Richard Jolly looks at how Liverpool and Man City's recent points tallys show how dominance is becoming the norm across Europe.
A combination of Man City and Liverpool have dominated the Premier League in recent years, with them both enjoying virtual walkovers either side of that epic two-horse race last season.
The Reds have taken Man City's title this year, or, to be more precise, one of their titles. Liverpool are the new Premier League champions. They may yet take others of City’s distinctions. For now, Pep Guardiola still retains the record for most points (100) and wins (32) in an English top-flight campaign, plus the biggest winning margin (19).
All of those are under threat, with Liverpool currently boasting a 23-point lead and potentially registering up to 34 wins and 104 points. There are other numbers which may be too obscure to classify as official records but which could be bettered: City’s tally of 198 points in two seasons, which was 12 more than anyone else – with Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea the closest challengers – had ever assembled could be overhauled, with Jurgen Klopp's side still able to break 200 over two incredible seasons.
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Klopp and Guardiola can form a mutual admiration society and they seem set to possess the four highest points tallies in the 132-year history of English top flight football: City’s 100 and 98, Liverpool’s 97 and their 2019-20 haul.
Even adding a third point for victories to tables before 1981 only brings a little company: Liverpool’s 1978-79 tally rises to 98 and Tottenham’s 1960-61 total to 97, but from 42 matches. In terms of points per game, the two are unrivalled ever.
But not in Europe, perhaps. Liverpool’s litany of records is a reflection of the efforts of an extraordinary team who took consistency to new levels, especially when, over two campaigns, they claimed 106 points from a possible 108, but they are also signs of the times.
The theme is that the best have got better. Perhaps modern methods, in sports science and scouting, have helped. Certainly talent, whether playing or coaching, has gravitated to the top. It is undeniable finance is a factor. The super-clubs have supersized budgets.
They have used them to expand the definition of what is possible. The last decade has seen Spain and Italy’s first centurions: Real Madrid got 100 points in 2011-12, which Barcelona equalled 12 months later. Then Juventus mustered 102 in Serie A in 2013-14. Paris Saint-Germain set a French record of 96 in 2015-16. The Bundesliga’s status as an 18-team league means it is all-but impossible to join the hundred club in Germany, with only 102 points at stake, but Bayern Munich set a new best with 91 in 2012-13.
Guardiola can feel the revolutionary, the passing perfectionist who produced teams who raised the bar, only for others to leap similarly high. His Barcelona stood apart with 99 points in La Liga in 2009-10: Mourinho’s Real posted 100 two years later to dethrone them. Barcelona’s record of 16 straight La Liga wins was equalled by Real in 2016-17, just as City’s 18 in England was matched by Liverpool this year.
Along the way, there were records for runners-up: 91 points for Napoli in Italy, 97 for Liverpool in England. Or, when the rest were left in distant pursuit, winning margins that defied credulity: 25 points for Bayern in 2012-13 when the second side, Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund, were nearer 13th-place Mainz than the champions. When PSG got 96, their nearest challengers, Lyon ended up with 65: they were closer to 19th-place Ajaccio than the winners.
It marks a change. Greatness is a comparative concept and is probably best defined within its own era. There are teams who deserve the billing as greats yet whose points tallies, to modern eyes, appear slender: Arsene Wenger’s first double winners got 78 points in 1997-98, Manchester United’s treble winners just 79 a year later. More recently, when City got 79 (as defending champions under Manuel Pellegrini in 2014-15) and 78 (in Guardiola’s first year) it was seen as a disappointment.
One of Klopp’s predecessors at Anfield was, like him, hired after winning two league titles on the European mainland. It was a remarkable feat for Rafa Benitez’s Valencia to see off Real and Barcelona but the fact remains that they did with 75 and 77 points in 2002 and 2004.
When Valencia got 77 again in 2014-15, it only brought fourth place, 17 points behind Barcelona. The game had changed. The rules were different.
Benitez’s first title winners drew 12 games. Now, in the age when the target is 100 points, a draw can feel little better than a defeat. Guardiola’s City only drew six games over their two title-winning campaigns. Klopp’s Liverpool were held seven times last season. They have only shared the points twice thus far. In a decade when the stakes have been raised, the winners cannot afford to draw.
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