How Slot’s Liverpool won Premier League title that was never meant to be theirs after sliding-doors transfer window

THIS wasn’t supposed to happen.

Not with a rookie manager replacing a legend, a disaffected Galactico seemingly wanting out and a lack of action in last summer’s transfer window.

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Arne Slot has led Liverpool to the title in his first season in charge at Anfield[/caption]

EPA

Mo Salah led the charge for the Reds who lift the trophy for the first time since 2020[/caption]

Liverpool’s Premier League campaign was so consistently good, and their title win so inevitable for so long, that we have forgotten how few people gave them a hope in hell of winning the title in Arne Slot’s maiden campaign.

The Dutchman isn’t the first boss to be crowned champion in his first season in English football – the Chelsea trio of Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti and Antonio Conte all managed it, as did Manuel Pellegrini at Manchester City, with Arsene Wenger winning the Double in his first full campaign at Arsenal.

Yet the exit of Jurgen Klopp was supposed to be debilitating, the uncertainty over the future of Mo Salah was supposed to be an almighty distraction.

Throw in the frustration of Liverpool’s failure to land any significant summer recruits and there was little expectation that they could dethrone Manchester City and overhaul Arsenal to reach the summit.

Yet he we are, with just weeks of the season still to run, and Liverpool’s record-equalling 20th English top-flight title already confirmed.

The Reds are now able to parade the Premier League trophy at a packed Anfield for the first time – their only previous such success having arrived behind closed doors, during the pandemic.

Contrary to their anthem, Liverpool have walked alone at the top of the table for months.

Since hopes of the Quadruple, a Treble or even a Double evaporated during February and March, Slot’s side have been damned with faint praise, as ‘lucky’ champions during a poor season.

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Yet this is nonsense. The Reds were unbeaten in the league for almost seven months between a home defeat by Nottingham Forest in September and a loss at Fulham in early April.

For almost four months, they did not suffer defeat in any competition – winning 15 of 16 games during one run as remorseless as anything Klopp achieved.

And City’s record 19-point winning margin of 2018 is still very much in Liverpool’s sights, so there has been nothing lucky about it.

Has it been a poor league season overall? Well the scale of City’s mid-season meltdown was extraordinary after Pep Guardiola’s side had rattled off an unprecedented four successive English titles.

Yet Arsenal, who have been Liverpool’s closest – if distant – challengers have been good enough to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League, thrashing Real Madrid.

Newcastle have been resurgent, Forest a remarkable surprise package and Aston Villa a growing force, even if Chelsea flattered to deceive, while Manchester United and Tottenham disappeared without trace.

For Liverpool, stand-out results and performances have been rare – an early-season demolition of United at Old Trafford, away-day thrashings of Tottenham and West Ham and a hugely significant double over City.

After that was completed with a victory at the Etihad – which Klopp never achieved in the league – Liverpool were 11 points clear and Salah declared: “Me and the big guys in the team, we need another title.”

The Reds have been relentlessly good, rather than captivatingly brilliant, but many clubs have staged similar title-winning campaigns.

That largely barren summer transfer window – during which the lesser-spotted Federico Chiesa was Liverpool’s only signing – may have provided a happy accident for Slot.

Desperate to sign Martin Zubimendi from Real Sociedad to anchor his midfield, Slot instead relied upon Ryan Gravenberch as his holding player – then the sliding-doors moment saw his compatriot become arguably the best player in the league during the first half of the season.

Salah, meanwhile, had ended last season in open revolt against Klopp, a touchline tantrum at West Ham as Liverpool’s title challenge fell apart last spring adding to suggestions that the Egyptian wanted out.

The ambition of filthy-rich Saudi Pro League bosses to capture Salah – the highest-profile Muslim footballer on the planet – has been an open secret for 18 months.

Yet while Salah frequently whined about the supposed absence of a new contract offer from the Anfield board, he never took his eye off the ball, producing one of his finest campaigns and currently tops the charts for goals as well as assists.

Salah is known to prefer Slot’s man-management style to that of Klopp and his decision to sign a new two-year deal has done wonders for Liverpool’s hopes of defending their crown and winning back-to-back titles for the first time in more than four decades.

Like most champions, this Liverpool side is built on firm defensive foundations laid down during Klopp’s glory years.

Alisson remains world class between the sticks, skipper Virgil van Dijk has been at his imperious best for most of the season, with Ibrahima Konate a rock alongside him.

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Liverpool star Virgil van Dijk has penned a new two-year contract[/caption]

With Trent Alexander-Arnold headed for Real Madrid and Andy Robertson having disappeared over the hill, Alisson and Van Dijk remain the trusty stalwarts of Klopp peak years.

Slot has been wise in his ‘ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ approach, when a manager with a greater ego would have been desperate to provide his own stamp.

Yet Liverpool’s playing style has become less frenetic, more risk-averse than during Klopp’s heavy metal era.

The midfield trio Klopp assembled during his 2023 revamp – Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai have gelled and excelled under Slot.

Up front, Salah has taken the bulk of the goalscoring responsibility – only he and Luis Diaz have netted more than six league goals for the Reds this season.

Me and the big guys in the team, we need another title.

Mo Salah

But even the misfiring Darwin Nunez had his moments – including a late double to beat Brentford in January, on the same day Arsenal surrendered a two-goal lead against Aston Villa on a day which went a long way to denying us a proper title race.

One more thing, while Liverpool will never be wildly popular champions across the nation – thanks to the grating superiority complex of their fans – they have become more difficult to dislike under Slot.

For all Klopp’s goofy grins, he and his attack-dog assistant Pep Lijnders were widely disliked by rival managers and coaches, as well as by many referees – as David Coote so infamously let slip in one of the videos which would spell his downfall.

Slot was punished for one major tantrum aimed at Michael Oliver after the concession of a late equaliser during the final Goodison Park derby in February, telling the ref he would blame him if Liverpool failed to win the title. He needn’t have worried.

But the Dutchman is, at heart, an agreeable, understated bloke.

Slot has won his title with Klopp’s squad and with no desire to make this all about himself.

At the moment, he looks like being the modest Bob Paisley to Klopp’s bombastic Bill Shankly.

The rest of the league will hope this ends up as a false comparison.

Paisley won six league titles and three European Cups.

But while Klopp unleashed a tempest on Merseyside, that storm has ended.

In its place, is a golden sky.