Liverpool 5-1 Tottenham: 5 talking points as Reds win the championship in April

It has happened. There will be no strange feelings of a pandemic-strewn world to distort feelings around this one. Liverpool Football Club are champions of England.

Liverpool 5-1 Tottenham

Premier League (34) | Anfield
April 27, 2025

Goals: Diaz 16′, Mac Allister 24′, Gakpo 34′, Salah 63′, Udogie (OG) 69′; Solanke 12′

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1. Best of the best

It rings out now, rings out long and impassioned like an eternal evensong: ‘A Liverbird upon my chest, and we are men of Shankly’s best’.

The historic Kop anthem which has infused itself with the very essence of this remarkable campaign speaks to everything that Liverpool are, have always been, and always will be. These are the days – the days that are back – the days which never truly went away.

But the storied chant does get one thing wrong. ‘A team that plays the Liverpool way, and wins the championship in May’. They will lift the title next month, but Arne Slot‘s Reds have got the job done in April, and there is immense pride to be taken from that.

Like Jurgen Klopp‘s juggernaut of 2019/20 before them, this Liverpool side have decimated the pack, ripped up the script and forged a new reality.

This Liverpool team under Slot haven’t just been exceptional, they’ve been relentless and cut-throat. Recent waves of tiredness and fatigue have unavoidably crept in, but the Reds have been hell-bent on their quest to once again reach the promised land.

As recent data flagged by Sky Sports showed, Liverpool have performed like-for-like in the last 17 games as they did in the first 16; the same intensity, goals scored and conceded, shots on target, clean sheets and expected goals – not to mention arguably the most impressive of them all, distance covered.

Liverpool have been mirroring their superior selves all season, and it cannot be understated how difficult that is to do when fighting on multiple fronts.

The kings have been anointed and a coronation awaits. The strongest and most competitive league in world football conquered. Now we not only bathe in the glory of the moment, but also appreciate just how peerless this squad of lads have been.

 

2. Majestic Mac Allister and the midfield machine

Last season, when the stars looked to have aligned for the Reds to push for the title in Klopp’s final campaign, the recently installed midfield engine was at the epicentre of everything good.

The cruel nature of Mother Football would see fingers clicked and fortunes rapidly altered, as Liverpool fell at the final hurdle – yet it was all a process of laying the foundations of greatness to come.

Klopp bestowed a remarkable football team to Slot, and with the keys to this finely assembled machine the Dutchman has discovered the optimum level. The burning origin, once more, deriving from the high octane midfield chamber.

Here, each of Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboszlai were imperious; leaders, generals, relentless athletes.

Mac Allister is the best midfielder in the world right now. Week after week he galvanises this already brilliant team into being a greater sum of its parts. Mac Allister is that kid in the school playground who is better than everyone else with a ball at his feet, yet somehow hardly seems to be trying.

He’s not flash and he’s always effortless, while working harder than every opponent who attempts to mark him. It’s rare to see a footballer so at home on a football pitch that they look incapable of having a bad game.

The Kop lavished praise on the mercurial No. 10, rained down his song at steadily greater decibel. It’s going to be a regular occurrence, and perhaps we don’t truly know how lucky we are to have had this lad in the squad at one of the most transitional and pivotal times in the club’s recent history.

Liverpool’s midfield is a thing of beauty, and this summer it will likely still be enhanced and fine tuned further. One thing will remain entirely certain however, Mac Allister is its beating heart.

 

3. The Anfield Pantheon

This is where champions belong, and this is the sort of arena where titles should be won.

Both Slot and skipper Virgil van Dijk made overt efforts this week to remind the matchday faithful of their exact role this weekend. They each knew, of course, that such requests were not needed.

Anfield hummed and shuddered, vibrating under a sea of noise and heavy expectation. This was a release of passion, angst and relief; a melting pot of pent up determination to witness, in person at long last, a final whistle pierce the air and Liverpool be crowned champions.

All four corners fulfilled their remit, providing the vocal ammunition and reloading the barrel over and over again. From lifelong Anfield attendees to those who may have made the trip from all ends of the earth to be here for this decisive fixture, each beaming face inside the ground did their bit.

That’s what these things are all about, and it’s certainly what Liverpool are all about. Together as one, very much back on that perch.

 

4. Slot doesn’t let up

The Dominic Solanke opener said a lot about Slot. Naturally all focus, every camera, rapidly cut to the Liverpool boss, who wore a deep scowl and a frenetic energy.

No sooner had the ball been pulled from the back of the net, Slot’s arms were already making rapid circular motions – physically ushering his men back to the kick-off with steadfast urgency.

The tide was always going to turn, because this Liverpool side are too good and – importantly – Slot has already asserted himself so much that this bunch of players daren’t respond poorly to his demands to raise the levels.

And the Dutchman didn’t let up. As the goals started to pour and Anfield grew hoarse with singing, Slot punched the air and celebrated joyously with his close-knit backroom staff, but immediately refocused on the task at hand.

There wasn’t a dropping of the guard, and uncharacteristic release nor a final outward acknowledgement that the mountain had been climbed. Slot locked back in, again and again, and reassumed that eerily calm, professional cruise control.

This is exactly what the Liverpool hierarchy need to see. Here they have a head coach who has pulled off the debut season of all debut seasons, yet looks entirely accustomed to what is unfolding. Slot was the calmest man inside Anfield because this is exactly what he came here to do.

The Dutchman needs to be backed this summer and, if done so correctly, a dynasty of his own is about to begin.

 

5. Set-piece memo

If there is but one negative thing to draw from this historic day on Merseyside, it will come in the form of another set piece creeping past unaware ranks.

In the grand scheme of everything, this mattered little. But the analytics and data boffins will no doubt be leaving little memos around the AXA this week, warning of the porous nature in which Solanke’s opener was notched.

Liverpool owe it to themselves to finish this campaign strongly. They’ve etched a new chapter in the history annals and are better than the rest, and now it’s time to tighten the ship even more.

Four more Premier League games remain, one of them being against Arsenal right here in L4. Liverpool will be wanting to win them all.