Six big reasons to believe Liverpool will lift the Premier League trophy in May
We’re approaching the final months of the 2023-24 and it’s shaping up to be a Premier League title race for the ages, with Liverpool set to go toe-to-toe with Manchester City and Arsenal.
Jurgen Klopp’s side currently find themselves top of the table, having kept their position at the very top thanks to Darwin Nunez’s 98th-minute winner against Nottingham Forest at the weekend.
That’s the kind of moment that will have Liverpool believing that 2024 is their year. Winning the title would be the perfect way to Klopp to wave goodbye when he departs at the end of the season, while it would move them level with Manchester United on 20 English league titles in total.
We’ve identified six reasons that Liverpool can go and do it.
Fortress Anfield
Liverpool have taken 35 of a possible 39 points from their home matches so far. That’s the best home record in the top four tiers of English football. No Premier League side has scored more, or conceded fewer, on their own patch this season.
One of just three sides unbeaten at home in the whole country, Jurgen Klopp’s Reds have famously lost just one of their 93 league outings at Anfield with Virgil van Dijk starting, while their defeat to Leeds in October 2022 is the only league loss they’ve suffered in front of a packed-out Anfield in almost seven years – dating back to April 2017.
Four of Liverpool’s next five Premier League matches are on home soil, giving them a real opportunity to keep their momentum up.
READ: The 5 games Liverpool must win to lift the 2023-24 Premier League title
Resilience
Liverpool have won 22 points from losing positions so far this season. That’s the most of any side in the Premier League. They’ve fallen behind on twelve occasions, and come back to win six of those matches, drawing four of the others.
Klopp’s men have scored 10 goals in injury time, which have proven crucial in winning them seven extra points this season.
Arsenal, by contrast, have fallen behind eight times this season. The Gunners have come back to win just two of those matches and they’ve gone on to lose half (four) of them.
You can make the argument either way. Arsenal are winning so comfortably right now they don’t require any resilience, while there’s a school of thought that says Liverpool’s luck will run out sooner or later and can’t keep banking on late drama.
But hear us out… what if they can? Look at some of Real Madrid’s Champions League wins of recent years. There’s a self-fulfilling element that kicks in.
Liverpool have shown time and again that they can dig deep and deliver the points by hook or by crook.
No Champions League
Liverpool do have European excursions to come, and that Thursday-Sunday grind presents its own unique challenge.
The Europa League is the one trophy that Klopp hasn’t laid his hands on during his time at the club, having finished runners-up in his first season back in 2015-16, so you imagine he won’t be taking it lightly.
But you look at their upcoming opponents Sparta Prague, and the other sides remaining in the competition, and they ought not to offer quite the same level of distraction as an Inter, a Bayern Munich or a Real Madrid – as is the case with their title rivals.
Klopp has the luxury of rotating in Europe, using the full resources at his disposal as he sees fit, while Arsenal and City will surely have to lean heavily on their star players in the likely event they face European powerhouses – and potentially one another – at the business end of the season.
Mikel Arteta’s Gunners do trail Porto in the first leg of their Champions League Round of 16 tie, but you’d back them to turn it around at the Emirates.
Key players returning
If Liverpool do make it over the line, they’ll look back at this period of the season – with pretty much an entire first XI out sidelined – as absolutely crucial. Liverpool’s fringe and academy players have played a massive role in keeping this train on course.
But there’s only so long that they can rely on their back-ups, and to keep pace with Arsenal and City they’ll surely require their big hitters.
Joel Matip is out for the remainder of the season, while it sounds like Diogo Jota faces at least another month on the treatment table – but it sounds like the majority of Klopp’s most trusted lieutenants should be back sooner rather than later.
Wataru Endo, Dominik Szoboszlai and Darwin Nunez already made their returns off the bench in the win over Nottingham Forest.
Curtis Jones, Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold are expected to return to the fold this month, while Alisson sounds as though he’ll be back for the run-in.
TRY A QUIZ: Can you name Jurgen Klopp’s 30 most-used players at Liverpool?
Attacking riches
You might question where Arsenal’s goals and creativity might come from were the likes of Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Erling Haaland or Kevin De Bruyne to suffer an injury in the coming weeks.
Liverpool have no such worries, with an outrageously stacked attack and a number of individuals that have proven they can be relied upon.
In the Premier League alone this season, the quintet of Mohamed Salah, Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez, Cody Gakpo and Diogo Jota have a combined 45 goals and 25 assists.
That’s an obscene tally, and not to mention the contributions from the full-backs, midfielders and Virgil van Dijk at set-pieces.
Multi-faceted team.
Destiny in their own hands
Liverpool fans will wake up in cold sweats when they recall the title races with Manchester City in years gone by.
In 2018-19, Klopp’s Reds went and won their final nine matches to keep pace with Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering juggernaut.
They ended up finishing on 97 points – a tally that would have been enough to win the title in any other season bar one – but were pipped to the post by City, who just didn’t blink in the spring.
It was a similar story in the quadruple chase of 2021-22. Liverpool dropped just four points in their last 16 matches of the season. But once again, Guardiola’s men didn’t let up and ended up finishing a point ahead.
But in 2023-24, Liverpool approach the run-in with the edge over Arsenal and Man City, who still have to play one another.
This time Liverpool go into spring ahead of their title rivals, knowing that equalling, not bettering, their rivals’ points tallies from here on in will be enough.