Feature13 key moments on Liverpool's journey to Premier League glory

At the first time of asking, head coach Arne Slot has guided the Reds to a record-equalling championship, which was mathematically sealed on Sunday at Anfield with four matches to spare.

Relive our pick of the most crucial episodes of the 2024-25 campaign that ensured LFC finished top of the pile once again…

• Shop LFC Retail's champions range at our online store, the LFC Store app and all club stores

Day one at Portman Road

After a positive pre-season, Liverpool were dispatched to newly promoted Ipswich Town for the first Premier League match of 2024-25 and the opening game of the Slot era.

But despite the August sunshine and the natural sense of optimism and excitement each new campaign brings, proceedings at Portman Road were a little flat for the Reds.

The visitors mustered only three shots in the first 45 minutes, all from outside the box and none on target.

They emerged from the break with much greater impetus and cutting edge, however, and a flowing move on the hour mark involving Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mohamed Salah was finished off by Diogo Jota to get Liverpool’s season truly under way.

Salah supplied a lead-doubler five minutes later, and Slot’s team could have had more goals in the remainder. But the first brick had, slowly but surely, been laid in the foundation of league title No.20.

3-0 joy at Old Trafford

Jürgen Klopp’s Reds, of course, had designs on delivering that 20th English championship – and more – in the previous season.

But a pair of short trips to fierce rivals Manchester United last spring had been hugely damaging to Liverpool’s ambitions of adding to the Carabao Cup they lifted in the February.

A 4-3 defeat in the Emirates FA Cup quarter-finals was suffered when the hosts scored in the last minute of extra-time, and three weeks later they dropped important points in the Premier League race by drawing 2-2 at Old Trafford.

The fixture computer teed up a third drive down the East Lancs Road of the year on September 1. This time, though, Kopites would be smiling. Smiling broadly.

Alexander-Arnold had already seen a goal chalked off due to an offside before Luis Diaz struck twice during the first half to put the visiting team in control.

Salah increased his tally at the venue to 10 with a clinical effort in the second period, giving Slot and the new Liverpool project an early landmark to celebrate.

Bouncing back from Forest defeat

Three victories without conceding a goal – Brentford were beaten 2-0 at Anfield between the away wins against Ipswich and United – had indeed been the perfect start to life under Slot.

But anyone of a Red persuasion beginning a journey towards cloud nine had their feet unceremoniously pulled back down to earth when the season resumed following the September international break.

Stifled by Nottingham Forest on home turf, Slot’s charges were toiling even before Callum Hudson-Odoi stepped infield from the left flank and arced a clinical finish into the net from the edge of the penalty box during the second half to inflict the head coach’s first defeat.

The task of stabilising quickly was no simple one either. Champions League matchday one sent Liverpool to San Siro to face AC Milan just three days later… and they conceded to a Christian Pulisic effort three minutes in.

But the Reds displayed the kind of mettle that would underpin their league-winning campaign by overturning the deficit and clinching a relatively comfortable 3-1 result that night.

“To win it the way we did after going 1-0 down after five minutes with the result of Nottingham Forest still in our head… I think it was very good to see how they took the game in their hands, the players,” said Slot.

Having eliminated the risk of a hangover, Liverpool won each of their next seven fixtures too and their record between the Forest loss and the end of the calendar year would read: 20 victories, three draws, no defeats.

A crucial Emirates equaliser

Every little helps, and an Emirates Stadium equaliser in late October was another key contributing factor to the Reds’ championship success.

Liverpool trailed twice away at Arsenal that Sunday afternoon, Virgil van Dijk levelling Bukayo Saka’s opener but Mikel Merino putting the hosts back in front before the interval.

It was a repeat of how the same fixture eight months prior had unfolded, and on that occasion the Gunners went on to strike again late on and win 3-1, inflicting a heavy blow to the visitors’ title ambitions for that campaign.

There would be no such setback for Liverpool this time, however.

A supremely slick move from back to front saw Darwin Nunez deftly touch a pass infield and through to Salah for the Egyptian to guide a merciless first-time finish past David Raya.

The 81st-minute intervention meant the gap between the two clubs who would be chief protagonists for the 2024-25 title remained at a handy four points rather than reduced to one.

Storming back versus Seagulls

In the Reds’ next league outing, six days later, there was more adversity to deal with.

Ferdi Kadioglu’s classy effort had given Brighton & Hove Albion a 14th-minute lead at Anfield that they maintained past the midway point of the second half.

After several near-misses Liverpool found a way, though, and delivered it in a blistering one-two punch that had the home crowd soaring off their feet and the Seagulls beaten.

Cody Gakpo’s cross from the left evaded everyone and turned into a levelling goal with 69 on the clock, and Slot’s men immediately struck again.

A sweeping counter-attack teed up Salah for a dictionary definition of his trademark goal: gliding inside from the right channel and rifling a thunderous shot into the far top corner.

10 men fight against Fulham

Things were going wrong for Liverpool when Fulham visited Anfield in mid-December. Very wrong.

Andreas Pereira put the Londoners ahead with just 11 minutes played and soon after, Andy Robertson received a straight red card for a late challenge on former Red Harry Wilson.

Slot’s charges, and the supporters, were going to need to dig incredibly deep. And they did.

Gakpo was on target from close range early in the second half to haul the 10 men level, only for Rodrigo Muniz to restore Fulham’s lead with 76 on the clock and time increasingly against the home team.

But ‘the slotter’, Jota, fashioned a moment of magic just seven minutes after being introduced from the bench. Swivelling on Nunez’s forward pass, the Portuguese caressed a strike into the net to earn the hardest-fought point.

“I couldn’t have asked for more,” stated the boss afterwards. “Being two times a goal down, so many things go against you except for one thing and that is our players and our fans, who were outstanding.”

22 seconds at the City Ground

There was a sense of déjà vu on this January evening.

Liverpool trailed 1-0 to Forest again, Chris Wood having beaten Alisson Becker early in the first half to put Nuno Espirito Santo’s team in front as they chased a seventh consecutive Premier League win.

The hosts’ advantage held firm for almost an hour, too.

Having been held to a draw by Manchester United last time out in the league, the Reds were staring in the face of five dropped points in two matches.

But then Slot deployed a truly game-changing double substitution by bringing on Jota and Kostas Tsimikas at the midway point of the second period.

Just 22 seconds after the pair took to the pitch, the latter delivered a corner kick from the right-hand side that found Jota to glance in an equalising header that kept the Reds’ unbeaten league run since the reverse meeting on track.

Darwin’s double at Brentford

It seems like league winners always have to find a way through a match like this.

For Liverpool’s previous title triumph, in 2019-20, it was of course the late turnaround to snatch a 2-1 victory at Aston Villa in November that had signalled something different, something champion about that campaign.

The 2024-25 version was undoubtedly this Saturday 3pm trip to Gtech Community Stadium.

The Reds’ 6,000th competitive game in history appeared to be ambling towards a goalless stalemate, with stoppage time under way and neither side having broken through despite numerous close calls for Slot’s side.

Nunez had other ideas.

A minute into the additional time, the second-half substitute converted Alexander-Arnold’s cutback low from the centre of the box, and just moments later he coolly dispatched another to send the nearby travelling Kopites wild.

“You have to stay mentally strong, never give up,” said Nunez post-match. He and his teammates lived up to that ethos.

Sending a statement inside the Etihad

The weekend of February 22/23, 2025 was perhaps the turning point of the race for the championship.

Liverpool were in the midst of a gruelling top-flight run of five matches in 15 days that included away fixtures at Everton, Villa and here, reigning champions Manchester City.

If the magnitude of the trip to City were not already big enough, the Reds’ closest pursuers in the table, Arsenal, suffered a 1-0 home defeat by West Ham United on the Saturday.

An 11-point advantage at the top would be the Reds’ reward for winning at Etihad Stadium on the Sunday.

An inventive corner-kick routine led to Salah sweeping Slot’s men into the lead during the first half in Manchester, and the Egyptian then set up Dominik Szoboszlai to make it 2-0.

Cushion secured, the visitors were consummately organised and defensively diligent to see out that scoreline with little jeopardy and open up the double-figures gap to the Gunners.

A statement win, as they say.

“It’s special,” Salah stated post-match. “We need another title for sure, me and the big guys here in the team. We need another title. We’ll give it our best, we’ll give it a good shot and we’ll see.”

Diogo wins the Merseyside derby

March, though, had not been Liverpool’s month.

Elimination from the Champions League last 16 on penalties to Paris Saint-Germain was followed by defeat in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley, which was followed by a 17-day spell without a fixture.

So, when the campaign resumed with a Merseyside derby against Everton at Anfield on April 2 – and with Arsenal having already won the night before – for many it felt like the Reds needed something of a kickstart.

The Blues, of course, had no intention to bow to that desire and with almost an hour elapsed the game was in stalemate and the visitors had gone closest to breaking it, Beto striking the post during the first half.

But a moment of outstanding quality from Jota settled the contest – the forward deftly weaving through several challenges and sliding a finish home – and added three important points to Liverpool’s total at what could otherwise have been a little crossroads in the title race.

The huge reaction inside the ground reflected the significance. “I think that was one of the loudest I’ve heard Anfield since I’m here at Liverpool,” said the goalscorer.

The captain’s Kop moment

Robertson is screaming in frustration and Van Dijk has his head buried in his hands.

A communication mix-up between the legendary defensive duo has caused an 86th-minute own goal that has wiped out Liverpool’s 1-0 lead at home to West Ham after a second half in which the away team have persistently threatened to equalise.

Such a stutter would have likely only delayed rather than derailed the Reds’ path to the championship, though frustrating it undoubtedly would be.

But Van Dijk ‘made it right’, as he later put it, just minutes later to give Anfield the kind of massive collective celebration that had been denied supporters during the denouement of 2019-20.

Rising to meet Alexis Mac Allister’s corner kick from the right flank, the captain planted a downward header into the Kop net. If there were a roof on Anfield, it would have come off.

One step closer.

Trent puts Reds on title brink

Liverpool needed inspiration again a week later when they travelled to face a Leicester City side on the verge of relegation at King Power Stadium.

Both teams were thwarted by posts during a largely tepid first half, and a number of decent chances came and went for Slot’s men as they steadily upped the tempo after the interval.

A breakthrough for the Reds, if they could find one, would push them to within three points of being officially crowned champions – and it was provided by their vice-captain off the bench.

Five minutes after being introduced for his return appearance after almost six weeks out due to injury, Alexander-Arnold rasped in a career-first left-footed strike from a penalty-box scramble in which both Salah and Jota had hit the woodwork.

The No.66’s passionate celebration ignited the nearby away section and his teammates in joy. Liverpool could almost touch it now.

The Anfield outpouring

April 27, 2025. The day.

For many it was the first time. For others it was familiar. For everyone it was sensational.

Liverpool need just a point to be crowned Premier League champions and though Tottenham Hotspur briefly threaten to spoil Anfield’s party with a Dominic Solanke opener, the home side are 3-1 up by half-time.

By the end it’s 5-1 and the game itself has for a while been an irrelevance, an aperitif to the avalanche of emotion the final whistle signals.

Slot’s brilliant team are the champions.

Thirty-five years on, Reds can celebrate a league title all together again. There are smiles, tears, dancing, songs, an immediately iconic You’ll Never Walk Alone. Children and parents embraced in a new shared experience. Thoughts of those no longer with us to witness it.

It means everything.