It was already pretty obvious that Liverpool would have to win their remaining three Premier League matches to have any hope of securing their first title in almost thirty-years, but after Manchester City swept aside their cross-town rivals to win their match in hand, the reigning champions are now firmly in control of their own destiny.
Which, of course, means nothing has changed — the Reds need to worry about themselves and let the rest take care of itself and they’ll do just that when they square up with already relegated Huddersfield Town on Friday evening. When a team at the top faces one at the bottom, the Premier League odds generally write themselves, but with the Anfield outfit dealing with a number of injury concerns ahead of the meeting with the Terriers, those numbers don’t come close to telling the whole story.
“All a bit questionable, we don’t know exactly in the moment,” said Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp when asked about the fitness of Fabinho, Adam Lallana and Dejan Lovren. “We will have to see today,” continued the German manager, either unable or unwilling to give too much information away. “Dejan trained yesterday so that’s OK probably and the other two we will see.”
With Huddersfield already resigned to playing Championship football next season, the pressure is completely off the visitors to get a result at Anfield. If anything, the pressure has been doubled on the Merseysiders to come away with the three-points and keep up the pressure on City.
Current form suggests that shouldn’t be a problem; the Terriers have lost seven matches on the bounce while the Reds haven’t dropped any points since an unfortunate scoreless draw with Everton at the beginning of March. To date, Liverpool have surpassed their best ever tally of the Premier League era with 88-points amassed so far and though it sounds a bit crazy that it may not be enough to earn them the crown, they’re certain to take the chase right to the final day.
This is without question the best Reds side we’ve seen in a very long time and when the PFA named their Team of the Season earlier in the week, there was no surprise that they had four players — Virgil van Dijk, fullback duo Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson, as well as forward Sadio Mane — as part of the eleven.
“It is impressive, it is good and deserved as well,” enthused Klopp, full of praise for his players. “For me, my team is the team of the season anyway. That’s true because there could have been – from my point of view – four, five, six or seven more players involved,” continued the gaffer. “But of course the players in the Premier League make the decision, so that’s then the most honest competition of the year.”
