1 week Ago By [email protected] (Aaron Morris)
Liverpool clinched their first Premier League title of the Arne Slot era on Sunday with an emphatic 5-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield, but Micah Richards had his doubts about the Reds this season Micah Richards has confessed that he thought Liverpool may not have been able to win the Premier League at the start of the season. The Reds lifted their 20th league title in total, and their first under new boss Arne Slot who replaced Jurgen Klopp last summer, with a 5-1 thrashing of Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield on Sunday, with four games to spare. Liverpool have been untouchable for large portions of the 2024/25 campaign, only suffering two defeats this term in total, largely in part to the side's solid back line, efficiency through the middle, and thirst for goals up-front.
However, Richards has admitted that he questioned whether Slot's side would be able to taste glory by season's end as the new term got underway in August. Richards' Match of the Day colleagues, Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer both praised Liverpool for their achievements during the most-recent instalment of their The Rest Is Football podcast. As did Richards, although he did confess to questioning the side's credentials at the start of the season.
He said: "I think looking at the season, especially at the start, I thought they would challenge but I didn't think they'd win it. "I think the tactical tweak to sort of get [Ryan] Gravenberch playing in a position a little bit deeper has helped them. I think [Alexis] Mac Allister's been outstanding.
I think just the running power of [Dominik] Szoboszlai in midfield - I think that was one area I looked at the previous season, thinking have they got enough? "But for them to dominate the league - and I don't even think they've been scintillating, I think a lot of Liverpool fans would say that - but they've been efficient in the right moments. [Mohamed] Salah's been outstanding, and I think we have to give the club a little bit of credit as to how they have dealt with the whole situation with the contracts, because imagine you've got your three star-players out of contract at the end of the season? "That could have been a disaster. Imagine all three actually walked and left? But they sort of did the business behind the scenes - yes Trent [Alexander-Arnold] got a little bit more stick than he should have probably, whether he's going to stay or go, we still don't know that.
"But to tie down [Virgil] Van Dijk and Salah, and then go and win the league...
it's just been an outstanding end to the season, and they thoroughly deserve it." It briefly looked like Liverpool may have waited a week longer to lift the Premier League title during Sunday's clash with Spurs, when Dominic Solanke opened the scoring for the visitors just 12 minutes into the game with a towering header from a corner. It took Luis Diaz just four minutes to level the score however, when he was slotted a pacey ball across Guglielmo Vicario's box from Szoboszlai before poking it into the back of an empty net.
Mac Allister gave Liverpool the lead eight minutes later with a thunderous left foot from the edge of the box, before Cody Gakpo doubled down with a daisy cutter into the bottom right in the 34th minute. Salah all but secured the title for the Reds in the 63rd minute after cutting inside the box and hitting it hard and low past Vicario, before Destiny Udogie scrambled the ball into the back of his own net six minutes later while trying to deal with a dangerous cross from Alexander-Arnold. While they have won the Premier League early, Liverpool still have four games ahead of them before the end of the campaign.
They travel to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea on Sunday, before a clash with second-place Arsenal the following week at home. A trip to the AMEX against Brighton follows, before Liverpool cap off their 2024/25 campaign at Anfield against Crystal Palace ..
