There’s been something of a frustrating narrative put forward by rival fans and commentators amid Liverpool’s push for a 20th English top-flight title.
Forget the remarkable rise of the club under Arne Slot’s watchful eye, forget the technical brilliance, and forget the wizardry of Mo Salah.
If you ask some, the Premier League toppers would be having a much tougher time of it had Arsenal not been struck with an injury crisis.
A slightly unfair statement, given that we’ve taken great pains to limit the risk of injuries at L4 this term.
We can understand the impact of Rodri’s absence for Manchester City, but for some time now, it seems there’s been a clear quality gap between the Reds and the Gunners in the 2024/25 campaign.
Gary Lineker says injuries have helped Liverpool
Alan Shearer asked Gary Lineker whether Liverpool’s lead at the top of the table was down to them being ‘brilliant’ or the challengers ‘not being great’.
The latter argued that their rivals’ injuries had played a significant part in deciding the course of the title race, but did likewise acknowledge the Merseysiders’ quality.
“The three favourites at the beginning of the season would have been Man City, Arsenal, and then probably Liverpool,” the MOTD presenter spoke on the The Rest is Football podcast on YouTube.
“I don’t think any of us tipped Liverpool to win the title because replacing [Jurgen] Klopp was always going to be different.
“I think it’s probably down to the injuries of the others, but I still think Liverpool would have been comfortably ahead.
“We’ve not had the Man City we’ve had in previous seasons, have we?”
Shearer replied: “Yeah, but Liverpool have only lost one league game – at home to Nottingham Forest. They’ve just been relentless.”
Have Liverpool been fortunate in the Premier League?
We’re not naive enough to suggest that luck doesn’t play at least some small part in a title challenge.
However, it does feel a little strange that rival injuries are being included in the equation in this particular campaign.
It hasn’t escaped our notice that there was a seemingly major reluctance on the part of commentators to acknowledge a serious injury crisis in 2020/21, as Virgil van Dijk kickstarted a raft of absences in the backline.
Liverpool were simply expected to “get on with it” and find solutions within the squad and window (remember Ben Davies and Ozan Kabak?).
Injuries may have had a small part to play, but let’s not pretend that we’re here on anything but merit.
A points total of 67 with 28 Premier League games played is better than what we had on the board at the same stage of the season in recent memory – barring the 2019/20 and 2018/19 seasons.
Season
Games Played
Points Tally
2018/19
28
69
2019/20
28
79
2020/21
28
46
2021/22
28
63
2022/23
28
42
2023/24
28
64
2024/25
28
67
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