Sunday's win over Tottenham confirmed what we've long known: Liverpool are the best team in England. They've been champions-elect for months now, turning what was expected to be a titanic three-way title race into a Premier League procession.
Consequently, some have attempted to rain on Liverpool's parade before it's even got under way, much to the annoyance of Virgil van Dijk, who even took Michael Owen to task for implying that his team's 2024-25 campaign hasn't been as "special" as it could have been because of their Champions League last-16 exit and Carabao Cup final loss to Newcastle. Rather remarkably, it's taken a couple of legends from Liverpool's traditional rivals to put the scale of Arne Slot's achievement into perspective.
"We have to praise the manager because he's done an amazing job," former Manchester United captain Roy Keane said on Sky Sports. "It was a decent group when he took over, but if someone had said at the start of the season that Liverpool would be where they are now, you wouldn't have believed them, you'd have thought they needed locking up!"
Gary Neville certainly didn't think Liverpool would be anywhere near the top of the table. In fact, he tipped them to finish fifth - below Manchester United and Tottenham
"I'm stunned by Liverpool" the ex-Red Devils right-back admitted on Sky. "For Slot to take over from Jurgen Klopp, a massive personality and character who was loved beyond words by Liverpool fans, you just thought there was going to be a drop-off, everyone thought there would be a drop-off, I certainly did. But Slot's been perfect in terms of what Liverpool needed this season."
Neville's not wrong either, not now at least. Klopp may have left Liverpool in rude health, but transitions are not meant to be this smooth, especially not for a manager succeeding a living legend. So how did Slot do it? How did he make a seemingly impossible task look quite so easy?
