The games that won Liverpool the Premier League
After 30 punishing years, Liverpool have finally been crowned Premier League champions.
The Reds have beaten off 19 other teams and a global pandemic in order to produce possibly the most dominant season so far in English football history.
Jurgen Klopp's men have produced levels of quality and consistency never seen before.
While each one of the 31 games thus far have been important in securing this historic title, there have, of course, been some stand-outs.
These are the seven games that won Liverpool the 2019/20 Premier League title.
Norwich City (h)
09/08/2019
As Champions League winners and Premier League runners-up, Liverpool were setting out to be crowned champions of England.
Nothing less.
In order to put down a marker, they had to win the opening game against promoted Norwich City. In fact, they had to not only win it but win it convincingly.
And they did just that.
Divock Origi filled in for Sadio Mane, who missed out on pre-season due to the African Cup of Nations.
The Belgian cult-hero was impressive, as his good work led to a Norwich own goal in the seventh minute.
Further first-half goals came from Mo Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Origi himself, as the Reds went into halftime with a 4-0 lead.
Despite being so far ahead, the relentless pressing continued after the break, setting the theme for the season - no matter the scoreline, Liverpool were going to play as if it was 0-0.
Teemu Pukki did score a consolation, but in reality, Liverpool absolutely battered the Canaries.
This was vital in order to show that they were going to go one step further than last season.
The only real downside was an injury to Alisson, which kept him out until late October.
Leicester City (h)
05/10/2019
Despite conceding a lot more than usual (perhaps due to Alisson's injury), Liverpool's dominant victories continued through September.
Leicester had made a decent start to the season, sitting in third place going into this game.
Ex-Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers was making his return to Anfield but saw his team go 1-0 down to a Sadio Mane goal before halftime.
Liverpool held Leicester off until Adrian failed to keep out an 80th minute James Maddison strike.
As the game entered its 93rd minute, Liverpool's 100% winning start seemed over.
But then Sadio Mane was fouled in the box by Marc Albrighton.
Ice-cool James Milner scored a 95th-minute penalty to win Liverpool the game.
This began the running theme of Liverpool's never-say-die attitude.
Even when Klopp's side look down and out, they will get back up and go again.
This continued for the rest of the season. It was a pivotal factor in the winning of the Premier League title.
Aston Villa (a)
02/11/2019
After Leicester, Liverpool's tough fixtures continued. A draw against Man United came before a win over Spurs.
The 100% win record was over, but the unbeaten run (and title charge) continued.
It looked like it would be over as winter set in and the Reds travelled to Villa Park.
They conceded to a set-piece in the 21st minute of the game.
Despite having 74% of possession and creating 22 chances, they could not get put the ball in the net.
Three minutes from time, however, Sadio Mane decided that he was not going to be beaten.
He had threatened all game, almost single-handedly taking the fight to Villa.
In the 87th minute, he put in a teasing cross to the back post that Andy Robertson headed in.
Some may have settled for a draw, but not Mane. Not Liverpool.
In the 95th minute, Liverpool won a corner. Trent Alexander-Arnold sent in a front-post delivery that was glanced in off Mane's head.
Just like Leicester, Liverpool stayed going until quite literally the last kick of the game.
What looked like a loss, then looked like a draw, became a win.
What could have been a three-point lead over Manchester City became a six-point lead.
So who was the next league game against?
Manchester City (h)
10/11/2019
City's season so far had consisted of dominant wins and two surprise losses to Norwich and Wolves.
Yet a win over Liverpool would have taken them just three points from the top of the table.
Liverpool had to win to establish a) some breathing room and b) the fact that they were better than Man City, which many people doubted.
Hectic would be the best word to describe the opening part of the game.
In the sixth minute, a City penalty shout at the Kop end was refused. Liverpool went straight up the field with a counter-attack that ended up at the feet of Fabinho.
The Brazilian launched a thunderbolt of a shot to Claudio Bravo's right and into the back of the net.
Seven minutes later, Liverpool tore City apart to score their second.
Trent Alexander-Arnold played a fantastic switched ball to Andy Robertson, who took one touch and sent a delightful cross behind the City backline. Mo Salah nodded in to finish off one of the most underrated goals of the season.
The second half started the same as the first.
Six minutes in, Jordan Henderson played a fantastic cross for Sadio Mane to head home.
Bernardo Silva scored a 78th-minute consolation, but Anfield roared Liverpool over the finish line.
This may be the defining win of the season.
It put the message out that nobody, not even Pep Guardiola's record-breaking City team were denying Liverpool this league title.
Leicester City (a)
26/12/2019
Liverpool won the Club World Cup in Qatar on the 21st of December.
Five days later, on Boxing Day, the Reds faced a tricky away trip to high-flying Leicester.
Yes, Liverpool were strong favourites to win the league by this point, having won every game bar one.
But the Foxes had recovered extremely well from their loss to Liverpool and were now the closest contenders for the title.
A tough game on paper proved to be anything but in reality.
Trent Alexander-Arnold gave one of the best fullback displays in Premier League history with a goal and two assists, as well as taking the corner that led to a Caglar Soyuncu handball and James Milner penalty.
Roberto Firmino brought his Club World Cup form home with him, scoring a brace.
Ruthless, relentless Liverpool at their very best.
Manchester United (h)
19/01/2020
Now you're gonna believe us.
It was becoming more and more obvious that, barring a dramatic collapse, Liverpool would win the 2019/20 Premier League.
But losing at home to Man United, to end the unbeaten run, would still have been a minor catastrophe.
Again, Liverpool struck early, this time through a colossal Virgil van Dijk header in the 14th minute.
Roberto Firmino was denied his first Anfield goal of the season, as VAR harshly judged van Dijk to have fouled David de Gea in the build-up.
The rest of the game was a fairly even affair, with Liverpool having the majority of the chances. Considering Liverpool were defending a 1-0 lead, one would have expected United to dominate, but it did not happen.
This was until injury time.
Man United got a corner which ended up in the hands of Alisson.
He launched a pinpoint pass to the out-of-shot Mohamed Salah, who was alone on the halfway line.
He held off Dan James before calmly slotting past De Gea, to give Liverpool at 2-0 victory over the arch-nemesis.
Alisson was the first man to congratulate him under the Kop, as fans broke into the famous chant - "We're gonna win the league."
This was the game that made fans well and truly believed that a title win was inevitable.
Nothing could go wrong now, right?
Crystal Palace (h)
24/06/2020
Yes, this is a Premier League match being played in June.
After a three-month-long, pandemic inflicted break from football, Liverpool returned to an empty Anfield.
The Reds played out a disappointing 0-0 draw in the first game back away to Everton, but a win over Palace and a win over City the following week would secure the title.
After appearing very rusty at Goodison Park days previous, Liverpool looked like their usual selves against the Eagles.
Fabinho inspired Liverpool to a 4-0 win, inching the Reds ever so close to their primary goal.
As well as the Brazilian, Mo Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Sadio Mane also got on the score sheet.
The game was the perfect summary of Liverpool's season - goals for talismen Salah and Mane, a clean sheet and a relentless, never-let-up performance.
Each goal was fantastic - an inch-perfect Alexander-Arnold free-kick, a world-class Fabinho pass for Salah to score, Fabinho's rocket strike and the front three connecting for Mane's calm finish.
In fact, Fabinho's goal was about more than just the quality of strike - it came from savage-like pressing by Jordan Henderson and Roberto Firmino to win the ball back, despite already being 2-0 up.
The perfect analogy for Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool.
As it turned out, Liverpool would be Premier League champions before they took to the pitch again, as Chelsea defeated Man City the following night.
Consistent. Never-say-die. Relentless.
This is what sums up Liverpool Football Club, the deserving 2019/20 Premier League champions.
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