Sports

Biggest wins, best goals, closest calls of club record

November 23, 2020
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Liverpool’s 3-0 win over Leicester City at Anfield on Sunday saw Jurgen Klopp’s reigning Premier League champions break an impressive club record that has stood for almost 40 years.

Anfield has been a fortress for the Reds, who last suffered a league defeat on home soil over three years ago, since a 2-1 loss against Crystal Palace on April 23, 2017 when Christian Benteke grabbed both goals against his former club.

In fact, of the 64 opponents who have played in front of the Kop in a league match since then, only 11 left with as much as a point to show for their efforts.

Now Klopp’s imperious side can now look to Dec. 5, when they host Wolves in their next Premier League home game, to see if they can extend an incredible run during which they have been crowned champions of England, Europe and the world.

Here we break down the key moments and numbers behind Liverpool’s new club record of 64 straight unbeaten home league games.

Biggest wins

Following the Leicester game, Liverpool’s unbeaten league run at home stands at 53 wins and 11 draws, with only 22 points dropped from a total of 189 available. Along the way, Klopp’s team have hit five goals in a game on seven different occasions, with poor Watford the recipients of back-to-back 5-0 drubbings on their visits.

The first five-goal rout came in December 2017 against Swansea City, who were without a manager at the time. Roberto Firmino scored twice at Anfield that day, back when such occurrences were not collectors’ items. The Reds then equalled that tally six further times with Watford (5-0, March 17), Arsenal (5-1, Dec. 29) in 2018, Watford again (5-0, Feb. 27), Huddersfield (5-0, April 26) and local rivals Everton (5-2, Dec. 4) in 2019 and Chelsea (5-3, July 22) earlier this year all succumbing to a five-goal onslaught.

The no-holds-barred 5-3 win over Chelsea came on the final day of the elongated 2019-20 season, with Liverpool signing off in style before lifting the Premier League trophy at Anfield for the first time.

Best goals

Over the course of the last 64 home outings, Liverpool have scored a grand total of 169 goals. As you’d expect, that run features a fine collection of goals.

Perhaps the best came 38 unbeaten games in, when Mohamed Salah let fly with a 25-yard top-corner-seeking missile in an impressive 2-0 win against Chelsea in April 2019.

While Salah’s name was on the scoresheet, this beautifully fluid team goal against Newcastle United in September 2019 was made memorable by Firmino’s silken backheel assist.

Sadio Mane pitched in with his fair share of goals too, with the best — or, at least, the most spontaneous and creative — coming during a drubbing of Watford in February 2019.

Trent Alexander-Arnold became the youngest Liverpool player to score a direct free kick at Anfield since Robbie Fowler when he tucked away this beauty against Crystal Palace back in June of this year.

The right-back then repeated the trick a few weeks later when he curled an almost identical free kick past Kepa Arrizabalaga in the aforementioned 5-3 victory over Chelsea.

Fabinho (one of the less likely goal scorers in the Liverpool team) took just six minutes to open the scoring against reigning champions Manchester City in November 2019 when the Brazil midfielder absolutely rocketed one in from long range. Liverpool sealed a surprising 3-1 win against City, sending them eight points clear at the top of the Premier League in the early stages of their charge to the title.

Closest calls

2-2 vs. Tottenham (Feb. 4, 2018)

Such has been the relentless nature of their form, Liverpool haven’t really suffered too many close shaves when it comes to surrendering their streak. However, the Reds were within their rights to expect that Salah’s 90th-minute goal to put them 2-1 up against Tottenham Hotspur in February 2018 would seal their ninth win of the run — only for Harry Kane to rob them of the pleasure deep into stoppage time.

Having already missed from the spot earlier in the game, Kane kept his nerve to convert a 95th-minute penalty with the final kick of the match (and score his 100th goal for Spurs in the process) to ensure that the honours were even at Anfield that day.

4-3 vs. Leeds (Dec. 12, 2020)

Liverpool’s 2020-21 title defence kicked off with a seven-goal jamboree at Anfield, with newly promoted Leeds United equalising three times before Salah was finally able to seal the deal (and wrap up his hat trick) with an 89th-minute penalty.

Facts and figures

Liverpool’s unbeaten 64-game run spans a total of three years, six months and 29 days. During that time, Klopp’s team’s total of 169 goals works out at an average of 2.64 per game) while conceding just 42 (0.65 per game).

It probably won’t surprise you to learn that Salah has scored more goals for the Reds than anybody else in that time, with a total of 51 to his name. Mane is second on the list (36 goals) while Firmino is on 18.

Only five members of the Reds’ starting XI that lost to Palace three-and-a-half years ago are still at the club: Firmino, Joel Matip, Georginio Wijnaldum, Divock Origi and the evergreen James Milner.

The previous Liverpool club record of 63 home league wins without defeat was set between 1978 and 1981. It began with a 3-1 win over Manchester United at Anfield on Feb. 25, 1978 and came to an end with 2-1 home defeat by Leicester on Jan. 31, 1981. During that run, Bob Paisley’s team won two league titles, the European Cup and the League Cup.

Premier League’s longest unbeaten home run

While Liverpool’s home unbeaten streak is undoubtedly impressive, it’s not the longest by any club in Premier League history. That honour belongs to Chelsea, who went 86 league games unbeaten at Stamford Bridge between February 2004 and October 2008, winning two titles in that time.

Just to put that into perspective, even if the Reds should remain unbeaten at Anfield for the remainder of the 2020-21 season, their run would still only amount to 78 games.


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