Back on the perch

Liverpool land 20th title and equal United

- Barney Ronay Anfield

Football is often compared to theatre. Sometimes it just is theatre. With 63 minutes gone at Anfield, and Liverpool already 3-1 up, Mohamed Salah took the ball on the right in an empty square of deep green, veered inside, and then paused, leaving just enough time for the entire home crowd to freeze the moment, to see a snapshot of what was about to happen.

Salah rolled the ball to his left then spanked it hard into the near corner, drawing a vast, rolling cheer that just didn't want to stop, a self-fuelling cheer for this relentless one-man highlights reel, face of an era, the curator of moments, who then made another one here by taking a mid-match celebration selfie with the Kop.

Has anyone ever taken a mid-match selfie with the Kop before? What would Reuben Bennett say? Apart from something like "this is Liverpool and we do the best selfies here, son".

And so, as widely trailed, and perfectly choreographed on a lovely powder-blue day, Liverpool won the title with four games to spare. Arne Slot's team have led from the start right through to that romp along the final straight, and done it all with a sense of strength in reserve, one of the most unruffled displays of frontrunning in recent Premier League memory.

The only real question here was, would it still feel like a party, such was the buildup to a title win that has for some non-neutrals been somehow too easy, too free of jeopardy, basically too good. Well, it did. They know how to do this around here, rolling out the grand old livery, firing up the familiar songs, slipping into the well-worn euphoria of a title day.