There is a theory among some rival supporters that Liverpool has only won the Premier League this season because the likes of Manchester City and Arsenal have dropped off.
The Reds secured the title with four games to spare by beating Tottenham 5-1 last weekend — a result which opened up a 15-point gap between Liverpool and second-placed Arsenal.
There is no doubt that City and Arsenal have suffered disappointing campaigns: City has 18 fewer points after 34 games than it did last season, while Arsenal is 10 points worse off than it was at this point last term — but that should not take anything away from how impressive Arne Slot’s men have been.
While the title race was not as closely contested this year as it was in recent seasons, Liverpool’s overall points tally stacks up against all of City’s title-winning teams from the previous four campaigns.
With 82 points, Liverpool has the second-highest Premier League points tally after 34 games of any title-winning team from the last five seasons. Only City’s 2021-22 title-winning team collected more points from 34 games (83), with the 2022-23, 2020-21 and 2023-24 teams collecting 82, 80 and 79 points respectively.
Liverpool could still end the season with as many as 94 points, which would be the sixth-highest tally in Premier League history.
Manchester City racked up 100 points in 2017-18 and 98 points in 2018-19; Liverpool collected 99 points in 2019-20 and 97 points in 2018-19; and Chelsea amassed 95 points in 2004-05.
Liverpool will need to win each of its remaining four games to finish on 94 points, with Chelsea next up at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.
At one stage earlier in the season it looked as though Chelsea might be Liverpool’s main challenger for the title, and Slot admitted in his pre-match press conference that he is surprised that the Stamford Bridge club now finds itself in a battle to finish inside the top five.
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“It’s nice that we play some very strong teams with Chelsea, Arsenal, Brighton and [Crystal] Palace, so that gives immediately the challenge to those games,” Slot said.
“It’s the end of the season but we also have to look at this as the start of next season already. It’s Chelsea away first.
“We played them earlier on in the season and I’m completely surprised, not shocked but surprised, if I look at the gap we have with them at the moment, because at that moment in time [when the teams met at Anfield in October] they were the better team on the pitch.
“But we found a way to win and that is a quality that we didn’t need a lot because mostly we were the better team on the pitch. But in the game we had to suffer more than any other game maybe. So to be so many points ahead of them is a big compliment for everyone here at this club.”
