Unbeaten runs, most points, earliest title win – which Premier League records could fall to Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool side?
They’re 22 matches into the season and Liverpool’s quest for their first league title in 30 years is going quite well, to say the least. Manchester United are the only team to take points off the Reds – a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford in the autumn – but besides that, Liverpool have won every single Premier League match so far.
This could turn out to be a record-breaking campaign in many different ways – so how many records are up for grabs?
FEWEST GOALS CONCEDED AND MOST GOALS SCORED
Current record: 15 goals conceded (Chelsea, 2004-05), 106 goals scored (Manchester City (2017-18)
Helped of course by coining the phrase ‘Park the bus’, Jose Mourinho built a sturdy defence-first reputation in his first season in England. Jose’s Chelsea conceded just 15 goals all season – an astonishing record that smashed Arsenal’s classic back four, who let 19 goals in when they won the league in 1991.
At the other end of the pitch, Pep Guardiola’s free-scoring City Centurions – get used to seeing them on the list – racked up a whopping 106 goals in 2017-18. That’s 2.7 a game, stats fans, including the three that they scored in the 4-3 defeat by Klopp’s Liverpool that season.
Liverpool have scored 52 goals and let in 14 since the start of the season. If they manage not to let in one more goal all season – deeply unlikely, but not actually impossible, given the presence of Virgil van Dijk – the Reds will eclipse Chelsea’s 15-year record. On a current rate of 2.3 goals a game, they’ll have their work cut out to beat City’s record too, but with most of their clashes with top-six sides at home over the coming months, they could get pretty close.
MOST CONSECUTIVE WINS
Current record: 18 (Manchester City, 2017)
En route to their record-breaking title, Manchester City broke Chelsea’s record of consecutive wins, recording 18 victories on the trot and putting acres of space between themselves and the chasing pack before Christmas. In doing so, Guardiola became the record-holder for consecutive wins in LaLiga, the Bundesliga and Premier League. Not bad.
Ahead of their game away to Wolves this week, Liverpool are 12 games into their winning run. Should they beat their next seven opponents, they’ll take that title from City – look out for the Bournemouth match in March for that one (if they haven’t dropped points by then, of course).
MOST ASSISTS IN ONE SEASON
Current record: 20 (Thierry Henry, 2002-03)
Trent Alexander-Arnold has been a revelation for his boyhood club since bursting through as a youngster and establishing himself as Liverpool’s first-choice right back. One of the primary sources of creativity in the side, Alexander-Arnold racked up 12 assists in the league last year and he’s already on nine for this campaign.
Trent’s got a long way to go to beat Thierry Henry’s 17-year record for goal set-ups, but he also has competition. Manchester City playmaker Kevin De Bruyne has been in robotic form this season and already has 14. This one’s perhaps off the cards – for this season at least – but it ain’t over till the strawberry-blonde midfielder sings.
MOST POINTS AMASSED
Current record: 100 (Manchester City, 2017-18)
The rivalry between City and Liverpool has blown up in recent years. Fuelled by hostile European ties, a straight knockout fight for the title and a few controversial refereeing decisions – on both sides – Reds fans would love to take this particular record from their rivals, given how celebrated it became at the Etihad when the Citizens achieved the feat.
Liverpool are averaging 2.9 points a game – that’s what happens when you drop points in one match all season. The maximum they can still amass is 112 points, so Klopp’s side will have to drop points in at least four matches not to reach the three-digit mark. Seems inevitable right now, let alone achievable.
EARLIEST-EVER TITLE WIN
Current record: 14 April 2001 (Manchester United, 2000-01)
Liverpool are 16 points clear of second with a game in hand – so, effectively 19 on current form – and 19 points is the biggest margin that the league has ever been won by (City’s Centurions again, as if we had to tell you).
Another record that City side were chasing though was the earliest-ever title win, before local rivals Manchester United beat them in 2018 and delayed their title party by a week.
The dynamics of when the Reds could lift their first Premier League are complex – but if they keep winning at the current speed, the title could be decided away to Everton on 7 March. That’s a whole month earlier than the current holders, and it doesn’t take into account that City keep dropping points. In fact, it was only this past weekend that City managed to amass the same amount of points (48) that Liverpool had midway through December.
MOST MAJOR TROPHIES COLLECTED IN ONE SEASON
Current record: 3 (Various)
Sorry, City fans – the Community Shield is more of a whacking, great shiny dishplate than a trophy.
The City class of ‘19 called themselves ‘Fourmidables’ but the maximum number of major trophies that an English club have won in one season, currently stands at three. City managed the domestic treble of course, and neighbours Manchester United did their own treble in 1999. After winning the Champions League in 2007-08, United won the Club World Cup the season after, so ‘only’ lifted three trophies in 2008-09 – the League Cup and Premier League being the other two.
Liverpool, of course, are also holders of that record, having lifted the Uefa Cup, FA Cup and League Cup in the 2000-01 season. With a Club World Cup already under their belts, the league title on track and the Reds still going strong in the FA Cup and Champions League, could Jurgen Klopp lift four major trophies this season and become the true Fourmidables?
FIRST GERMAN MANAGER TO WIN A MAJOR ENGLISH TROPHY
Current record: N/A
Us English have a fractious relationship with the Germans when it comes to football. There are goals that weren’t goals, 5-1s, shootout despair and the small matter of an epic World Cup final in 1966.
But for all their tactical genius, ruthless efficiency and vorsprung durch technik, Germany has never produced a manager to win either a league title, an FA Cup or a League Cup on our shores.
Stuttgart-born Jurgen Klopp could become the first from his nation to lift an English league title and he’s not alone – Sadio Mané could become the first Senegalese player to win the Premier League, Naby Keita the first Guinean, Dejan Lovren the first Croatian and Mohamed Salah the first Egyptian.
MOST CONSECUTIVE HOME GAMES UNDEFEATED
Current record: 86 (Chelsea, 2004-08)
In 2008, Liverpool stopped one of the great unbeaten runs of English football history. Chelsea managed an unbelievable 86 matches stretching over four years without losing a single match at Stamford Bridge, but it all came crashing down with deflected Xabi Alonso winner.
Now, Liverpool are looking to beat that record themselves – however, they still have a long way to go. They’re 53 matches into their unbeaten home run, so they’re looking at another year before they’re challenging Chelsea for that particular record. And to think, it could’ve all ended if Riyad Mahrez had buried that penalty at Anfield last season…
MOST CONSECUTIVE GAMES UNDEFEATED
Current record: 49 (Arsenal 2003-04)
It seems like at the start of every season, we have the same conversations about whether any current side is capable of going an entire season unbeaten. This year’s no different, but Liverpool could actually overtake Arsenal’s Invincibles without winning the league title.
Avoid defeat at Wolves and the Reds will need to see out just nine more matches until they match Arsene Wenger’s crowning achievement. Matchday 49, however, sees Klopp’s men take the short trip to Manchester for another reunion with Pep Guardiola. Get ready for a hell of a narrative on Sky Sports in a few weeks’ time.
RECORD TRANSFER FEE PAID
Current record: Neymar (PSG, £200m)
OK, OK, we don’t actually know about this one.
Given the rumours that just won’t die down though, Kylian Mbappé could be on the way to Anfield this summer (does that count as this season?). He surely won’t leave for less than Neymar cost PSG, either.