The 30-year drought is over – Liverpool FC is your English Premier League champion
The 30-year wait is over.
Liverpool FC is your 2020 English Premier League Champion.
LIVERPOOL IS THE 2019/20 PREMIER LEAGUE CHAMPION ?? pic.twitter.com/AENXcGiDtC
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) June 25, 2020
Liverpool last won an EPL championship during the 1989-90 season, winning the old First Division title. Since, the league has been dominated by Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City, leaving Liverpool on the outside looking in for the past three decades.
Since Liverpool’s last EPL championship, Manchester United has won 13 EPL titles, Chelsea has won 5, and Manchester City and Arsenal have both won 4. Leeds United (1991-92), Blackburn Rovers (1994-95) and Leicester City (2015-16) are the only teams to break through over the past 30 years.
WE’RE PREMIER LEAGUE CHAMPIONS!! ? pic.twitter.com/qX7Duxoslm
— Liverpool FC (Premier League Champions ?) (@LFC) June 25, 2020
That all came to an end on Thursday, and FOX Sports Insider Martin Rogers elaborated on the magnitude of the moment.
“It means everything to the team, the fan base, the city. It’s been an incredibly emotional three decades for Liverpool … It’s hugely emotional for a generation of fans that have lived through it, and despite the fact that it was celebrated without fans in attendance, it will be incredibly special. Liverpool is an incredibly proud club – it’s an incredibly proud city. It’s a city that’s been through tough times, and this is something that’s absolutely long-awaited.”
Liverpool reclaimed the throne in style, clinching the championship with a record 7 games remaining in the season. It eclipsed the joint record held by Manchester United (2000-01) and Manchester City (2017-18), two clubs that previously locked in titles with 5 games to go.
2019-20 – Liverpool have won their first English league championship in 30 years – below are five of the best stats telling the story of their crowning 2019-20 campaign. Narrative. pic.twitter.com/o1AkY6UN8j
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) June 25, 2020
Rogers, for one, thinks that Liverpool can maintain its championship form for years to come.
“This does look like a team that can last. Now they’ve broken this jinx of three decades, I think this is a team that is still hungry for more. They feel the disappointment and desperation of all those barren years where Liverpool fans had to watch their hated rival Manchester United win it year after year. And they believe this is their time to go and do the same thing. They have the squad to do it, they have the coach to do it, and the have the ownership that will back them if they need reinforcements to do it. And momentum is a huge thing, especially if there’s a very short turnaround this season, which it looks like there will be, I think it all points to Liverpool just carrying on.”
Despite the stoppage in play from mid-March to mid-June due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Liverpool stayed true to form, continuing their dominance when the season resumed.
Us right now ? pic.twitter.com/ePxoXbvw30
— Liverpool FC (Premier League Champions ?) (@LFC) June 25, 2020
With 28 wins and just a single loss in 31 games, Liverpool was roaring at a record-breaking pace and were 25 points ahead in February – the biggest lead in Premier League history.
Said Rogers:
“It speaks completely to their dominance. It speaks completely to the fact that no other team has been able to get close to them. The English Premier League is typically a very competitive, hard fought league where you don’t to just turn up every week and steam roll the opposition, but that’s what Liverpool has done every match – and they almost have won every match. It was quickly established that no one was going to be able to touch them.”
The Reds dropped only 7 points to their opposition the entire season, and it’s still possible for them to shatter the 100-point barrier and set a new record for points won in a league season.
Incredible stat ?
Liverpool are the first Premier League team to prevent the opposition from having a single touch in their penalty area for an entire game, since records began! pic.twitter.com/JkVkjiYg0z
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) June 25, 2020
Liverpool superstar Mohamed Salah became the first Liverpool player to score 20 goals in all competitions in three consecutive seasons since Michael Owen.
Salah scored twice on Wednesday, as Liverpool defeated Crystal Palace, 4-0. Chelsea then defeated Manchester City, 2-1, and Liverpool officially clinched the Premier League championship.
It’s party time at Anfield ? pic.twitter.com/opWa7haUrr
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) June 25, 2020
The 2019-20 league title brings their franchise total to 19, just one behind their nemesis Manchester United.
And of course, the Reds fans took to social media to celebrate:
PREMIER LEAGUE CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LET’S GO ????? @LFC #YNWA♥️ ??????
— LeBron James (@KingJames) June 25, 2020
Congratulations @LFC !! What an incredible performance all year!! #champions #ynwa ?
— Caroline Wozniacki (@CaroWozniacki) June 25, 2020
Get in there….Champions!!!
Not the circumstances in which I wanted @LFC to do it but what an achievement from this incredible team & that includes the manager
? #YNWA https://t.co/NeKFeSUNms
— Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) June 25, 2020
Liverpool Players celebrating ???
GET IN!!! #LFC #YNWA pic.twitter.com/ygMzFHOv9A
— Samantha Quek (@SamanthaQuek) June 25, 2020
Congratulations, Liverpool FC!