Liverpool has historically been a very successful team winning many trophies in both England and Europe. One of their most impressive achievements is winning 19 league titles in the top flight of English football, this representing just how dominant and successful they can be. At the time of writing, only Manchester United have won more (with 20 to their name).
However, Since the beginning of the Premier League era in the 1992/93 season, Liverpool has never quite reached the heights they did in the 1980s. Out of the 19 league titles the Reds have to their name only one of them has come in the 30-plus years it has been the Premier League.
Liverpool’s Only Premier League Title: 2019/20
Liverpool won their first premier league title in the 2019/20 season, a league title that many fans had been waiting years to see. The last top-flight title Liverpool won before this was in the 1989/90 season when it was Division One, rather than the Premier League.
Their first Premier League crown was a well-deserved title for Liverpool after many years of coming so close to snatching it. This was one of Liverpool’s best seasons under Jürgen Klopp with a squad of star players, such as Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane, and Ballon d’Or runner-up in 2019, Virgil Van Dijk. Liverpool beat their rivals with an impressive 99 points, which was 18 points more than second-place Manchester City.
Klopp’s men even managed to go the whole Premier League season with only three defeats. One was a surprise 3-0 loss to Watford, along with a defeat to second-place Manchester City, and a final loss coming against Arsenal, all of which were away from home. This also means that in that season Liverpool were never defeated at Anfield, a very impressive accomplishment in such a ludicrously difficult league.
The only thing that tainted this title win was the fact that when the Liverpool squad lifted the trophy no Liverpool fans were allowed in the stadium due to the health restrictions in place at the time. But although this meant Liverpool fans could not celebrate directly with the players, it was still a monumental achievement for the club and is something that Liverpool will be looking to do again in the coming seasons. The next time, with the fans present.
Title Heartbreaks
Although Liverpool have only won one Premier League, they have come agonisingly close on multiple occasions. Liverpool fans, look away now!
Missed Opportunity
The first of these came in the 2001/02 season while being managed by Gerard Houllier. During that season Liverpool lost out by a margin of seven points, coming second behind Arsenal, who they never managed to beat in their two encounters in the league. The Reds at least finished ahead of bitter rivals Manchester United, though it was seen as something of a missed opportunity in a rare season when the Red Devils weren’t the top dogs.
Benitez Bolsters Liverpool’s Chances
The next time Liverpool really challenged for the title was seven years later in the 2008/09 season under manager, Rafael Benitez. This was a team that many Liverpool fans expected much more from as they had many world-class players and now club legends with the likes of Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres, Xabi Alonso, and the list goes on.
In the end, Liverpool finished the season an unfortunate second place behind rivals Manchester United, losing out with a slim margin of just four points. What makes this even more painful for Liverpool fans is the fact Liverpool even lost fewer games than the league winners United who had four losses to Liverpool’s two. Liverpool even beat them home and away in the league. Unfortunately, Liverpool did not manage to make this count with 11 of their games ending in draws, which ultimately led them to them finishing as runners-up in the 2008/09 season.
Iconic Gerrard Slip
Brendan Rogers almost gained Liverpool a Premier League title in the 2013/14 season but it was snatched from them by Manchester City by an agonisingly close two points. This was a season in which Liverpool performed almost identically to the league winners who had a record of 27 wins, five draws, and six losses. But instead of 27 wins, Liverpool had 26 as they drew one more game than Manchester City.
This was another season where fans felt hard done by as they had a squad stacked with talent, including Steven Gerrard and Luis Suarez. Suarez even managed to score an incredible 31 goals in the league during the campaign. This was also when the upsetting and famous Gerrard slip happened. This was near the end of the season when Liverpool were facing Chelsea at home and captain Steven Gerrard slipped dramatically, allowing Demba Ba to score and effectively ruin Liverpool’s title dreams.
Almost Unbeaten… But Second Place Again
Since then, Liverpool have had two more big chances to win the league with both of these coming under fan-favourite manager Jürgen Klopp. The first of these instances came in the season before the Reds won their first Premier League in the 2018/19 season. This was a year where many fans regard it as one of Liverpool’s best ever, and it’s easy to see why.
Liverpool managed to go the whole season with only one defeat. Crucially though, that one game was to the eventual winners, Manchester City who won the Premier League by just a single point. In a year in which the two top goalscorers for Liverpool in the league were Sadio Mane and Mohammed Salah (tied with 22 goals), it is hard not to feel just a little sympathy for Liverpool even if you support a rival club.
If Liverpool had managed to go unbeaten it would only have been the second time a Premier League time would have managed this, and the amount of points Liverpool would have had is way more than the Arsenal team that achieved it before.
The only consolation to this disappointing end to the league was the fact that Liverpool managed to win the Champions League for the first time since 2005, beating Tottenham Hotspur in the final. Although they did not win the league in the 2018/19 season it will still go down as somewhat of a turning point for Liverpool as they won in Europe and managed to go on and win the Premier League the very next season.
Pipped by Man City Again
Liverpool’s most recent chance at winning the league came in the 2021/22 season, where again the Reds were beaten to it by Manchester City… again. This season was an unfortunate one for Liverpool as the games that led them to miss out on the title came early on. In the first half of the season, Liverpool lost two games which were the only two losses they had the whole season and also ended five games in draws( out of eight draws they had that season).
Liverpool finished very strongly, winning all but three of their last 19 games in the season and drawing the other three. This was such a frustrating miss on the league title as Liverpool did everything they could have done with the games they had in the second half of the season. Liverpool again went on to miss out on the Premier League title by just one little point. If Liverpool had managed to win the league, they would have completed the domestic treble as they won both the FA Cup and the EFL Cup that season.
Since this most recent chance to win the title, Liverpool have been rather disappointing with a fifth-place finish in the league in the 2022/23 season. However, many fans are hopeful Liverpool can challenge for the title once again very soon. With new signings coming in, fans are hopeful and trust Klopp to revive Liverpool and lead them to another Premier League title.