Arne Slot joins an elite club and Mohamed Salah moves closer to an all-time Premier League record after Liverpool get over the line with four games to spare
Liverpool 5-1 Tottenham (Diaz 16′ , Mac Allister 24′, Gakpo 34′, Salah 63′, Udogie 69′ og | Solanke 12′)
ANFIELD — Children were up on shoulders. Teenagers were up trees. Some brave fans wearing red “Champions 20” t-shirts had somehow made it up on top of the LFCTV studio that sits high above the street.
And who could blame them? There was barely any standing room, anywhere. So little stewards closed off access to Anfield Road, down which fans crammed the pavements, watched from balconies and scaffolding, stood on walls craning to see.
They lined the stairs leading up to the Main Stand, spread across the platform’s raised vantage point, filled the cobbled paths beneath.
All for a glimpse of the team bus crawling – the driver blinded by the thick red fog of a hundred smoke bombs – towards the stadium, carrying the squad and manager they had already anointed 2024-25 Premier League champions before a ball had been kicked.
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) April 27, 2025
As they roared them through the stadium gates, Ian Rush tried to see through the clouds and crowds from his mural on the last terraced house before the stadium.
Fireworks exploded from nearby streets and gardens, the air thick with acrid smoke that caught in the lungs and drifted in the light breeze around all of Anfield’s four sides.
The sky turned a reddy-orange, as though sunset had arrived early. Which, in Liverpool’s season, it has.
A we’ve-done-it energy buzzed everywhere. There remains frustration that Covid robbed the club and its supporters the chance to celebrate properly the last time they won the Premier League title, in 2020 – the club’s first in 30 years, no less – and they are determined to make up for it this time.
Down Walton Breck Road, another of the tendrils that carries fans in the tens of thousands to and from the stadium every game, merchandise sellers offered giant flags declaring Liverpool 2024-25 league champions with, simply, “20” – their 20th top-flight title. The flags already hung and rippling in the sunshine outside burger vans.
Liverpool players celebrate with their fans on the pitch (Photo: AFP)
Alisson Becker and teammates celebrate (Photo: Reuters)Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold celebrates after winning the Premier League (Photo: Reuters)
The 20 is significant, moving Liverpool level with Manchester United on titles but, crucially, ahead of them in bragging rights, due to their superior European honours. Even Gary Neville, who you would not be surprised to see remove his top to reveal a Manchester United shirt tattooed on his skin, conceded on TV before kick-off that it made their rivals definitively the most successful club in England, an accolade United had always claimed. “It is a sobering day,” he said.
Meanwhile, a man in a flat-cap wearing a high-viz jacket with “LFC official programme” in faded letters on the back was seeing the future. “Don’t miss out on this special souvenir programme,” he called, waving copies. “We’re going to win the league today. Don’t miss out.”
Fans queued to enter convenience stores to get the party started. They spilled outside The Twelfth Man, the pub a stones-throw from Anfield, and filled Burnand Street.
“We’re gonna win the league” could be heard regularly on the walk up to the ground. It was belted out while the bus drove into the stadium, and as fans dispersed to find turnstiles after sharing this little moment in history.
When seats filled inside, it continued bouncing around the stands, alongside red balloons and swirling between a sea of celebratory flags and scarves.
And then Tottenham Hotspur scored. Remember them? Lost in the raw emotion were the other team who, win the game, could still deny Liverpool the chance of clinching the title on the day. And after 10 minutes they’d scored.
An awkward uncertainty emerged and lingered. Had they gone too soon?
It lasted all of four minutes after Dominic Solanke’s header before Luis Diaz slid in Dominik Szoboszlai’s low cross and – after a VAR check – the party restarted again. (Paused parties must always wait for long VAR checks before resuming.)
Eight minutes later, Alexis Mac Allister made sure the correct order of events had, in fact, been restored, with a beautiful hit from 20 yards. His first left-footed Premier League goal, and what a time to have a go with it.
Fans plunged out of seats and into stairwells, arms wrapped around one another.
Managers who won the Premier League in debut season
Jose Mourinho – Chelsea, 2004-05
Carlo Ancelotti – Chelsea, 2009-10
Manuel Pellegrini – Manchester City, 2013-14
Claudio Ranieri – Leicester City, 2015-16
Antonio Conte – Chelsea, 2016-17
Arne Slot – Liverpool, 2024-25
Slot (C) follows in the footsteps of Mourinho (L) and Ranieri (R) (Photos: Getty)
“We’re gonna win the league! We’re gonna win the league! Now you’re gonna believe us, now you’re gonna believe us, now you’re gonna believe us, we’re gonna win the league!”
Shortly before half-time Cody Gakpo made extra sure with a careful finish into the bottom left corner when Spurs failed to clear from a corner.
In a second half that was all Liverpool, Mohamed Salah thrashed the ball past Guglielmo Vicario then grabbed a fan’s phone from the crowd to take a selfie in front of the Kop.
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) April 27, 2025
It was all yet another thorough performance of unnerving efficiency that has come to typify Arne Slot’s football in his first season in charge.
Destiny Udogie then tapped in a fifth into his own net. But it wasn’t just the goals. Ibrahima Konate was at the other end pulling off a sensational tackle to deny Mathys Tel an open goal. Virgil van Dijk was serene throughout, the match and the season.
You could compliment all of them. In this team, passed on by Jurgen Klopp and assembled by Slot, everyone has a crucial role to play, and everyone again played their part. Salah, among them, one goal or assist from matching an all-time Premier League.
Long after the final whistle, fans stayed in the stadium to serenade their new champions and chant Slot’s name. They had known all along.
Like the league title, Liverpool ensured the result was wrapped up well before the conclusion. And that it had, after all, never been in doubt.
Five moments that won Liverpool the title
By Max O’Shea
Man Utd 0-3 Liverpool, 1 September 2024 – Arne Slot’s first competitive derby as Liverpool boss. Two games into the season, they were already showing promising signs. Coming away from Old Trafford with three points as a new manager is one thing but winning 3-0 is another. A terrific performance across the board from a Liverpool perspective demonstrating intelligence, passion and determination.
Rodri’s injury, 22 September 2024 – In a parallel world there’s a title race where Rodri stayed injury-free, but after rupturing his ACL in September Manchester City’s defence crumbled and has left them fighting for a top-five place.
Arsenal 2-2 Liverpool, 27 October 2024 – Their closest rivals for this season’s title were left stunned as both times Arsenal took the lead, they were met by a Liverpool equaliser. A performance which displayed the grit and tactical intelligence to stick to Slot’s plan.
Darwin Nunez came off the bench to score twice in injury time at Brentford (Photo: Getty)
Super subs, December and January – Perhaps the greatest threat to Liverpool’s 26-game unbeaten run in the league being snapped was the January “blip”, but Diogo Jota – who had already rescued a point against Fulham in December – came off the bench to salvage a point against Nottingham Forest before Darwin Nunez struck twice in injury time to beat Brentford the following game.
Man City 0-2 Liverpool, 23 February 2025 – After draws with Everton and Aston Villa, and an unconvincing win over Wolves, Liverpool had one hand on the trophy after beating the defending champions in their own back yard, and in convincing fashion, too.
