I’ve previously credited my British-born maternal grandfather for my introduction to soccer and in particular his fandom for Tottenham Hotspur. He claimed to have once been a waterboy for the team so I believed he knew a good deal about which teams were good and which were bad. When he tried to give me context on what it was like to root for the Spurs, he compared them to my beloved New York Mets. “A team in a big city that loses a lot more than the other ones they share it with”. He drew that comparison in the late 70s when the Pinstripers were winning back-to-back titles and the Mets were cellar-dwellers, so I felt he had a pretty good handle on everything.
But when he’d cite which teams were the ones that were winners, he parochially evoked the perennial London-based winners Arsenal Gunners and then he’d parenthetnically mention Liverpool. Maybe he had urban bias, but by that point Liverpool had won just as many First Division titles as Arsenal, and they then went on to win four more in a five-year span around that time that the Yankees won their two. Just before he passed he confessed that he hadn’t been paying as much attention as he used to, and that “The Reds” were probably better than he had remembered. When they won five more titles in the next decade, whatever comparison with Arsenal that existed was forever made moot.
But since that point Liverpool had only been able to win once more, a somewhat hollow accomplishment played in empty stadia and socially distanced pitches during the truncated 2019-20 season. Which is why what transpired yesterday was such significant news on both sides of the Pond, as THE TELEGRAPH’s Chris Bascombe observed:
“It was always Liverpool,” read the banner on the Kop. So it proved, as Arne Slot’s side marched to the club’s record-equalling 20th title in style.
The Kop will party long, hard and by unloading all the passion of a 35-year wait to savour winning the Premier League after being roared on in a carnival Anfield atmosphere – such joyous scenes denied them in 2020 .
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS’ James Robson provided some specific details in his piece:
A selfie with Mohamed Salah. An impromptu sing-along with Arne Slot. Fireworks and flares. It was party time at Anfield as Liverpool sealed the Premier League title in style. The 5-1 rout of Tottenham was almost a side issue.
And even as far away as Sri Lanka, ADADERANA.LK shed still more light on who and what the heroes and heroic were:
A second Premier League title means Liverpool go fifth in the rankings for the number of titles outright, moving behind Arsenal’s total of three.
Significantly for Liverpool, because they won 18 top-flight titles before the Premier League started in 1992/93, they have now been crowned champions of England for the 20th time. That equals the record held by fierce rivals Manchester United, who last won the title in 2012/13.
A key figure in Liverpool’s title-winning campaign has been Salah. The Egyptian leads the Premier League charts for the most goals and most assists in 2024/25, with 28 and 18 respectively. Those goals and assists account for 58 per cent of the team’s Premier League tally this season – 46 of 80.
“It is incredible to win this with our fans,” Salah told Sky Sports. “This is 100 per cent better than last time, especially with the fans. We have a different group now so to show we can do it again is something special.”
The Reds’ fight song is a tune you might be familiar with that often closed out the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Muscular Day Telethons, YOU’LL NEVER WALK ALONE. In 2020 that vow to “walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart, and you’ll never walk alone” wasn’t allowed. Yesterday, as Robson detailed, the scene was quite different:
“Everyone was sitting on the bus saying there is no way we are going to lose the game,” said Slot, standing in the middle of the field after being dowsed in champagne by his players. Fans had turned up long before kickoff, lining the streets around the stadium in anticipation of a title celebration.
And it was the culmination of a truly dominant year. At this juncture, even with the weighted system that awards three points for a team win versus one point for a draw, Liverpool has earned more than 80 per cent of all possible points, a dominance over second-place Arsenal that is even more dramatic from that perspective (the Gunners have approximately 55 per cent of theirs) than the 15-point cushion they enjoy with four matches to go.
My grandfather would have no doubt enjoyed what we saw yesterday, even if it was achieved against his beloved Spurs in what can only be described as a horrific season for them. I’m willing to bet a whole lot of current British grandparents were enjoying it even more. What “always was” at long last is once again.
Courage…