Liverpool clinch league title, end 30-year drought
The 30-year wait is over. Liverpool are champions of England again. Liverpool clinched their first league title since 1990 yesterday, ending an agonising title drought without the players even having to take the field.
Instead, the Premier League crown was secured when Chelsea beat second-place Manchester City 2-1, a result that means that City can no longer catch Liverpool, with seven games remaining.
For the city of Liverpool, this has been a party three decades in the making, but the ongoing restrictions caused by the coronavirus meant that fans were unable to celebrate in large crowds.
Only a few dozen fans were outside Anfield as the final whistle blew at Stamford Bridge, setting off fireworks and chanting.
Many more then arrived, waving flags and singing “Allez, Allez, Allez” on the steps of the stadium as flares and more fireworks went off.
“It is such a big moment, I am completely overwhelmed,” said Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp, who was almost in tears as he spoke to broadcaster Sky Sports via video link. “I never would have thought it would feel like this. I had no idea.”
HISTORIC WIN
After a dominant campaign that was interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, Liverpool became England’s earliest-ever champion - and the latest. No team since the inception of the country’s league system in 1888 has clinched the title with seven games remaining. And no team has been crowned Premier League champion in June.
The title itself had hardly been in doubt since December, with Klopp’s team quickly building a massive lead with a rampant atta cking style of play that has earned 28 wins in 31 games so far.
“The world has watched the fierce determination of this club on the field for every single match,” said John Henry, Liverpool’s Americanbased owner, “the preparation, the resolv,e and the talent of those who put together perhaps the greatest league performance ever in any country’s history.”
For a while, though, it seemed that the coronavirus could still prevent Liverpool from ending their drought.
The club was 25 points clear when the league was abruptly halted in March as the country was forced into lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19.
“Null and void” became the dreaded term in the red half of
Liverpool amid fears that the season could be cancelled completely as the coronavirus death toll soared and clubs struggled to agree on a strategy to restart the league during the country’s gravest emergency since World War II.
RETURN TO FIELD
After Liverpool finally returned to the field on Sunday, a 0-0 draw in the Merseyside derby against Everton delayed the crowning moment. But not for long.
The team quickly rediscovered its scintillating