If you were to take some pundits at their word over the weekend, Liverpool can already start planning for a Premier League title celebration on the final week of May.
A combination of Arsenal’s defeat at home to West Ham on Saturday and the Reds’ 2-0 victory away to Manchester City just over 24 hours later has left 11 points separating the top two. Even with the Gunners having a game in hand, it’s beginning to feel like a long way back for them from here.
There’s no question that the Premier League betting odds on Arne Slot’s team to ascend the champions’ podium in three months’ time have shortened considerably over the past couple of days, and even those LFC fans who travelled to the Etihad Stadium on Sunday felt emboldened enough to sing “we’re gonna win the league”.
However, Roy Keane’s advice to Liverpool that they can’t afford to let their standards slip is a pertinent one, and there’s a good reason why they’ll want to get the title wrapped up as early as possible.
Liverpool face daunting final four fixtures in May
The Reds’ final four league games of the season are Chelsea (away), Arsenal (home), Brighton (away) and Crystal Palace (home). Their results in the corresponding fixtures in 2023/24? Draw, draw, draw, loss.
Granted, if Liverpool go into May with the same 11-point lead that they currently boast, even a repeat of those three draws would be good enough to get them over the line, but it’s not something they’ll want to leave to chance.
There are still seven more Premier League games to negotiate before then, including a tricky visit to Fulham and home clashes against Newcastle, Everton and a resurgent Tottenham Hotspur, so Arne Slot’s side won’t be getting ahead of themselves just yet.
With such an emphatic advantage at the top of the table, though, there is a chance for the Reds to go into the final month of the season with a virtually unassailable lead, thus taking much of the pressure off those final four fixtures, not least Arsenal’s visit to Anfield.
It’d feel particularly sweet to be confirmed as champions in that game, or even before it so that the Gunners would have to give their opponents a guard of honour onto the pitch on the second weekend of May (just as Man City did in 2020).
Such a dream scenario seems more plausible after last weekend’s turn of events, but Liverpool know that they can’t afford to look that far ahead just yet. For now, the task is to maintain the same standards they’ve shown all along and not go into the final four matches of the campaign peering nervously over their shoulders.