Premier League titles without jeopardy are never really remembered.
Go back through the 33-year history of the competition and those won by a significant margin are invariably lost to time, unless subsequent events re-contextualise them as part of a treble, for example, or as a watershed moment we didn’t have the perspective to see until much later.
Liverpool’s 20th Premier League title might fall into the latter camp, because this could be either the tail end of Jurgen Klopp - a victory that waves goodbye to the Klopp-Guardiola era - or it might be the beginning of something entirely new.
More likely, though, it won’t stand out as a classic.
This is the vibe pundits have been picking up on, the feeling they have mislabelled and wrongly channelled into questioning the quality of Arne Slot’s Liverpool team. It’s a shrug of the shoulders misdirected.
Not that there was any shrugging on Sunday.
There is, inevitably, wider acceptance of the significance of Slot’s achievement now that it’s official.
Seeing the players sing You’ll Never Walk Alone in front of the Kop was a moment that should imprint itself in the minds of historians; that should make one or two bored pundits reappraise a season they have unfairly cast aside as an off-year.
You'll Never Walk Alone ❤️ pic.twitter.com/tOjlx1iiKO
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) April 27, 2025
The idea that this Liverpool team might not be very good is laughable. They’ve lost just two of their 34 league games, a record that Pep Guardiola has only achieved once, in his 100-point season of 2017/18.
They could still hit 94 points, which would be the highest tally in five years and enough to break the English top-flight record up until 2017/18.
It is not Liverpool’s fault nobody else has put up a fight. In fact, far from indicating an easy league, the low tally for Arsenal and Manchester City, coupled with the fight for European places in the top half, is evidence of just how strong the competition has become.
Slot should not be allowed to become a victim of his own success, and indeed the fact that they’ve won the title without fuss, without a blip at any stage along the way, is all the more staggering given what was expected back in August.
It’s important nobody rewrites history here.
To suggest that Slot has simply carried on Klopp’s legacy, or has benefited from a structure that already worked so well he merely had to tweak one or two things, is flat out wrong.
Nobody should be saying that with a straight face, not when, eight months ago, the universal opinion was that Liverpool would struggle without their leader.
Everybody feared Klopp’s departure would trigger soul-searching as it did for Manchester United and Arsenal when the lost Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger respectively.
Everybody said Liverpool would need a transitional year. Everybody said the squad looked too old. Everybody said Arne Slot was a huge gamble considering his lack of experience in a ‘Big 5’ league.
And everybody wrote them off when Federico Chiesa was their only summer signing.
But the story, for many, has still been one of simple acts and minor changes. Here, again, is a feeling misdirected.
Slot’s quiet and unassuming demeanour, and creation of a quiet and unassuming on-field aesthetic, has hidden the boldness of his management.
To tame the wilder parts of the team but keeps its winning mentality is a genius feat.
For proof, try to think of another example in Premier League history when a manager has done that; has decreased the speed and lowered the charisma to the benefit of a club.
Add to that getting a new level out of Mohamed Salah, revitalising Cody Gakpo and Ryan Gravenberch, steadying central midfield without a new signing, and juggling a long season with a relatively small squad, and there is no justification for downplaying Slot’s success.
But perhaps the best example of all – and, fittingly, another factor that’s easily misinterpreted as a sign that Liverpool aren’t ‘good’ champions – is that Liverpool have been imperious despite a general acknowledgement that this summer they need to sign two full-backs, a number six, and a striker.
The collective has been substantially stronger than the sum of its parts which, in a nutshell, is the definition of brilliant management.
History might not fondly remember the 2024/25 campaign, but that should have no bearing whatsoever on the scale of Arne Slot’s achievement.
He has just delivered one of the greatest ever Premier League titles.
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