Congrats to Liverpool as 2024-25 Premier League Champions

It doesn't feel like it should be a big deal, but Liverpool winning the Premier League does feel exciting in a way that a league title hasn't in a while. This is only the second time in the past eight seasons that a team other than Manchester City has won the Premier League, and Liverpool won that other time too. BTW, for the completists: if you look at the previous decade, you also get Chelsea's win in 2016-17 and more importantly, Leicester's in 2015-16 (how long ago that must seem for Leicester City fans...).

This reminded me a lot of Liverpool's previous title win, during the 2019-20 season. Leaving aside the impact of the pandemic on that season, Liverpool spent basically that entire season at the top of the table, and it was similar this season. Last time round, they didn't seem to lose a match until the teams returned from the Covid-induced break, but by then it was pretty much already in the bag, to the point that they recorded the earliest win, in terms of games left to play (seven).

This year's Liverpool didn't sweep the league quite so commandingly, winning with "only" four matches left to play. They also seemed to stumble a few times, though for all that they had the odd inopportune draw or loss, second-placed Arsenal was never able to capitalize on those mistakes. Liverpool are currently 15 points ahead of Arsenal, and 20 points ahead of Newcastle, who are currently in third place. 

Much of the commentary on Liverpool's win has focused on the fact that it was masterminded by the new manager, Arne Slot, in his first season at Anfield. Taking over from Jürgen Klopp, Slot hasn't tinkered much with the team, bringing in only one player of note (Federico Chiesa, whom I'd like to see have more of a role in future). This has led to some commentators suggesting that this win belongs to Klopp, but I disagree. 

Klopp was a good manager but not quite the revolutionary genius that some seem to have made him out to be - he may have masterminded Borussia Dortmund claiming the Bundesliga, but by the time he left that team they were clearly on their last legs, and out of ideas. English commentary talked a lot about Klopp's "heavy metal" brand of gegenpressing football, and while this style of play kept Liverpool in among the top teams of the league, it also burned players out easily. 

It's impressive, therefore, that Slot got such good results out of the same group of players, but with a less frenetic style of play. Klopp may have assembled this team, but Slot is the one who got the best out of them, and so he deserves full credit for the title win.

The question that remains, then, is what Slot does next season. He's managed to hold onto two of the side's key players, Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk, after a season-long drama of whether they'd sign new contracts. Keeping them at Anfield next season is definitely a positive, but whether they succumb to age next season or the season after, their knees and reflexes will go sooner rather than later. It'll be interesting to see if he can maintain this balance next season, getting the best out of this group of players, or if he'll be forced at some point to perform a major overhaul.

The question came up on Football Weekly of whether this is the start of a dynasty at Liverpool, but apart from how well Slot can build a team, the answer will depend on what the rest of the teams do next season. Manchester City had an absolute mare this year, and it'll be interesting to see if Pep Guardiola is able to rebuild his team into challengers, or if he's now become the problem keeping them from winning. 

Same with Mikel Arteta at Arsenal: I sometimes think he's a bit too much of a whiner, but it's undeniable that he did well to pull Arsenal out of its post-Arsène Wenger, post-Unai Emery doldrums. He's definitely brought in a number of good players, but I don't know if he's had the tactical nous to properly fill the positions where he's lacking cover, mainly a good striker. Next season will be the most important, I think: if he can't strengthen the side enough to challenge for the title, then it'll probably be time for Arsenal to find a new manager.

I'm not too interested in whether any of the other so-called "Big Six" will do well, with one exception: Ruben Amorim has presided over Manchester United's worst campaign of the post-Alex Ferguson era, but he seems to eke out the odd result here and there. He got hamstrung by being hired mid-season (because the Manchester United hierarchy can't seem to organize a piss-up in a brewery, given that they should have fired Erik ten Hag at the end of last season), but it'll be interesting to see if he can rebuild the squad for next season. Or if he'll even be given enough time to do so.

I'm slightly more interested in the prospects of other strong teams outside the traditional big names, specifically Newcastle United, Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa. Newcastle have generally had a good season, their win in the EFL Cup balancing out some inconsistent league performances, though as I said, they're currently in third place. Forest have been the big surprise of the season, sitting in third place for large parts of the season and only recently falling away; I'm still hopeful they can at least qualify for the Champions League next season, even if that'll probably be a poisoned chalice for them. And finally, Aston Villa did well to get to the Champions League quarterfinals, so if they can strengthen and make their league performances more consistent, they should challenge for Europe again... though it'd be fun to see someone from outside of London, Manchester and Liverpool challenge for the title again.

The league's not quite over, as the European places are still up for grabs, at least third through fifth. And if either Manchester United or Spurs win the Europa League, they'll be in the Champions League next season, despite lying closer to the relegation places this season. But overall, with Liverpool's win and the relegation places sewn up, most of the drama is done now. It'll be interesting to see if Liverpool rest on their laurels for the rest of the season, or if they come out ready to play again - that'll be the real test of what kind of manager Arne Slot turns out to be.

Daredevil Born Again Mostly Sticks the Landing

When I previously wrote about the show, I was three episodes in and we'd just seen the culmination of the White Tiger storyline, along with a tease of things to come in the shape of the assailant's Punisher logo-bearing shirt. Since then we've gotten the real thing, and in a fairly prominent role, as well as hints of the wider Defenders and/or MCU continuity. I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out, but if you haven't seen it yet, be warned of spoilers ahead.

Paul McCartney's Photography at the DeYoung Museum

I spent yesterday afternoon up at Golden Gate Park with my dad, since we had the day free and wanted to get out of the house. The plan had originally been just to drive up, walk around the park and have a snack at the museum cafe. But since my dad has a membership to the DeYoung Museum (as well as its sister museum, the Legion of Honor), we decided to have a look around the galleries a bit.

The main exhibit we checked out was the collection of Paul McCartney's photos from the Beatles' early tours, including their visits to Paris, New York City and Miami. McCartney had been experimenting with photography for a while and had brought his camera along to take some candid backstage photos as well as some artsy compositions of the Beatles and their friends and well-wishers. Along the way, the pictures also depict the preparations for the band's arrival in America, press events, the famous appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, and the band in relaxation mode in various places.

The backstage snaps are all pretty interesting: there are shots of band members goofing around their dressing rooms, along with shots of other performers who were touring with the Beatles, such as Cilla Black. In the sequence showing the band's visit to Paris, there are studio snaps of them hanging out with local musicians who were recording work for other bands or for the re-recordings in other languages of the Beatles' own songs. You also get glimpses of various band members' partners at the time, like Cynthia Lennon and Jane Asher, whom Paul was dating at the time.

Most of the photography is in black and white, but it bursts into brilliant color for the section showing the Beatles in Miami. That section is pretty much all vacation snaps, depicting the band swimming, lounging by the pool or fishing on boats. Everyone looks impossibly young and the Fab Four in particular seem delighted to be trading the environs of rainy northern England for the swanky parts of Miami in the summer.

One of the things that was fascinating about the exhibition was seeing my dad's reaction to it. He was initially skeptical about it, thinking it wouldn't be that interesting, but he ended up enjoying it a lot, especially seeing again the decor and names of that period, when he himself had been a teenager. At the end, when we ventured into the gift shop, he was moved to buy a double CD compilation of Beatles songs from the period (for my part, I bought Help!).

The other thing that struck me was how of their time the shots of the Ed Sullivan performance were. John, Paul and George are standing in a line, dressed in suits, each carrying their guitars and bouncing up and down slightly as they play. It's the iconic shot of them, and the pose that countless bands imitated in those initial years as other artists and impresarios aimed to capitalize on the Beatles' success. But it's also very, very different from how artists present themselves these days.

As I write this blog, I'm listening to an album by Beady Eye, the band that Liam Gallagher formed after the breakup of Oasis. Liam was particularly drawn to Beatles iconography, but it's hard to imagine a more different image from the clean-cut and purposely non-threatening Beatles than Liam Gallagher, who once stalked up and down the stage at the BRIT Awards in big puffer jacket, inviting people to fight while his brother Noel gave the thank-you speech for their award win.

That's not to say that Liam's bad and the Beatles were good. I just find it funny to see the original pose from their performance that gave rise to, as I said, so many imitators but also to so many reactions against that image. The Rolling Stones started out looking similar to the Beatles, but soon leaned into Mick Jagger's physicality, while The Who also initially ran around in blazers and ties but would end their sets by destroying their instruments.

In a world of Mick Jagger or Morrissey slinking around the stage and flaunting their sexuality, and Beyonce or Lady Gaga putting on elaborate choreography and costuming, it's quaint and kind of sweet to see those four young guys from working-class Liverpool, looking so self-conscious in their suits as they bounce around on TV. Just like the playbills depicting Sylvie Vartan and Johnny Halliday, or the interior decor of Pan-Am airplanes circa 1964, they're images from a bygone world, and it's great that this exhibition captured them so well.

The exhibition is on at the DeYoung until July of this year, so if you're in the Bay Area and have a free afternoon, it's worth checking out. And if you're not in the Bay Area, I'm sure it'll come to your city sometime soon, if it hasn't already. It's definitely worth a look, especially if you're a big Beatles fan like me.

Thoughts on Star Trek: Prodigy (with Spoilers)

Just finished Prodigy last night, and wanted to set down some thoughts. The first being, it's nice to see that it did get picked up somewhere after Paramount Plus cancelled it and dropped it from its platform. It was a bit slow going at points, but in the end it came good, with an emotional ending to the second season and nice tie-ins to the rest of Trek. Anyway, there are probably going to be some spoilers, so catch my more detailed thoughts after the jump.