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Liverpool crowned Premier League champions after Manchester City’s loss to Chelsea confirms inevitable

Liverpool have officially returned to their perch at the summit of English football, after Manchester City’s 2-1 defeat to Chelsea handed Jurgen Klopp’s sensational side the Premier League title.

Liverpool have officially been crowned champions after 30 year drought.
Liverpool have officially been crowned champions after 30 year drought.

The 30-year wait is over. Liverpool is champion of England again.

Liverpool clinched its first league title since 1990 on Friday morning (AEST), ending an agonising title drought without the players even having to take the field. Instead, the Premier League crown was secured when Chelsea beat second-place Manchester City 2-1, a result that means City can no longer catch Liverpool with seven games remaining.

For the city of Liverpool, this has been a party three decades in the making, but the ongoing restrictions caused by the coronavirus meant fans were unable to celebrate in large crowds.

Liverpool fans celebrate as their team clinch the Premier League title.
Liverpool fans celebrate as their team clinch the Premier League title.

Only a few dozen fans were outside Anfield as the final whistle blew at Stamford Bridge, setting off fireworks and chanting.

Liverpool tweeted “We’re Premier League champions!!” seconds after the final whistle while Manchester City tweeted their congratulations.

“It’s such a big moment, I am completely overwhelmed,” an emotional Klopp told Sky Sports. “Tonight it is for you out there.

“It’s incredible. I hope you stay at home, or go in front of your house if you want, but not more. We do it together in this moment and it is a joy to do it for you.”

Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson hailed Klopp’s transformational impact on the club.

“We followed him and believed him,” he said. “It’s been an amazing journey. I’m hoping there is more. We just keep hungry, keep wanting more and following him.

“The biggest thing is no matter what, we all follow him, believe in him and he’s taken us to this point.”

After a dominant campaign that was interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, Liverpool became England’s earliest-ever champion – and the latest. No team since the inception of the country’s league system in 1888 has clinched the title with seven games remaining. And no team has been crowned Premier League champion in June.

The title itself had hardly been in doubt since December, with Jurgen Klopp’s team quickly building a massive lead with a rampant attacking style of play that has earned 28 wins in 31 games so far.

For a while, though, it seemed the coronavirus could still prevent Liverpool from ending its drought.

The club was 25 points clear when the league was abruptly halted in March as the country was forced into lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19. “Null and void” became the dreaded term in the red half of Liverpool amid fears the season could be cancelled completely as the coronavirus death toll soared and clubs struggled to agree on a strategy to restart the league during the country’s gravest emergency since World War II.

Jurgen Klopp has delivered the one prize to the club it has been desperate for for decades.
Jurgen Klopp has delivered the one prize to the club it has been desperate for for decades.

After Liverpool finally returned to the field on Sunday, a 0-0 draw in the Merseyside derby against Everton delayed the crowning moment. But not for long. The team quickly rediscovered its scintillating attacking form as it swept aside Crystal Palace 4-0 on Wednesday inside an empty Anfield.

Chelsea then put Liverpool over a winning line that had proved so elusive for a team accustomed to dominating English football in the 1970s and 80s.

And Klopp suggested that he and the club were now poised for another era of dominance in the English game.

“What they did over the last two or three years is just exceptional and a pure joy for me to coach them,” said Klopp, who watched City’s defeat alongside his players at a hotel.

“It’s just been a really exciting ride from the first day I arrived and it is not over yet, that’s the good thing.

“The team all look like they have a good few years in their legs but for tonight we just enjoy this moment. It is the best thing I can imagine, it’s more than I ever dreamed of to be honest.”

After waiting so long to win a 19th English title, the pandemic left an anticlimactic cloud over celebrations on the hottest day of the year so far. Fans couldn’t even gather in pubs, which have been shut since March, to watch Chelsea clinch the title for them. Gatherings of multiple households are also still banned inside.

Liverpool’s stadium and Bill Shankly mural at Anfield pictured this month.
Liverpool’s stadium and Bill Shankly mural at Anfield pictured this month.

The only communal viewing experiences allowed are for groups of up to six people to meet outside. Photos of garden viewings spread on social media. A few fans watched on phones outside Anfield.

Klopp, who has restored a winning mentality to Liverpool with his brand of “heavy metal” football, was watching at home. The German manager already led the club to the Champions League title last year, but this will widely be regarded as the moment he truly brought Liverpool back to the pinnacle of English football.

The last time Liverpool won the league, it was still called the First Division and the club held the English record for most titles with 18. But the inception of the Premier League in 1992 transformed the landscape of the English game. Liverpool faded as a force, to be eclipsed by Manchester United.

Fans can’t go to the games at present but that hasn’t stopped supporters showing their true colours.
Fans can’t go to the games at present but that hasn’t stopped supporters showing their true colours.

Sweeping to 13 Premier League titles, United manager Alex Ferguson succeeded in his mission of knocking Liverpool “off their perch” by helping the Mancunians become 20-time English champions and one of the wealthiest sports teams in the world. Liverpool was even in a fight for financial survival in 2010 when the American ownership of Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr. plunged the club into heavy debt. The club was rescued – via High Court action – by new American investors from the Fenway Sports Group led by John Henry, who added Liverpool to an investment portfolio that included the MLB’s Boston Red Sox.

It has been on a steady rebuilding path since.

Liverpool supporters finally have the chance to celebrate a Premier League title win.
Liverpool supporters finally have the chance to celebrate a Premier League title win.

The experiment of bringing back 1990-title winning manager Kenny Dalglish was short-lived, as it its eighth-place finish in the league in 2012 was the club’s lowest in 18 years.

Within two years, the team was on the ascent again under Brendan Rodgers, finishing within two points of champion Manchester City in 2014. The anguish of coming so close to the summit before slipping up – literally, as then-captain Steven Gerrard slipped on the field at a crucial moment – was hard to recover from.

A slump in form saw Rodgers fired in 2015, which ushered in the arrival of Klopp.

After a slow start, and another eighth-place finish, Liverpool regained its swagger.

Liverpool's Sadio Mane scored in the side’s 4-0 demolition of Crystal Palace earlier this week.
Liverpool's Sadio Mane scored in the side’s 4-0 demolition of Crystal Palace earlier this week.

Not even the sale of Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona in 2018 derailed Liverpool’s ambitions. Instead, that money was reinvested wisely to ensure that the entertaining attack unit had a robust barrier at the back with then world-record fees paid for goalkeeper Alisson and centre back Virgil van Dijk. More frustration was to come, though. After leading the league for much of the campaign, Liverpool finished just one point behind winner Man City last season following one of the closest and most entertaining title races in history. There was no stopping Klopp’s team this time.

But any thoughts of a victory parade will have to wait until the pandemic regulations are eased further.

Captain Henderson said that despite the near certainty of a Liverpool title from the turn of the year, he had been reluctant to celebrate prematurely.

“I didn’t want to talk about it until this moment so it’s amazing to finally get over the line,” the Liverpool skipper told UK broadcasters Sky Sports.

“I’m so happy for all the boys, the fans, the whole club, the city.

“I’m just a little bit overwhelmed right now, it’s just an amazing feeling and just so proud of what we’ve achieved.” Towering centre back Virgil van Dijk said it had been an unbelievable season. “We’ve been incredible. To be part of this group of players and part of this journey is incredible and I am very proud to be able to call myself a Premier League winner.”

Originally published as Liverpool crowned Premier League champions after Manchester City’s loss to Chelsea confirms inevitable

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Original URL: https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/football/premier-league/teams/liverpool/liverpool-crowned-premier-league-champions-after-manchester-citys-loss-to-chelsea-confirms-inevitable/news-story/33538a83c66f5d12256997461877bf43