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Key events
Arne Slot has a chat:
What is required from the players is they have to work really hard. If you’re not intense, if you’re not ready for them, Tottenham can hurt you a lot. And the fans can play a big part as well, because the louder they are, the more energy the players have.
There’s a job to do for us. We have to be ready for Tottenham. Everybody knows what it’s about. We know we need one point from the five games we play. But we know the responsibility we have. The fans are here to see a team that tries to do everything they can to get the point.
History was made in 1964: it was the first time the reporter responsible for informing Guardian readers of a Liverpool title victory got a byline. Eric Todd celebrated by quoting Thomas Gray’s The Progress of Poesy, an ode in Pindaric form. They had secured the trophy with a 5-0 thrashing of Arsenal. Here’s a bit of Todd’s missive:
Having already exhausted most of the available superlatives on the team, Mr W Shankly, its manager, and the Kop, I can think of no more fitting a preface to my last dispatch from Anfield than a statement by Mr Shankly shortly after Liverpool had won promotion. “We are not merely going to be sitting on the First Division fence,” he said. They finished a useful eighth last term and, after a modest start, they dropped several broad hints that they intended winning something this season.
Yet Saturday’s proceedings were less satisfying than had been expected or hoped for. For one thing, there were fewer than 50,000 spectators – some of them had queued all night, and others for seven hours. For another, Liverpool made rather more mistakes than usual, and finally Arsenal did little to allay the general suspicion that they were there just to be sacrificed. The atmosphere was charged with tension and emotion, so that perhaps it would be unfair to be hypercritical. The indisputable fact remains, however, that Liverpool did what they set out to do. They are worthy champions, and Arsenal, who have enjoyed a good share of the game’s honours over the years, paid them generous tribute.
When it was all over and while the corks were being drawn below stairs, the Liverpool players did a lap of honour. As they reached the Kop, they slowed down – I swear some of them bowed – a deserved tribute to a section of the local population which, if it did but know it, “rode sublime upon the seraph-wings of ecstasy”. If the Kop thinks that too fancy, no matter. ‘Ee, ay, alley-oh, Liverpool are the champs.’
“If ever there was a time to break out the old ‘Lads, it’s Spurs’ line, this must be it,” writes Matt Dony. “Despite being an eternally pessimistic football fan, I have grudgingly accepted that Liverpool are going to win the league. And if they can’t get a point against this Spurs team, then something is very wrong. As someone who knows a thing or two about wine, what do recommend for tonight?”
I don’t think it matters, so long as it is cold, bubbly, and emptied over one’s own head before consumption.
After 1982 and 1988 I believe this would be the third time that Liverpool have won the league by getting a result against Tottenham. London clubs seem to have been their opposition for most of their coronations, with Chelsea, Arsenal and QPR also having a go.
In 1947 Liverpool were not playing when they were confirmed as champions: Stoke went to Sheffield United knowing victory would see them win the league, and they flubbed it. They have never come as close, before or since. I think the Guardian’s report really captured the essence and import of the game.
Liverpool have won the Football League championship for the fifth time. Stoke City had to win on Sheffield United’s ground on Saturday to overhaul Liverpool, and instead lost 1-2. Pickering, a 38-year-old former English international and the club’s captain, came back to the Sheffield United side for his only First Division game of the season in place of Hagan, who is injured; he scored the first goal after three minutes, and after Stoke had equalised before half-time he paved the way for the deciding goal, shot by Rickett in the second half. Altogether Sheffield were without three leading players owing to injury.
Back to Liverpool’s title coronations of yore. In 1923 they cantered to the championship with sufficient ease that by the time it was actually confirmed nobody was very interested, and most of the Guardian’s football coverage was devoted to other issues.
Saturday brought a settlement of some of the Football League problems that have been perplexing us ever since certain clubs singled themselves out for championships, relegation, or promotion. Liverpool earned only one point in their home match with Huddersfield, but that was sufficient to assure them of the championship and to make them the first to secure the trophy twice in succession since the League was extended.
Huddersfield’s draw at Liverpool, where the champions scored their goal near the end, gave the Yorkshire club a chance to finish second, as Sunderland, who were well beaten at Burnley, have fallen off since all prospect of their overhauling Liverpool disappeared.
Some of the scenes outside Anfield this afternoon as fans waited for, and welcomed, the team coach:
I present the Guardian’s coverage of Liverpool winning the league title in 1922, in full:
The championship of the Football League was settled in favour of Liverpool yesterday when they alone of the clubs in the running for the honour won their game. They had Burnley as opponents, and in a hard game beat them by two goals to one. Burnley drew level in the second half, but could not prevent Liverpool from scoring again.
Consider yourselves informed.
This is how we reported Liverpool’s title success in 1906. Given how little we had to say about their win in 1901, and how little we would have to say about their win in 1922, it’s really quite extensive reportage. Interesting that the first paragraph is given over to explaining why winning the league isn’t anything like as impressive as winning the FA Cup.
Liverpool have had a great League course, and they have strong claims to be considered the best team in the country. Of course winning the Association Cup is justly regarded as the highest of all football honours, and the best proof of supremacy among the teams of the country. The Cup competition provides a brief trial, for which each club needs to send its best team, and each team can prepare itself and collect all its strength. The League struggle is largely a test of club resources, it is liable to various interferences, and there is in it, of course, immense scope for the occurrence of accidents. In its later stage, when the international matches enlist the chief champions and the middle teams, without either fear or hope, begin to take things easily, the competition becomes a little unreal.
The Liverpool team has, however, shown exceptionally fine quality in the League series this season. Whether it has played better football than Newcastle or Aston Villa or Bolton Wanderers have when at their best is doubtful, but there is no doubt that it has given a greater number of fine displays than any other side. It has ended by showing itself a team of true fighters, and by resisting resolute challenges with splendid endurance and pluck. Manchester City, by a noble spurt, actually overtook Liverpool a few weeks ago, but Manchester, and not Liverpool, collapsed at their critical moment. When it is remembered that Liverpool lost five of their first eight matches in the early weeks of the season, when form is always topsy-turvy, no one can doubt that they are thoroughly deserving champions.
The teams!
Here’s the all-important team news. Liverpool have picked their 11 most-picked players in league games this season – everyone who has started more than 16 games is starting this one:
Liverpool: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson, Gravenberch, Mac Allister, Salah, Szoboszlai, Gakpo, Diaz. Subs: Kelleher, Endo, Nunez, Chiesa, Jones, Elliott, Jota, Tsimikas, Quansah.
Tottenham Hotspur: Vicario, Spence, Danso, Davies, Udogie, Bergvall, Gray, Maddison, Johnson, Solanke, Tel. Subs: Kinsky, Bissouma, Richarlison, Romero, Kulusevski, Porro, Odobert, Sarr, Van de Ven.
Referee: Thomas Bramall.
At the risk of being presumptuous, I’ve been spending my early afternoon reading Guardian reporting of previous Liverpool title successes. It is fair to say we have covered some better than others. Here, for example, is the full and unexpurgated text of our report on the club’s very first, published on 30 April 1901:
In a football match at West Bromwich yesterday Liverpool defeated West Bromwich Albion by one goal to nil. This victory secured to Liverpool the championship of the English Association Football League.
Yes, that was it. The sport section wasn’t particularly big at the time, though there was space for a very long report on a golf tournament. Anyway, more to come.
Hello world!
Anfield, Sunday 27 April 2025, 4pm BST
Anfield, Sunday 27 April 2025, 6.30pm BST?
A full and fan-packed Anfield has not celebrated a league title since 1990. Is today the day?
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