The question of exactly when and where the league was “won” is up for debate when it is won by 18 points in record-breaking time.
It seems absurd to even argue that a 2-1 victory in early November at Villa Park can be included in that discussion, but it was undoubtedly a spark, and the way the season developed supports that.
The team was at a hotel rather than on a football field when it was mathematically clinched during a season that was interrupted for three months due to a global pandemic.
Nothing about Liverpool’s championship-winning season could even possibly be described as typical.
The Reds had previously been more deadly, but they had never been as composed and impenetrable as they were in 2019–20.
Despite being less than a third of the way through the season, Liverpool came into the match against Aston Villa with the confidence of a champion.
Alisson; Alexander-Arnold; Lovren; Van Dijk; Robertson; Henderson; Lallana; Wijnaldum; Salah; Firmino; and Mane make up Liverpool’s starting lineup.
The players were impenetrable in their strategy, despite the fact that fans had been burned too many times before to even allow themselves to fantasize about the possibility of ending the three-decade title drought.
They didn’t have time for superstition or to be burdened by history.
Even if it took more than an hour of additional action to get a breakthrough, an early Trezeguet goal was never going to break Liverpool’s rhythm.
The Reds had won all of their previous 10 games, but they had also experienced more than their fair share of close calls.
At the time, Dean Smith, the manager of Villa, was not willing to let his team simply accept the outcome.
