Whoever finishes second this season will feel hard done by.
Liverpool and Manchester City have been neck and neck at the top of the Premier League for the vast majority of the season.
In recent months, with both teams continuously playing one game ahead or behind each other, Liverpool have constantly stepped ahead of City having played a game more, before City predictably win and go ahead by a point having equaled the number of matches played.
Liverpool’s most recent match came on Friday night against Huddersfield Town and it represented another opportunity for Jurgen Klopp’s side to ‘put the pressure’ on Manchester City.
As they have with the majority of their recent challenges, they rose to it with consummate ease, scoring within 15 seconds of kick-off and scoring a further four to batter the league’s bottom team.
That victory has once again lifted Liverpool above Pep Guardiola’s, who – again – have a game in hand, against Burnley on Sunday afternoon.
What it has also done is lifted Liverpool to a points tally of 91. Yep, 91 points. A whopping 10 more than Leicester City had when they won the title in 2015/16, and with two games remaining.
It is also one more point than Arsenal’s Invincibles side had after 38 games in their legendary 2003/04 campaign, which saw them win 26 and draw 12 in their unbeaten 38-game season.
On the latest episode of The Football Spin, Dion Fanning suggested that this title race was akin to the five-set masterpieces often served up by tennis titans Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal. Listen here:
Now, none of this means that Liverpool are a better team than that Arsene Wenger side, nor is anyone suggesting that they’re better than Manchester United’s treble-winning side of 1998/99, which amassed 79 points with victory over Tottenham Hotspur on a nervous final day in May 1999.
What it does mean though is that this Liverpool side is one of the strongest the league has ever seen. To amass more than 90 points is incredibly rare in the Premier League, to do so without actually winning the title is unheard of. For one of Liverpool or Manchester City though, it will soon be a reality.
Some going, from both sides.
