Two simple statistics helped Liverpool secure the trophy

If Liverpool can finally be called English champions again, you can’t really repeat the old line that they’re back on their perch. They’re now on a pedestal.

- MIGUEL DELANEY

They can look down on the rest of the Premier League from high above, finally free to celebrate amid the certainty of victory. There is also an even better view from that vantage point, which has been surprisingly underplayed in this long run to the title. This is Liverpool’s 20th, matching the record of their great rivals Manchester United.

A mere 15 years after losing that record themselves, Liverpool are again the country’s most successful club in both the league and European Cup. That gives them another title, that is now undisputed, which is England’s greatest club in terms of glory. Above them only sky, as one of the city’s famous sons sang.

Many at Liverpool would insist this is all about getting to properly celebrate a long-awaited league in the way they couldn’t in 2020, and it can indeed be easy to get lost in the numbers around such feats, when the true value is the emotion. Virgil van Dijk was right to rebuke people for saying this isn’t special.

It’s a league title, which should always be treasured. This team are part of a lineage going back to 1888, while adding to their own club’s grand history. This is glory.

It is still numbers that tell the story of why they are getting to celebrate, and that doesn’t even mean Arne Slot becoming just the ninth manager to win a title in his first English season, or the first Dutch coach to win full stop. It is the effect of his management, and Liverpool’s strategy, two facets that are quantifiable.

By 1 March, which was pretty much the point when the title race was settled, the two Premier League players with the most minutes were Van Dijk and Mohamed Salah. The centre-half was first and the Egyptian second, and that included goalkeepers. The only other outfield player in the top 10 at that point was Nathan Collins.