Those football supporters shouting that the Premier League has been boring this season clearly does not remember the last time that Liverpool won the title. In 2020, the Jurgen Klopp team sprinted 19 points free from the peloton.
We don't know how big the gap can be this time. Arne Slot's version of Liverpool can stop playing if they finish it on Sunday. But the point is that some people believe that the lack of a tight finish poorly reflects the competition.
It doesn't. The Liverpool season was very normal for a champion team. They have generally played well, sometimes brilliant and have had to get through a few spells where they have been less impressive. Over the years that is the way it is often. The problem is that briefly – for a handful of golden years – Klopp's Liverpool and Pep Guardiola's Manchester City violated the rules and thus separate everyone's idea from what a title race should look like.
Under Klopp, Liverpool broke the 90-point mark three times and won the competition only once. To end a season with 97 points – such as in 2019 – and 92 points – as they did in 2022 – and to cancel the trophy on none of the occasion, it feels all the more remarkable as time continues.
Those were fantastic times at the top of the Premier League. It could not stay and it did not take. What we are witnessed now – while City tries to rebuild and other large clubs are struggling for the right formula – is only what we saw when clubs like Chelsea won the title with big margins in 2005 and 2006, Manchester United did this in 2011 and 2013 and indeed City did in 2018 and 2021.
Slot's Liverpool has been the best team this season and the size of the performance in the Debut -England season of the Dutchman should not be underestimated. This time Arsenal could not handle the hardships of the piece while Liverpool was possible. They only earn our congratulations, just as the clubs have started improving and further exerting the pressure through the ladder.
Nottingham Forest, Newcastle and Aston Villa have shown that they are upwardly mobile, while Brighton, Brentford, Fulham and now Bournemouth are increasingly competitive.
This time Liverpool has been too good, but I suspect that they have to improve to be next season and that is a positive sign. Ignore the darkness. Our competition is – with the exception of clear problems at the bottom – healthy.