads next season.
“Arne Slot’s seamless transition into what many regarded as the impossible task of succeeding Jurgen Klopp has not only resulted in a triumph achieved with relative comfort, it has been done without any serious strengthening of the squad he inherited. This is testimony to his inheritance from Klopp, but also to the shrewd strategy he employed to such triumphant effect.
“Liverpool signed Valencia’s Georgian goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili in a deal worth up to £29m ($39m) last summer in readiness for next season, while the only outfield player to arrive was Juventus winger Federico Chiesa in a £10m ($13m) move, the Italian proving no more than a peripheral figure.
(Image: Carl Recine/Getty Images)
“The platform remains — but Liverpool will now go into overdrive this summer, with their recruitment team, under sporting director Richard Hughes, well on with preparations to add heavyweight reinforcements. Liverpool’s past mantra is to add from a position of strength — and you do not get much stronger than the status of Premier League champions.”
The Times: “Mohamed Salah sank to the turf and pointed to the heavens. Virgil van Dijk found Andrew Robertson making a beeline for him and jumping into his outstretched arms. Alisson, overcome with emotion, simply collapsed in a heap.
“Liverpool have been all about control this season and yet, when the moment that they have been working tirelessly towards finally arrived, it was chaos. Carnage.
“For supporters of a certain age, this was the greatest day of their lifetime. Not simply because of the circumstances that conspired against the club in 2020, but the occasions when Manchester City pipped them to the post and the other near-misses since Anfield last bathed in this sort of success in 1990. Liverpool have clambered back onto their perch.”
The Telegraph: “After conceding first, Liverpool pulled away with relative ease and were able to relax into the historic afternoon. Nothing personified this more than Mohamed Salah taking a selfie with the Liverpool crowd after scoring, having been provided a phone by a member of the Liverpool media team.
“Each Liverpool player [got] a chance to be adored by the crowd as an individual, walking out from the line of players towards the crowd. From stars of the show to the likes of Joe Gomez, they all took their turns.”
The i Paper: “Children were up on shoulders. Teenagers were up trees. Some brave fans wearing red “Champions 20” t-shirts had somehow made it up on top of the LFCTV studio that sits high above the street.
Learn more
“And who could blame them? There was barely any standing room, anywhere. So little stewards closed off access to Anfield Road, down which fans crammed the pavements, watched from balconies and scaffolding, stood on walls craning to see. They lined the stairs leading up to the Main Stand, spread across the platform’s raised vantage point, filled the cobbled paths beneath.
“All for a glimpse of the team bus crawling — the driver blinded by the thick red fog of a hundred smoke bombs — towards the stadium, carrying the squad and manager they had already anointed 2024-25 Premier League champions before a ball had been kicked.
“A we’ve-done-it energy buzzed everywhere. There remains frustration that Covid robbed the club and its supporters the chance to celebrate properly the last time they won the Premier League title, in 2020 — the club’s first in 30 years, no less — and they are determined to make up for it this time.”
