It’s been a week of busted narratives in Liverpool, but they also received some help to bust the narrative that this is a weak Premier League…
LIVERPOOL’S 2020 league title is roundly accepted and uncontested five years on.
Why would it be? They barnstormed their way to 19 domestic crowns in such a ruthlessly efficient manner that they were 25 points clear in March.
But we remember it differently. There were no PSR disputes or Premier League charges against the club.
Different mostly because of the COVID-19 pandemic and its devastation across the world which some opposing supporters were more than thankful for.
The idea of an asterisk was born. People consigned to their homes could cling on to an impending Premier League returning to Anfield as not really counting.
It’s difficult to imagine where that leaves those same agitators when, five years later, we stand on the precipice of number 20 with no objectionable caveat to impart.
Liverpool will win the Premier League. They will celebrate it in front of supporters and will parade it around our glorious city, all things being well.
I suppose the only avenue to turn down is one which laments ‘the worst Premier League in years’ tripe.
It’s been a week of narrative busting. Virgil van Dijk joined Mohamed Salah to all but settle Liverpool’s contract uncertainties, Neil Atkinson had a big defiant chat about ‘the wobble’ on Sky Sports News, and Liverpool beat West Ham to need six points to make inevitability a reality.
While in Anfield during that second half last Sunday, the last thing on my mind was how poor 17th-place West Ham looked.
Lucas Paqueta and Mohamed Kudus ripped through Liverpool, slaloming left and right with the poise and decorum of the Champions League level footballers they are.
Yet some say this season isn’t worth entering into the history books because Manchester City didn’t get 100 points and it’s not even on a par with Leicester City’s 2015 title win.
How bad must it be to watch the football of some of those bad-faith Everton and Manchester United actors if they can’t get past 40 points in such a dire league where points can apparently be picked up at a canter.
If all the age-old football cliches held, both would be deep in the mire of a relegation scrap.
Above them, Brighton and their plethora of attacking talent sit 10th on 48 points. There’s then a seven-point swing to Manchester City on 55 in fifth. The average number of games lost is eight.
Aston Villa are seventh after a monumental win against Paris Saint-Germain this week. Fulham showed their competence against Liverpool, but can’t get higher than ninth right now. Andoni Iraola’s admirable Bournemouth sit one above in eighth. Arsenal took apart the mighty Real Madrid over two legs.
With six games and 18 points still to play for, it’s interesting what this throws up in comparison to recent seasons.
City’s centurion season in 2017-18 saw no team outside the top seven break 50 points. Leicester’s title-winning season saw 10 teams lose 15 or more games.
If you want to go further back, Arsenal’s 2003-04 invincibles were impenetrable in a league where only the top four broke 60 points. Nobody in the bottom 14 broke 40 points when United won the Premier League and Champions League in 2007-08.
We can all find narratives and if people genuinely believe Liverpool have strolled to a title in belly-tickling fashion over a 38-game season, that is their prerogative. I’d rather go into space with Katy Perry than have a pint with them.
The simple reality is that the Premier League is the hardest and best league in the world, with an increasing number of quality international footballers plying their trade at clubs finishing just outside the bottom three. That quality only increases the higher up the table you go.
At the very top lies Liverpool. No asterisk, no bullshit, simply waiting to be crowned the best of 92 teams over nine months. Waiting to celebrate it properly, patiently.
It’s been a week of saying no to fear and facetious narratives at Anfield.
The quality of the Premier League should be the next hill we all die on.
