Well, it took some doing, but Liverpool finally clinched their title on Thursday, with Chelsea's defeat of Manchester City. It's not quite the fairy tale that Leicester's title win consisted of, but it's a pretty exciting achievement, given Liverpool's dominance this season and the long wait since their previous league title.
Now, when I say it's not a fairy tale, it's not to take away from Liverpool's absolute dominance this season, especially given how close they came to winning last season. However, even if they don't have the financial clout of a Gulf petro-state behind them, Liverpool are far from a scrappy newcomer to the Premier League - though it's worth remembering that Leicester's win was also bankrolled by some pretty deep pockets.
In fact, in the 30 years since Liverpool last won the league title, they've won 15 trophies (including this season's Premier League). Most of those were FA or League Cups, but notably they won the Champions League twice during that period, including last season, and the Europa League at some point as well.
To put this trophy haul into context, Liverpool lags behind both Manchester United (29 trophies during the same period) and Chelsea (20), but ahead of both Arsenal (13 trophies) and Manchester City (11). Liverpool have won fewer league titles than any of those competitors, in part because of United's dominance for the better part of three decades under Alex Ferguson bringing 13 Premier League titles. But Liverpool and United are tied for most Champions Leagues won, at 2 apiece, while City and Arsenal haven't won any European titles in that time.
Comparing trophies under their current managers shows that most of Manchester City's trophies (6 out of 11) have come under Pep Guardiola, compared with 4 for Liverpool under Jürgen Klopp. This number is fitting, when you consider that until 2008 City weren't the powerhouse that they are now. But it's also worth remembering that for all the domination of Guardiola's City in the last few seasons, he still hasn't won a Champions League since 2011, with Barcelona.
Because Guardiola's arrival at City coincided with Klopp's first full season at Liverpool, it's also possible to compare their league standings for the past four seasons. Other than 2017-18, when City steamrolled all before them to win the league with 100 points and 106 goals, having won 32 out of 38 games, Liverpool have nipped at City's heels every season, most notably last year, when they squandered a lead in mid-season to end just one point behind City.
To put it another way, in their two most recent title-winning seasons, Manchester City averaged 2.6 points per game, compared with the 2.6 and 2.0 points per game that Liverpool managed in 2018-19 and 2017-18, respectively. This season (which is still incomplete), Liverpool have clinched the title with 2.8 points per game, compared with 2.0 from City. Those numbers may change with the remaining seven matches each team has to play, of course.
The secret to Liverpool's success seems also to have come in the transfer market. It's hard to compare the money spent on signings by Klopp and Guardiola, because you can massage the totals and averages to reflect whatever you like. But it seems clear that Manchester City under Pep Guardiola have bought more players - so far, so uncontroversial.
On the other hand, of the 8 notable first-team signings that Liverpool have made, the most expensive has been Virgil van Dijk, for £75 million, which makes him more expensive than any of Guardiola's signings at City. Liverpool's second-highest transfer fee paid was £66.8mn for goalkeeper Alisson, which also beats any of the signings that Guardiola has made.
You can't argue that Guardiola has gone for a policy of galacticos, because the teams he's built over the past few seasons have dominated pretty comprehensively in both the seasons they won, and the quality in the Premier League is such that just sticking a bunch of expensive attackers in a side won't net you much. But the preponderance of attacking midfielders and wingers and creative players shows Guardiola's preference in terms of players, whereas Klopp's purchases seem to have involved rather a gradual tinkering to shore up the weak points in his team each season.
Alisson is a great example. After errors from goalkeeper Loris Karius cost Liverpool the Champions League in 2018, Klopp went and bought a replacement in Alisson, from Roma, the team that possibly gave Liverpool the biggest scare en route to the final that season. This is after having picked up van Dijk to shore up the defense, so it's clear that a key part of Klopp's strategy for building a winning team has involved strengthening the back line.
In fact, not only has Klopp made four of Liverpool's five most expensive signings, but the other two after van Dijk and Alisson are either central or defensive midfielders: Naby Keïta for £45mn and Fabinho for £33mn, respectively. It's not to say that Klopp favors a stodgy, defensive style of play - but it's notable their average goals conceded declined from 1.1 goals per game in 2016-17, Klopp's first full season in charge, to 0.6 goals per game in 2018-19. Manchester City, by the way, did the exact opposite from last season to this - conceding just 0.6 goals per game en route to winning the title, vs conceding 1.1 goals per game (so far) this season to place second.
None of this is meant to take away from Liverpool's achievement, since they've won with a record seven games to spare, and currently stand 23 points ahead of City. But it's clear that Liverpool's win has come on the end of years of meticulous planning, getting the team composition exactly right, to then be able to steamroll the rest of the league, and fairly mercilessly too.
As ever, the question is what next season will hold. Leicester ended up flopping a bit after their title-winning season (which incidentally, I consider now to be ill-starred since that summer Britain voted to leave the EU and the US elected Donald Trump). But Leicester's achievement, while mighty, came at a time that the biggest clubs were all in disarray, with Mourinho self-destructing at Chelsea, and both City and Arsenal's managers at the time unable to eke out any more from their players at the time. Leicester ended up having a torrid time, sacking Claudio Ranieri mid-season (and then eventually sacking his replacement afterwards, and the replacement for him), and only this season have emerged as a credible Top 4 side, if not title challenger.
It'd be a surprise if Liverpool had the same difficulties. True, City's defense isn't the same since their captain, Vincent Kompany, left, but they're still a formidable team. Rather, this win stands in a continuum with the previous seasons, where they improved measurably each season. At the very least, it's easy to expect them to place in the Champions League spots again, though there's always the danger of the team tiring out the way Dortmund did in Klopp's last season in Germany.
Time will tell, as I always say. But in the meantime, congratulations to the reigning European, world and now English champions, Liverpool FC.
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