I don’t like talking about referees. Honestly, I don’t. I know if you’ve read many of my other pieces or seen my TikTok videos, you’ll be quick to disagree with me, but just because I do it all the time doesn’t mean that I enjoy it. I wish we could live in a world where I didn’t know a single referee’s name, nor have any sense whatsoever of who they were or where they were from. Instead, they regularly and continuously make themselves the star of the show, seemingly getting decisions wrong on purpose just so that we all talk about them some more. It was clear from the moment that Sam Barrott brandished the yellow card for a James Tarkowski tackle that would have been a red in almost any era of the sport that the game was just too big for him. It is a genuine miracle that no Liverpool player picked up a serious injury last night, given the cowardly manner in which Everton’s players played and were allowed to do so by a weak official for whom the occasion was far too big.
It’s irrelevant now, but the Tarkowski non-red card renders VAR utterly pointless, and Tierney and Webb should resign, but nothing, absolutely nothing, will change because of football tribalism
— beezlebub2022.bsky.social (@beezlebub2022.bsky.social) 2 April 2025 at 22:50
Then we come to the Video Assistant Referee. I have been clear each and every time that Paul Tierney officiates one of our matches that he shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near our games. The PGMOL has come out today and said that the challenge was a clear red card and the VAR should’ve overturned the referee’s decision, but Mancunian Tierney spent all of ten seconds looking at it and decided it was fine. He is someone that demonstrates a clear and obvious bias against the Reds any time he is asked to referee or be the VAR for one of our matches and at some point Captain Gaslight in charge of the PGMOL is going to have to confront the reason as to why. When you’ve got Duncan Ferguson, Gary Neville and professional referee defender Mike Dean all saying it’s a red card on Sky Sports, you know you’ve made a massive error. It’s okay though because they’ve said it should’ve been one. Why, then, didn’t a professional referee watching a video replay of it say the same? He’s either biased or incompetent.
Arne Slot Deserves Enormous Credit
There has been something of a drive from some people recently to try to underplay Liverpool’s achievement in winning the league this season. The fact that we made it to the final of the League Cup meant that some people think we’ll have underachieved by only winning the title, whilst our performance in the Champions League group stage meant that many had us down as favourites for that. The result is that those who wish to diminish what we do simply on account of us being Liverpool are starting to suggest that a league title alone will be disappointing. Let me be clear: I will not be disappointed. Not one member of the mainstream media had us down as champions before a ball was kicked and very few Reds even thought it would be possible after the departure of Jürgen Klopp. For Arne Slot to come in and win the title at the first time of asking is an insane accomplishment that it is incredibly crass for some people to try to play down.
Arne Slot: ‘If the fans give us what they gave us tonight in our home games, then we are in a very good position (for the title)’ #LFC
— Anfield Online (@anfield.online) 2 April 2025 at 22:36
There aren’t many managers in the history of the game who have won the English top flight in their first season, having never managed a club in the country before. You could point to previous Liverpool managers like Joe Fagan, Kenny Dalglish, who won a treble and a double respectively in their first seasons, but they knew the club, had worked with the players, and understood the league. Rafa Benítez won the European Cup in his debut season, but he had been able to buy players to bolster the squad and begin to shape it into his own. Slot has arrived, and the only player he’s brought in is Federico Chiesa, who, at least this season, he doesn’t seem to trust. To arrive on Merseyside and almost certainly win the title in his debut campaign is a phenomenal achievement, and bad faith actors like those from Manchester with terrible moustaches aren’t going to be able to play it down. He has made some mistakes, but if he can learn from them, we’ll be scary next season.
The Title Creeps Closer
I have been banging this drum for weeks now, but Liverpool will win their 20th top-flight title this season. The point at which we get to celebrate is getting closer with every passing game, even if it now looks as though Arsenal will ‘keep us honest’ for the next few weeks. Although they have lost Gabriel, they have also seen Bukayo Saka return to fitness, and his goal against Fulham shows just how important he is to the Gunners. Thankfully, we have a 12-point lead that will be all but impossible for the London side to claw back from us, given the fact that Arne Slot has never lost two league games in succession across his managerial career. Arsenal, meanwhile, haven’t won nine matches in a row for years and haven’t managed to win more than three in succession during this campaign. Had we dropped points to Everton last night, I could see a world in which a few people might’ve got a bit twitchy, to say nothing of the Blues rolling over for the Gunners, but our win all but secures the title.
At this point in time, I don’t think any public statistical model for predicting football is going to be nearly as good as the secret models the bookies base their odds on.
Anyway, the major bookies currently give Liverpool an implied probability of 97-99% to win the title.
— Grace Robertson 🏳️⚧️ (@graceonfootball.com) 27 February 2025 at 12:22
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Everton are suddenly going to turn into ‘70s Brazil over the weekend and challenge Arsenal in any meaningful way. But Mikel Arteta surely has to have one eye on the Real Madrid matches now, and the Blues know this is one of their last remaining matches at Goodison Park. There is nothing for the Gunners to aim for in the league anymore, which means there is also no benefit to Everton rolling over to get their belly tickled in the same way as there usually is when they play one of our title rivals. I say all of that because the only thing I’m interested in now iswhen the title is going to be secured. Do I need to go into town for the Tottenham Hotspur game, for example? Or will it be won before then? If Arsenal win all of their remaining games, then we need to get 13 points from our remaining eight games to see the trophy heading back to Anfield. They won’t win all of their games, so it’s now just about doing the maths.
