Liverpool’s meandering title run-in has echoes of three of their previous champions seasons, but there is an inevitability to enjoy about the 2024/25 campaign.
A Sunday afternoon idling along in third gear, another win picked up at home to West Ham, three more points collected and the scrubbing out and redrawing of the Premier League title-clinching finish line.
The chalk line is now within just six points, and so close you can almost touch it – while Liverpool’s latest victory had a disjointed nature to it, we’ve been here many times before.
It isn’t all that easy to be over the hills and far away in a title race that is anything but competitive.
As the old adage goes, it’s a marathon, not a sprint, and on the back of suffering a bit of cramp in the legs at Craven Cottage the previous weekend it was always going to be intriguing to see what the response was going to be from Arne Slot‘s men at Anfield on Sunday, especially after Arsenal had gifted us more dropped points on Saturday.
There are certain tickboxes to check in such circumstances, as silly season begins to kick in, as that final month or so of the season brings with it unexpected crosswinds here and there, and a high degree of unpredictability in performance, both in terms of what your own team produces and that of your opponent.
Conceding three goals in a mad 14 minutes away at Fulham was such an occurrence, this after Liverpool had taken the lead with style and brutality.
Marco Silva’s team have been excellent in bursts this season, and vague hopes of European qualification linger for them, but there they were for a bubble of the first half, unexpectedly throwing out images like they were PSG on acid.
If you aren’t fully switched on, as Liverpool weren’t in west London, then football will bite you.
Liverpool are resident of a pressure-free environment and went into the visit of West Ham knowing that even a defeat would mean they would end the day 10 points clear of their nearest rival and nine points from the prize.
Self-propulsion can be quite the effort, if nobody is breathing down the back of your neck.
Across my Liverpool watching lifetime, 2024/25 has much in common with three other title-winning Anfield vintages: 1982/83, 1987/88 and 2019/20, at least in terms of the excess detachment we are blessed by from the chasing pack.
In 1982/83, Liverpool were so far ahead of the rest that they were able to contrive to navigate their last seven league games without a win yet still finished 11 points clear of a second-placed Watford, suffering reversals from mid-April against Southampton, Norwich, Tottenham, Nottingham Forest and Watford.
In his last campaign in charge of the club, Bob Paisley‘s players unremittingly phoned the last month of the season in.
Even within the blizzard of magnificence that was 1987/88, Liverpool’s dominance was so encompassing that it goes forgotten that they won only four of their last 12 in the league, something that was a big contributory factor as to why they sleepwalked their way into that season’s FA Cup final against Wimbledon.
On that occasion, we dropped points against Derby, Everton, Nottingham Forest, Man United, Norwich, Chelsea, Southampton and Luton, as we meandered our way to the trophy lift.
Meanwhile, under Jurgen Klopp in 2019/20, as Liverpool ended the 30-year title drought, disrupted in the home straight as they were by a global pandemic, there was a pre-lockdown capitulation at Watford, while upon the resumption of play in front of empty stadiums they won just five of their last nine, even shipping four without reply away at a deposed Man City.
Focus isn’t easy to maintain, when you’re out there on your own. The prize isn’t yet mathematically yours, but it has been realistically over and done with for weeks.
Everyone is just waiting for the party details to be formalised, and the players become as guilty of that malaise as the watching media – and a significant section of the support, aside from those of an acute nervous disposition that won’t acknowledge the race is won until the running points total is finally unassailable.
Sunday fitted the bill perfectly in this respect. On Friday I was again called up for BBC Radio Merseyside’s Total Sport show, during which I was asked for a prediction for the West Ham game, beyond all the Mohamed Salah contract jubilation chat.
I proffered that we’d win but maybe make heavy weather of it. 1-0, maybe 2-1. Two days later, as the game ambled along, I regretted not backing my prediction by laying a bet on it.
An early lead not built upon, a disjointed second half in which Liverpool found it increasingly difficult to rouse themselves, encouragement taken by the visitors, the returning Alisson kept busy, a comedy equaliser gifted and the captain rectifying matters by heading in the winner, followed by a teaser trailer for his own new contract in waiting.
History points that the whole afternoon was faithfully following well-worn dot-to-dot paths that Liverpool have travelled before.
Three more points gained, a step closer to the prize, a loosely subdued party in waiting, even the atmosphere was flat for much of the afternoon at Anfield on Sunday.
I wouldn’t lose much sleep over it though, as it’s just the natural way of things when you are inevitable, and Liverpool 2024/25 are indeed inevitable.
Good things come to those who wait, and the wait is almost over.
