For the first time in five years and only the second time in the Premier League's 33-year existence, Liverpool have won England's top-division crown.
They clinched on Sunday, with four matches remaining, thanks to a 5-1 home romp over Tottenham Hotspur.
Liverpool's title felt ordained for quite a while. They've lost just twice all season, and a bumpy run from primary challenger Arsenal -- combined with matching 2-0 Liverpool wins over Manchester City and Newcastle United in late February -- opened up an insurmountable lead.
The Premier League has mostly lacked for drama in 2024-25, with both its title and relegation races wrapping up before May, but that doesn't make Liverpool's achievement any less impressive. The Premier League's middle class appears to be as strong as ever: Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa, Fulham, Brighton and Bournemouth have all played Europe-worthy ball at times this season, and two of England's richest clubs, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, currently rank just 15th and 16th, respectively, in the league despite both having reached the Europa League finals.
But despite the competition levels, Liverpool handled their business in a way that the country's other particularly ambitious clubs could not. They executed a perfected handoff from longtime manager Jurgen Klopp to Arne Slot, they got a career year from Mohamed Salah, they got mostly hands-off treatment from the injury bug, and they simply navigated hurdles far better than anyone else.
To commemorate the title, let's look back at the five primary factors that led Liverpool to the promised land.
1. Patience is (increasingly) a virtue
Regarding the on-field product, hiring Slot was almost the only change Liverpool made after last season's third-place finish.
They spent only €42 million in transfer fees, easily the least in the Premier League -- in fact, only two other teams were under €90 million -- and €30 million of that went to a goalkeeper (Giorgi Mamardashvili) who was immediately loaned back to his previous club (Valencia). The only genuinely new player was winger Federico Chiesa ... who has played just 33 league minutes this season.
This is not incredibly unique for Liverpool, of course: While the club has obviously made plenty of moves through the years (and probably has a few to make this summer), it has certainly benefited from the continuity that players like winger Salah, center back Virgil van Dijk, goalkeeper Alisson Becker and fullbacks Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson have provided. Those five all made their Liverpool debuts between October 2016 and July 2018, and all five were starters for the 2019 Champions League winner and both the 2019-20 and 2024-25 Premier League title teams.
Few clubs nail that many key acquisitions in a short amount of time, and Liverpool have continued to benefit from it. The team's chemistry, its players' familiarity with each other -- the benefits of a more patient squad-building approach -- was obvious all season.
The main change Slot made was to simply slow things down a bit on the pitch. Compared to Klopp's Liverpool, Slot's team was far more patient (but very effective) in picking its spots in attack and slowed the tempo down quite a bit. The former kept the goal-scoring totals high, and the latter helped the defense immensely.
Liverpool's defensive improvement
• Goals allowed: 1.08 per match in 2023-24 (third in the league), 0.94 in 2024-25 (second)
• xG allowed: 1.22 per match in 2023-24 (third), 0.86 in 2024-25 (first)
• xG allowed per shot: 0.152 in 2023-24 (third), 0.122 in 2024-25 (first)
• Percentage of opponent shots attempted in the defensive box: 66.4% in 2023-24 (eighth), 61.5% in 2024-25 (first)
Liverpool have allowed about the same number of shots per possession as last season, but opponents have found far fewer high-quality opportunities. In fact, looking specifically at shots worth at least 0.2 xG, Liverpool went from attempting about 1.2 more than opponents in a given match (third in the league) to attempting 2.1 more (first). It's hard to lose much when you're attempting so many more big shots.
Indeed, a lot of this defensive improvement stemmed from easing back in the risk department. Liverpool are allowing 10.2 passes per defensive action this season (fourth) compared to 8.9 last season (first), they are averaging 42.6 ball recoveries per match (10th) compared to 53.5 (first), and they're forcing 11.6 high turnovers (sixth) instead of 13.7 (fourth). They're counterattacking less frequently, too: They attempted 16.1 counters per match last season (first) and are at only 12.7 (eighth) in 2024-25.
Easing back the urgency helped an aging team save its legs a bit -- of their 14 minutes leaders in league play, eight are at least 28 years old -- and it helped to maintain defensive structure. It didn't actually hurt their attack, however: They were remarkably clinical when they forced mistakes.
Pouncing on mistakes
• Goals from high turnovers: 0.47 per match in 2023-24 (fourth), 0.59 in 2024-25 (first)
• Shot attempts from counterattacks: 1.0 in 2023-24 (second), 1.8 in 2024-25 (first)
• xG differential in counterattacks: +0.08 per match in 2023-24 (third), +0.21 in 2024-25 (first)
That they clinched the title against Tottenham was fitting in a way. The Premier League's tempo dropped significantly this season, from 88.6 possessions per match in 2023-24 to 81.9, a nearly 8% drop in a single campaign. And it has become increasingly clear that teams at the higher levels of the sport (especially in England) are growing more and more accustomed to handling high-intensity, counter-pressing styles.
Tottenham's Ange Postecoglou is as orthodox as any coach in his belief in a one-note, pedal-to-the-metal style of play, and he has won plenty of trophies in his time as a coach, but that one note is leading Spurs to their worst league finish since 1976-77.
In a more cautious environment, Liverpool's patience and precision were the gold standard.
2. Manchester City collapsed (relatively speaking), and Arsenal gave away too many points
Liverpool are on pace for 91.6 points, a remarkable total that would be one of the best ever posted by a Premier League team not managed by Pep Guardiola. But obviously Liverpool's title quest got a nice boost from the fact that after four straight titles, Guardiola's City fell off pretty dramatically in 2024-25.
During their run of six titles in seven seasons, Manchester City posted some of the best point totals the league has seen: 100 in 2017-18, 98 in 2018-19, 93 in 2021-22, 91 in 2023-24. Only all-time great teams like Klopp's Liverpool in 2018-19 (97 points), 2019-20 (99) and 2021-22 (92), Jose Mourinho's Chelsea in 2004-05 (95) and 2005-06 (91), Antonio Conte's Chelsea in 2016-17 (93) and Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United in 1999-2000 (91) and 1993-94 (92, albeit in 42 matches) saw this rarefied air.
We can talk about how Slot attempted to move past Klopp's style of play in a way, but Klopp's style was remarkably effective and would have produced more trophies if not for Guardiola. City made a ridiculous level of performance seem almost commonplace.
But in 2024-25, the combination of a devastating injury to reigning Ballon d'Or winner Rodri (not to mention Erling Haaland and others), advancing age for a number of longtime stars and, possibly, a plain old drop in motivation produced the worst season of the Guardiola era. Even if they win out in league play, they will still finish with fewer points than they produced even in Guardiola's first season in charge.
City started the season well despite Rodri's injury, going unbeaten in their first 13 matches in all competitions. But from Oct. 30 to Dec. 26, they won just once in 13 matches. Their form solidified a bit after a desperately needed January squad refresh, in which they spent €212 million in transfer fees on four new players. But a wobble in February got them eliminated from the Champions League and assured that there would be no miraculous ascent back up the Premier League table.
They should be able to lock down a top-five finish and a Champions League berth for 2025-26 (barring any major sanctions from financial misconduct charges); for most clubs, that would be a solid year. For City, however, it's an epic drop-off.
Arne Slot's former teammates and coaches discuss his coaching rise from being inspired by Pep Guardiola, to competing against him.
Heading into the season, one would have assumed that if City were to fall, Arsenal would be the most likely club to take advantage. Under former Guardiola lieutenant Mikel Arteta, the Gunners finished second in both 2022-23 (five points back) and 2023-24 (two points back), and their 89 points last season were the club's best total since the Invincibles of 2003-24 posted 90.
It felt like Arsenal were building to overtake City, but injuries to key players like Ben White (who has played only 28% of Arsenal's EPL minutes this season), Bukayo Saka (48%), Kai Havertz (60%) and Martin Odegaard (67%) were a lot to overcome. An autumn dry spell knocked them behind Liverpool, and despite suffering only one league loss since Nov. 2, a run of recent draws (five in their past eight league matches) precluded any sort of potential comeback.
The Gunners are currently as healthy as they've been all season and have advanced to the Champions League semifinals for the first time in 16 years. They hosted Liverpool-conquering PSG in the first leg of the semis on Tuesday, narrowly losing 1-0 in an enthralling affair. This is clearly an excellent team, but close matches did in their title hopes.
Thanks to all the draws, they've averaged only 1.48 points per game in 21 zero- or one-goal finishes; they were at 1.97 per game over the past two seasons, an average that would have given them an extra 10 points or so in this season's hunt. Considering they currently trail by 15 points, that could have made quite the difference, even if Liverpool would still be atop the table. Instead, City's collapse and Arsenal's close-game stumbles cleared the way for a surprisingly easy Liverpool title.
3. The best ability is availability
Manchester City and Arsenal indeed seemed to suffer all the wrong injuries at all the wrong times in 2024-25. It's a symptom of playing big-time soccer at this point -- lots of success means an absurd number of matches and minutes and increased injury risk -- but through some combination of Slot's dialing-down of intensity levels and plain-old good fortune, Liverpool's most important players saw fewer injuries and more playing time in 2024-25.
You know what happens when your best players are on the pitch more? They produce more! That's math for you!
• Virgil Van Dijk is second in the league in progressive passes (349), fourth in progressive carries (318) and fourth in interceptions (53).
• Midfielder Ryan Gravenberch is second in interceptions (56) and fourth in ball recoveries (178).
• Midfielder Alexis Mac Allister is first in blocked passes (54).
• Trent Alexander-Arnold is sixth in expected assists from pass completions (6.7) and eighth in progressive passes (252).
• Attacker Luis Diaz is 12th in goals (12) and fifth in successful 1v1s in the box (11).
And then, of course, there's Mohamed Salah. He has been off the pitch for only about 43 minutes in 34 league matches, and he has produced just about the best attacking numbers that the Premier League has seen.
4. The Salah contract year
Heading into this season, here were the players with the top five combined goal and assist totals in Premier League history:
1. Alan Shearer, Blackburn (1994-95): 47 (34 goals, 13 assists) in 42 games (3,772 minutes)
2. Andy Cole, Newcastle (1993-94): 47 (34 goals, 13 assists) in 40 games (3,597 minutes)
3. Erling Haaland, Manchester City (2022-23): 44 (36 goals, eight assists) in 35 games (2,777 minutes)
4. Thierry Henry, Arsenal (2002-03): 44 (24 goals, 20 assists) in 37 games (3,302 minutes)
5. Mohamed Salah, Liverpool (2017-18): 42 (32 goals, 10 assists) in 36 games (2,921 minutes)
Salah's brilliant 2017-18 debut was one of the Premier League's best attacking seasons of all time, and he has recorded at least 27 combined goals and assists in every league season since. His remarkable consistency has made him one of the Premier League's all-time greats, and that would have been true even if he had suddenly retired last summer. Instead, he put together his most complete season in 2024-25, and maybe the greatest contract year ever.
In 34 matches, he has scored 28 goals with a career-high 18 assists. That's already the highest total since the Premier League scaled back to 20 teams and 38 matches, but with only one more goal or assist in his final four matches, he would tie Shearer and Cole for the most all time.
He's so far ahead of everyone else this season that he almost has as many combined goals and assists as the next two most prolific guys combined.
Getting more minutes from Salah was going to help Liverpool no matter what. What he did with those minutes was otherworldly. To say the least, he earned that contract extension.
5. Gravenberch put in the miles
I can say that Liverpool didn't make any key new signings last season, but while the club benefited from brilliant play everywhere you look, one player did shine in a vital new role.
After two excellent seasons as a teenager at Ajax, Ryan Gravenberch seemed well on his way to stardom when he moved to Bayern Munich before 2022-23. But neither of his two Bayern managers -- Julian Nagelsmann nor Thomas Tuchel -- could figure out how best to use him, and after his move to Liverpool in 2023-24, he managed just one goal and no assists in 1,120 league minutes with Klopp.
Granted, Gravenberch hasn't been a particularly important attacker for Slot's Liverpool in 2024-25, either (he has zero goals and four assists), but creation isn't his job; Liverpool has plenty of other guys for that. Gravenberch's job was simply to cover as much ground as possible, day in and day out.
According to the physical data produced by PFF, heading into Sunday's match, he had run 329.6 total kilometers in 33 matches. Only Salah (312.8) and Mac Allister (302.2) had also topped 300. Easing back on the counter-pressing and aggression certainly had an effect on Liverpool's defensive numbers, but Gravenberch's leg work, and his ability to erase a lot of potential counterattacks before they even reached the back line, made an enormous difference.
Heading into the weekend, Gravenberch was ninth in the league in total kilometers run; he was also one of the league's most reliable ball progressors: Not only is he 26th in the Premier League in combined progressive carries and passes (despite playing on a team with other prolific progressors in Van Dijk, Konate and Alexander-Arnold), but per PFF, he was also first on the team and seventh in the league in passes completed under pressure.
Manchester City's 2024-25 downfall came in large part because they suddenly didn't have the best pivot man and defensive protector in the world (Rodri); Gravenberch's star turn was the equivalent of Liverpool acquiring one of the world's best in that regard.
This Anfield party was a long time coming, and it was the product of all sorts of brilliance and good fortune. With City still in flux and both Salah and Van Dijk re-signing, Liverpool might start 2025-26 as favorites to defend their title, but they'll have plenty of decisions to make before then.
They're expected to lose Alexander-Arnold to Real Madrid, and Robertson's recent regression means that the club could be looking for an upgrade on the 31-year-old. Moving on from what has been one of the world's best fullback combinations for nearly a decade will be quite the shift, and the club will almost certainly deal with more injuries next year -- that's just the way things tend to go -- and might need to account for that in terms of depth-building.
But those are concerns for a later date. For now, the party will continue for a little while longer.