Liverpool win EPL, equal Man United’s 20 titles

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Liverpool have been crowned Premier League champions, equalling Manchester United’s record of 20 top-flight titles.

The Reds clinched the title in style at a jubilant Anfield with a thumping 5-1 win over Tottenham.

Arne Slot’s side have led from the front in the Dutchman’s first season in England, losing just twice in 34 games to win the league and end Manchester City’s unprecedented four-year grip on the title.

Few backed Liverpool to compete for top spot after Jurgen Klopp’s departure a year ago, but Slot has defied all expectations and already matched his predecessor’s league-title haul.

The 46-year-old is the first Dutch manager to win the Premier League and the fifth man to do so in their debut campaign after Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, Manuel Pellegrini and Antonio Conte.

Asked how he had made winning the title appear so easy, Slot told Sky Sports: “That’s not only my job, it’s the job of the players and the staff members standing over there and the work Jurgen (Klopp) and Pepijn (Lijnders) left behind over here.

“The culture of the team, the work rate, the quality was outstanding. We all knew that. We started off really well and it maybe helped a bit that (Manchester) City had a difficult spell, which they hadn’t had in five years.

“When the season started everyone would have been happy if we were in the top four for Champions League again but I don’t think that was fair to our players because they are much better than that and that’s what they have showed this season.”

Liverpool won their first title for five years at a canter too, with City dropping off this season, while Arsenal failed to keep up after being blighted by injuries and are set to be runners-up for the third year running.

The newly-crowned champions can still surpass City’s 91-point tally from last season, which would put them in esteemed company. Only 14 teams, including Liverpool on three occasions under Klopp, have hit 90 points in the Premier League era.

Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk told Sky Sports amid the celebrations: “It’s special and it’s something that we don’t take for granted. It’s amazing.

“A lot of emotions before the game, during the whole week, but we got the job done and we (are) truly deserved champions of England.

“(Liverpool is) the most beautiful club in the world and I think we deserve all of this. Let’s enjoy the next couple of weeks and let it sink in.”

Liverpool’s top scorer this season Mohamed Salah was asked to compare this title with the one under Klopp in 2020.

“This is way better, 100 per cent,” he told Sky Sports.

“Without Sadio (Mane), without Jurgen, without Bobby (Firmino) – without everybody, it feels more special. We have a different group now, different manager, so to be able to do it again is something special.”

Asked if Slot had made him a better player, Salah joked: “You can see the numbers – it seems so!

“He was very honest. He’s quite tough, his personality, but he made our lives easier because you knew immediately what he wanted you to do, which is what we did.”

Sky Sports’ Gary Neville:

“Over a season, the coaching performance of Arne Slot is one of the best coaching performances we’ve seen [in the Premier League era].

“And I say that just in light of the fact of who he took over from – one of the greatest personalities and characters that we’ve seen in the Premier League, a Liverpool icon and legend.

“Going into that dressing room and having to establish control and authority, but knowing he probably could never do it the same way as Jurgen Klopp. No one can be the same personality and character as he was.

“But the way in which all season he’s coped with the conversations around the contracts, he’s dealt with those conversations. They’ve then signed two, I think the most important two of those players, Van Dijk and Salah, in the last couple of weeks.

“The way in which he’s kept calm and composed at points whereby maybe it’s not gone as well for them as he would have wanted, the way in which he’s got the maximum out of every single player – and I’m not talking about the very best players in the team, which he obviously has – is a fantastic testament to him.”