On The Ball | Liverpool are not to blame for this ‘tainted’ Premier League campaign and will relish their title regardless
- Claims that the Premier League are helping Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool to a 19th league title are growing louder
- The statistics show the suggestions are wide of the mark
Tom Werner, the club chairman, said it was a “dream season” and Kopites should “savour” the rest of the campaign. Across England there are millions of fans who feel they are living a nightmare.
Devotees of Manchester City are shell-shocked. In August they were optimistic about winning their third title in a row. Pep Guardiola’s team have not been competitive. They are 22 points behind Liverpool with 13 games to play.
It is hard for supporters at the Etihad to understand how this has happened. The seductive combination of Abu Dhabi cash and Guardiola’s genius appeared to create a scenario where City would dominate the domestic game for a decade. A dynasty seemed to be taking shape in east Manchester. Fans are thrashing around to explain how this situation could happen. Quite a few of them have decided there is only one answer: Liverpool must be getting favourable treatment. The idea that this is a “tainted title” has begun to circulate.
The conspiracy theorists claim that Klopp’s team have been the main beneficiaries of VAR even though the most cursory analysis of the statistics show that this is nonsense. According to the naysayers, referees, the Premier League and the FA are all in Anfield’s pocket. The fixture list is designed to make life easy for the Reds.