The article analyzes Liverpool's exceptional Premier League season under manager Arne Slot, highlighting their impressive record: only one loss after 30 games, potentially an unbeaten away record, and projected points exceeding 90. This performance is placed in historical context, comparing it to previous title winners who achieved success with fewer points in past seasons. The article argues that comparing Slot's Liverpool to historically dominant teams or suggesting their achievements are lessened due to other teams' performance is unfair.
The piece emphasizes that not all title-winning teams maintained the same level of dominance, and comparing current Liverpool to teams like Manchester City under Guardiola sets an unnecessarily high standard. Past champions, including those managed by Sir Alex Ferguson and Bob Paisley, had varying levels of success and faced different competitive landscapes. The article suggests the current competitive environment, elevated by Guardiola's Manchester City, unfairly increases the expectations for any team hoping to challenge for the title.
Ultimately, the article concludes that Liverpool's current success should be judged on its own merits rather than against unrealistic comparisons to historical champions or the current dominance of Manchester City.
Slot had the benefit of a higher-quality squad than the one Klopp inherited in 2015, but winning while learning during your first year in the job is no mean feat.
Other remarks about the overall quality of the Premier League and how Slot’s Liverpool compare to their predecessors are deeply unfair and demonstrate an ignorance of history. You do not need to be the best team in history to win the league. Being the best of the current crop is all that matters. By every metric used to judge title winners, Liverpool have excelled to this point.
Wednesday’s Merseyside derby win means Slot’s side are the 10th in the history of English football to lose one game or fewer after 30 top-flight games in a season. Only three other Liverpool teams have managed that, in 1988, 2019 and 2020.
Liverpool could become only the fifth side in England’s highest division to go unbeaten away from home, and they are projected to collect more than 90 points, which had only been achieved six times in a 38-game campaign prior to Pep Guardiola’s first title in 2018.
For perspective, between 1997-2001, four of the five title winners won no more than 80 points, Manchester United winning it with 75 in 1997. When Sir Alex Ferguson ended United’s 25-year title wait in 1993, his closest challengers were Aston Villa and Norwich City, as the three previous winners Leeds United, Arsenal and Liverpool massively dropped off. Did anyone suggest the inadequacies of traditional rivals demeaned United’s historic victory? It would have been ridiculous to do so.
Not all of Bob Paisley’s six league titles and Ferguson’s 13 championships were won with the same swagger. Not every champion has to fend off the relentless charge of an opponent in the way Guardiola resisted Klopp in 2019 and 2022, or Mikel Arteta in 2024.
Because City – or more specifically Guardiola – elevated the level so much that every challenger headed into a season believing they might need 100 points to finish top, the next few champions could find themselves judged to a preposterously high standard.
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