Every time Liverpool have been top of the Premier League in April – & what happened next
Liverpool are now favourites for the Premier League title, following their 2-1 win over Brighton and Manchester City’s 0-0 draw with Arsenal.
They’re top of the table as they approach the final stretch – which is (almost) unknown territory for the club in the modern era. There are nine games left to play and Liverpool have their destiny in their own hands.
Only twice before in the month of April have Liverpool been top of the Premier League table. We’ve taken a closer look at what happened next on those two occasions.
2019-20
Surprisingly enough, despite all those near-miss title tussles with Manchester City, only once before were Liverpool top of the table at this stage of the run-in during Jurgen Klopp’s reign.
In the years that Klopp’s Reds narrowly finished runners-up (2018-19, 2021-22), Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering juggernaut already had a lead that they just didn’t let up. Now Liverpool approach the crucial final stretch in the driving seat and ought to look at their old rivals in years gone by as an example of how to hold their nerve.
The one year under Klopp that Liverpool were top of the Premier League in April, they’d already practically wrapped up the title. A ball was not kicked in April 2020, as the country went into lockdown, a period that delayed the Reds’ long-awaited title celebrations.
After 29 games in 2019-20, Liverpool had dropped just five points and sat 22 points clear of City. They could have lost all nine of their post-lockdown matches and still won the title that season.
QUIZ: Can you name Liverpool’s top scorer from every Premier League season?
2013-14
The 2008-09 season is rightly remembered as a year in which Liverpool got close. But by April that year Rafael Benitez’s side had reneged control. In fact, at no point after mid-January were they ever top of the table, and in March had even dropped to third. They went into April off the back of three successive league wins, and dropped just two points from the last 33 available, but champions Manchester United never let up.
If Liverpool fans thought that season was agonising, 2013-14 would prove to be a whole other level. The this does not slip season. Really, despite Luis Suarez’s outrageous form, a title charge never looked on until they put on the afterburners at the turn of the year.
At the halfway stage, they’d lost five matches, drew a further three, were dismal away from home and sat outside the Champions League spots on New Year’s Eve.
But a brilliant run of 13 wins (11 on the bounce) and two draws saw Brendan Rodgers’ side unthinkably move into pole position for the final stretch, opening up a lead over Manchester City after beating them 3-2 on April 13th.
They needed just seven points from their final three matches to make it over the line, but that Steven Gerrard slip against Chelsea followed by that Crystal Palace comeback sealed their fate.
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TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every Liverpool player to have scored in the Premier League for Jurgen Klopp?