The 5 Defining Moments That Won Liverpool their First Premier League Title

Liverpool are champions of the Premier League. Yes, it's something we have known since as early as December when the Reds opened up at 17-point gap on Manchester City when the former champions lost to Wolverhampton Wanderers on the 27th of that month.

And in reality, since drawing to Tottenham Hotspur on the second day of the season, the gap between Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola has continued to grow week on week. Now, with a 23-point lead, the Reds have claimed their first league title in 30 years, which brings them to a tally of 19 and just one behind the all-time leader Manchester United.

In truth, nobody has put up a test. Nobody has threatened. Liverpool have been the best since day one and with 21 points still up for grabs, it's a case of how many points they will get and if the club can surpass City's record-breaking 100 points margin set two years.

Here, we take a look back at the five key moments in their pursuit to win their first-ever Premier League title, in no particular order.

Since the end of last season - when Liverpool failed to win the title with an unbelievable 97 points - it has seemingly been a matter of when rather than if they will win their first Premier League title.

Back in September, in what was just the seventh game of the season, Liverpool opened up a five-point gap on champions Manchester City thanks to a horror show from Dean Henderson between the Sheffield United sticks.

Georginio Wijnaldum drilled in a tame shot towards the home side's keeper and it should have been a fairly routine save for the Englishman. However, Henderson let the ball slip through his gloves and legs and gifted the Reds all three points to hand them a commanding lead very early on.

The Blades had done everything right to keep the score at 0-0 until that point and Leon Clarke could have even snatched the win for the home side, but blazed the ball over in the second half. By this point, it seemed it was just meant to be the year for the now 19-time champions.

What made matters even more beautiful for Liverpool fans is how Henderson's parent club is Manchester United.

Although the fixture between Norwich City and Guardiola's men didn't directly include Liverpool, they were the grand winners when the Canaries snatched three points that day.

It was all very poetic and, ultimately, the fixture told the story of what was soon to come; errors from the defence, goals from a newly born star in Teemu Pukki, how Norwich stopped City's run of 18 wins a row - a feat Liverpool would match themselves this season. All of it was a stark look into what turned out to be the first few cracks in Guardiola's crumbling empire.

The score finished 3-2 that day and remains one of the biggest upsets in Premier League history as the Citizens truly were the most in-form team across Europe in 2019, winning everything in sight on the shores of England.

Just a month later, City would lose to Wolves and Liverpool fans would firmly start to believe it was, indeed, their year this time around.

The moment.

When Liverpool hosted City at Anfield back in November, the gap was already six points after 13 games and it seemed as if Chelsea and Leicester would be more of a test than Guardiola's record-breakers.

Prior to the game, it was pretty much universally agreed that a win for Klopp's men would put one hand on the title. Then, just 13 minutes into the must-win clash, goals from Fabinho and Mohamed Salah gave the Reds a 2-0 lead and it quickly became a matter of how many they may score.

The game would finish 3-1 thanks to a late goal from Bernardo Silva, although, three points were already in the bag by the time Mane made 3-0 early in the second half.

It's arguably the biggest game in Liverpool's topsy-turvy Premier League history and one that - when analysing how it all went down - will forever be labelled as the defining moment.

Just 24 hours after City drew at home to Crystal Palace in what should have been a routine victory, the Reds had the chance to move 16 points clear (with a game in hand) in front of their arch-rivals United at Anfield.

When Liverpool fans look back on this emotional campaign, most will probably point towards the 2-0 victory over the 20-time champions as the most magical from the lot. A goal from the talismanic Virgil van Dijk opened the scoring after 14 minutes, but it was Salah's goal in the dying seconds that truly captured the beauty and the importance of it all.

For two decades, Liverpool fans had to sit back as United gradually climbed back to the top by winning 13 Premier League titles, whilst the Reds often had to settle for the Europa League. This was their moment. A moment that was 30 years in the making and one which brought the entire fanbase together to gloat in front of their most bitter rivals just as they dreamed of for so, so long.

The Egyptian bagged in stoppage time after United piled men forward in search of the equaliser. Salah's tidy finish sent Anfield into a frenzy and the pictures of Alisson sprinting from the Kop to celebrate with the winger will be plastered across every future Liverpool-United fixture.

This result, incidentally, also moved the Reds 34 points above United, who were down in fifth, to truly rub salt into the wounds of their rivals down the M6.

Whilst the key moment was the win against City, the three points on the road against Leicester City was ultimately the moment where Liverpool fans started to firmly believe the title was in the bag.

Premier League history has told us that the Reds tend to throw it all away when it really matters; the defeat at the Etihad Stadium last campaign, that Steven Gerrard slip, the seven wins from 17 around the winter period of the 2008/09 campaign. They have just never been able to see it through until now and since 1992, there has always been a lingering moment that it will all just crack.

In late December, Klopp's men travelled to the King Power Stadium against a Leicester side that was battling for the title just as much as City were at that point. However, a 4-0 win for Liverpool showed us just how good this side is and how much better they are than any other contender.

After the 4-0 demolition, the title was practically sealed by the turn of 2020. But, this was the moment everyone truly believed that even for Liverpool's standards, they simply weren't letting the title go from here on out.