Liverpool Rolls to Premiership Title When Man City Can't Keep Up

This may not have been the main reason the Premiership resumed play after the Covid-19 interruption.

But it surely makes Liverpool's first top-tier league title as richly satisfying as it should be.

When Jürgen Klopp signed on at Anfield five seasons ago, he methodically set about building the machine his Reds have become, and full marks to management for giving him the time to do it.

 

After throttling Crystal Palace, 4-0, the night before, they had earned the luxury of gathering around television screens to watch Chelsea host Manchester City and discover if this was when the inevitable would arrive.

It was.

The reality, of course, is City entered the evening 23 points behind the 'Pool with a maximum of 24 points available through the rest of the season. They'd need to earn them all and hope the Reds would be held to a single point in their final seven games.

 

Not in this world. Not in any world.

Not in the way Citizens approached the Blues, either. Dudes dithered with the ball, and Chelsea were content to let them do it while waiting for their moments. They got them, too, in bunches.

The extent of City's distraction appeared in the 35th minute, when their fullback did an Alphonse-&-Gaston on a ball played back to them near midfield.

 

In this version, Christian Pulisic played the role of trigger-happy American:

 

The Blues are in a dogfight to gain a Champions League berth, clinging to fourth place with Wolves breathing now their necks.

City ultimately capitalized on their possession advantage with a brillian free-kick equalizer by Kevin de Bruyne, but another episode of dubious defense put paid to the match when a Pulisic shot was stopped by Fernandinho's hand.

He justifiably got a red card, and Willian got a shot from the spot. Game over.

 

And thus ended City's two-year reign atop the Premiership.

It's now Klopp's world, and everyone else is just living in it.

 

Liverpool's 30-year drought is over. They'll next celebrate this, their 19th such title, at the Etihad of all places.

Given that its faithful is literally painting the town red everywhere but an off-limits Anfield, a dethroned City's home ground seems the most fitting of locations to conduct a changing of the guard.