PREMIER LEAGUE CHAMPS 19-20 VITAL MOMENTS The decisions and games that defined the title race

NO title comes easy. Every one is worked for and demands the very best – and a little bit of luck.

Here, we go through the five

Nothing happened. Liverpool finished a point behind City in 2019, didn’t buy any players (bar a teen centre-back) and another close-run title race was predicted with few pundits banking on the Reds to go one better.

But City had lost their captain and leader Vincent Kompany, only bringing in young (undoubtedly talented) Rodri from Spain as their main summer outlay.

But he was a holding midfielder. In an instant Pep Guardiola had made a major oversight, creating a defensive vacuum in his squad. most important games, moments and decisions made involving the Anfield side this season that helped confirm them as champions...

The first major blow in the race for the title.

Klopp & Co started this game five points clear of rivals City and, after an astonishing display, were eight clear. They never looked back. Fabinho’s stunner got them off to a flyer at a typically lively Anfield and by the time Mo Salah and Sadio Mane had added their own strikes, it was already over.

This was the match when Liverpool – although not at their best – proved they had game-changers all over the pitch.

A crazy fixture schedule had the Reds playing Aston Villa in the Carabao Cup, then Monterrey in the Middle East – an impossible choice between two games 24 hours and 7,000 miles apart. Klopp split his squad and took his first team to Qatar for the two-game competition, as good as passing up the chance

If the defeat at Anfield the previous month was a major blow to City’s title hopes, this was the crushing blow.

In the first half-hour at The Etihad, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s tyros went for the Blues’ jugular with Marcus Rashford (right) and Anthony Martial on target.

Nicolas Otamendi’s late reply led to 10 minutes of trench warfare but Manchester was red – and City were floundering in third in the league, 13 points adrift.

Guardiola’s men were holed again that month

– a 3-2 defeat to Wolves

– and it was all but over.

The game that finally confirmed Liverpool as champs and highlighted City’s frailties at the back.

Fernandinho, 35, pressed into service as a centre-back?

Not against Frank Lampard’s young Chelsea Blues.

His desperate handball on the line summed up City’s season. of a domestic quadruple. Roberto Firmino’s goal beat Flamengo in the final on a nervy night in Doha which would go down in the annals of Anfield history.

The trophy heaped belief upon belief in Klopp’s men that they could do something special.