Liverpool's slump is the biggest by champions in Premier League history - and this is why

[ASFN Admin]

Less than a year after delivering Liverpool's first league title for 30 years, Jurgen Klopp's team are making history for all the wrong reasons. A 1-0 defeat against Fulham was their sixth consecutive loss at Anfield, a wretched run during which they have scored just one goal. That cascade of defeats was preceded by two home draws, so Liverpool are without a Premier League victory at Anfield since Roberto Firmino scored a stoppage-time winner against Tottenham in December. The champions are now eighth on 43 points from 28 games, a lower tally than David Moyes' Manchester United had at the same stage of the 2013-14 season. Having finished 18 points clear of Manchester City last term, Liverpool are now 22 points behind. There are strong mitigating factors: Liverpool's dreadful luck with injuries, the condensed schedule of Covid-era football draining a team who rely on intensity, a squad reaching the end of its natural life cycle, some subconscious easing off after reaching their Everest and just plain bad luck. Nevertheless, the scale of Liverpool's precipitous decline was hard to foresee and is one of the stories of the season. Here we crunch the numbers to see just how bad things are. The biggest ever drop off by a Premier League champion Liverpool are 36 points down on the same stage last season, which is the biggest deficit for a defending champion in the Premier League era. The second worst after 28 games was Leicester City in 2016-17, who sacked Claudio Ranieri in February of that season, followed by Chelsea in the 'Mourinho season' of 2015-16 who parted ways with him in December. The next worst was Man Utd under Moyes in 2013-14 when - you might be sensing a pattern here - they sacked Sir Alex Ferguson's successor before the end of his first season. The prospect of Liverpool taking such drastic action is extremely remote, not least because there was nowhere to go but down after their achievements last season. The Leicester comparison is apt here, who also produced a season of over-achievement that was very unlikely to be repeated. Liverpool are a better team and certainly no 5,000-1 outsiders, but they too punched above even their own considerable weight (more on this later).

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