Premier League title race: Are Liverpool held to unfair standards after Paris Saint-Germain, Newcastle United defeats?

Arne Slot's side are currently 12 points in front of second-placed Arsenal in the top flight, and it would be remarkable if the club failed to win the title given there are only nine games left to play.

However, Liverpool were eliminated from the Champions League by Paris Saint-Germain and lost 2-1 against Newcastle United in the EFL Cup final earlier in March, and their defeats have led some to argue that winning the Premier League would represent a disappointing campaign.

Lynch dismissed such notions when responding to claims that the 2024-25 season has been underwhelming, telling Sports Mole: "That's laughable that question - if anyone had said that at the start of the season, you would have genuinely laughed in their faces.

"Obviously the disappointment is when you lose a cup final but [Slot] got them to the cup final. The disappointment in the Champions League - we just saw a very elite level from PSG and that's what Liverpool are aspiring to get to under a new manager, but they've absolutely romped the league.

"You only need to see the celebrations that we're going to see in May to see how much this means and how important a win is for Liverpool. All that is nonsense and nobody around Liverpool - within the club even - were genuinely talking about the quadruple or saw that as an aim because it's virtually impossible. I don't subscribe to this view that there's going to be real disappointment."

Manchester City have won six of the last seven titles on offer, and winning the Premier League for the second time in six seasons should not be taken for granted considering the dominance of Pep Guardiola's side in recent years.

Have Liverpool been lucky?

Rival fans have argued that the Reds' likely title triumph would not have come about had Manchester City not fallen so far below their usual standards.

Pundits have also claimed that Arsenal would be much closer to Liverpool had they not suffered so many injuries, insinuating that the gap between the two clubs is not as large as the points gap suggests.

Lynch expressed his belief that City and Arsenal would have struggled to catch Liverpool had they performed to their usual standards when he told Sports Mole: "I know Arsenal's and City's collapse have been a contributing factor to Liverpool having it wrapped up this early but equally they are on track for 90 points. It's not a low-winning tally if they get there so this has been a very strong season from Liverpool.

"[Slot has not] fluked it and hit a nice run of form and it's all come together because everybody's been rubbish. I thought to myself 'could this be a repeat of when Conte came into Chelsea'? He hit a run of form out of nowhere which basically won them the league, but I had a look back at the underlying numbers from that season and Chelsea shouldn't have been where they ended up in terms of expected points.

"It was one of those seasons where it all came together for them and we saw in the subsequent seasons it fell apart because the underlying aspect of it wasn't there, whereas with Liverpool what we're seeing is the best attack in the league in terms of underlying numbers and the second best defence - marginally behind an Arsenal side that play a fairly miserable brand of football."

Liverpool are on track to record 92 points in the Premier League this season, and such a points total would be the joint eighth-highest tally in the history of the competition.

Slot's first season

It is also important to remember that Slot is only embarking on his first season in English football having joined Liverpool in the summer from Feyenoord.

Additionally, the Dutchman's only signing in 2024-25 was Italian winger Federico Chiesa, but the attacker has only played 28 minutes for the Reds in the top flight.

Speaking to Sports Mole, Lynch was keen to highlight that winning the title would be a remarkable achievement given few predicted Liverpool to be in such a position, saying: "It's a miraculous achievement particularly because we're talking about a Liverpool squad where we can sit here - this is not knee-jerk - and we could have said there are aspects of this team that can be tweaked and improved.

"We've been talking about left-back for a while, we knew the forward line was going to get a scalpel taken to it this summer. We knew that the manager probably wanted another midfielder that he really liked and trusted. This is not a knee-jerk reaction - we're looking at an imperfect Liverpool squad that's absolutely romped the Premier League and it's only the second title in 35 years.

"I wouldn't be worried with 'just' the Premier League title but I also wouldn't be concerned that it's just a little flash in the pan. This is more a realistic reflection of where Liverpool are up to. The future is bright under this manager and it could be even better once he gets to have his own squad in place and and get players that he really does like and can use."

Slot has used the same squad that he inherited from previous boss Jurgen Klopp, and given the team finished third last season and did not make any significant additions in the summer window, few fans could have dreamt that the Dutchman would have led the club to the Premier League title.

Written by

Lewis Nolan