Liverpool’s Long Premier League Title Wait

Source: Statista

It wasn’t the Anfield party the fans had dreamed of, but there won’t be too many complaints from the red part of Merseyside today after Chelsea beat Manchester City last night to make Liverpool’s Premier League lead unassailable for the first time in the club’s history. As our chart shows, there have been some close calls over the previous 27 seasons but also a fair amount of dark days.

This title is their nineteenth domestic league triumph having won their first in the 1900/01 season. The 1989/90 First Division title was where it had ended for the club though, bringing a close to a period of dominance in the 70’s and 80’s and leading to an agonising 30 year wait for a league title – made all the harder to stomach due to the incredible rise of bitter regional rivals Manchester United. Some of that pain will have been washed away now though as the remarkable turnaround under manager Klopp ticks off its last major target.

The Premier League Relegation Battle is Still Wide Open

Source: Statista

As the Premier League gets underway again tonight, there is still a lot to be decided – not least at the bottom end of the table. Mathematically at least, about half of the league could still finish up in the relegation zone and, based on previous form, a lot of fans of pedigree club Arsenal are rather looking down than up as things get kicked off for them against Manchester City this evening.

While the chances of Arsenal actually going down are very low – 0.2 percent according to current betting odds – a lot of teams are still in legitimate danger. Calculating the implied probability from the bookies’ perspective, it is pretty safe to assume Norwich are already down, but while Villa and Bournemouth are going to need big turnarounds for the final ten matches, West Ham, Watford, Brighton and Newcastle are all teams legitimately at risk of falling into the drop zone come the end of the season.