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By IAN LADYMAN Published: 02: 56 AEST, 26 May 2025 | Updated: 05: 08 AEST, 26 May 2025 11 View comments Up in the stands, those who have seen it all before sat and watched and will have recognised what they saw. Liverpool pouring forward, looking for a goal. The Kop in voice. And then, after the game was done and the race finally run, came the bit where they hand out the prizes. Mo Salah and his golden boot. Liverpool and their Premier League trophy. Jurgen Klopp, Rafael Benitez, Kenny Dalglish, Roy Evans, Steven Gerrard, Ian Rush Jordan Henderson and many others. They have all felt the cold thrill of silverware in their hands, as players and managers in Liverpool red. Still this felt like a special one, though. English league title number 20. Nobody has more. And, perhaps most importantly, this was one handed over on the field in front of a thronged Anfield. That hadn’t happened for 35 years. The banner over on the far side of the field may have read: ‘This is our bread and butter’. But that old Bill Shankly quote hasn’t really resonated in recent decades. That long barren spell that started in 1990 and lasted until the Covid season of 2019/20 was painful and desolate. At times it felt as though it would never end. Liverpool drew 1-1 to Crystal Palace in the final Premier League fixture of their glorious season Golden boot winner Mohamed Salah scored a late equaliser for Liverpool against Palace  This win felt like a special one, though. English league title number 20. Nobody has more And when it did – back when the world was unsure of whether things would ever be the same again – there was absolutely nobody here to witness it. Henderson, Liverpool captain at the time, lifted the Premier League trophy on the Kop with only his team-mates and some fireworks for company. Some supporters of other clubs have mocked that. Does it count if there was nobody there to see it? So, yes, this finally felt like the completion of a circle at last. A league title won by such a distance that Arne Slot’s team pretty much stopped playing a month ago and a trophy handed over to a captain amid a cacophony of emotional noise under a partial blue sky with the smell of cordite and in the air. That it was Alan Hansen who passed it to Virgil van Dijk felt appropriate. Not only was he captain of that magnificent 1990 team, the great Scottish defender played his football with the style and grace with which club has for so long been associated. A little less than a year ago, Hansen was seriously unwell in hospital. Here, he looked as formidably resolute as ever. Happiest these days amid the anonymity of the golfing links on the Southport coast, this felt like the perfect moment to break cover. Yet maybe this wasn’t the moment when it all came home. No, maybe that came a few minutes later, once the Liverpool players had left the podium and headed over to the Kop end where Salah had scored the game’s equalising goal 45 minutes earlier. Trent Alexander Arnold was introduced in the second half and lifted his second league trophy  Virgil van Dijk led Liverpool to just their second ever Premier League trophy this season  Alan Hansen, who was recently hospitalised, passed the Premier League trophy to Van Dijk Salah ended the season as Premier League top scorer and was handed the trophy by Ian Rush It was the goalkeeper Alisson who brought the trophy with him, running with it from the centre circle and then raising it high above his head so close to the crowd behind the goal that they must have felt they could touch it. Yes, maybe that was the moment when everything felt right again here at Anfield. They used to win the league so often in this part of Liverpool that it must have felt like it would never stop. But then it did and maybe only now can we say that the long and winding road that led from that day to this has reached its end. This day had felt a little like a party from the moment crowds started to gather outside Anfield early in the afternoon. On the approach to the ground two hours before kick-off, it was hardly possible to see Anfield’s vast hulking shape through the red mist caused by the flares carried by so many on the approach to the stadium. The game was engaging but not overly important. Crystal Palace are the new FA Cup holders and played like it, bold and ambitious. They led through Ismaila Sarr in the 9th minute and would have been confident of seeing it out once Liverpool had Ryan Gravenberch sent off for bringing down Daichi Kamada midway through the second half. Liverpool did have a determination about them, however, and Salah eventually slammed in his 29th league goal of the season after Cody Gakpo headed down a Darwin Nunez cross with five minutes to go. Dutchman Arne Slot won the Premier League with Liverpool in just his first season in England Liverpool's second Premier League trophy takes them to 20 league titles, level with Man United Ismaila Sarr opened the scoring for Crystal Palace at Anfield against champions Liverpool Trent Alexander-Arnold replaced Conor Bradley in the second-half in his final Liverpool game Gravenberch was sent off for bringing down Daichi Kamada midway through the second half By this time, Trent Alexander Arnold was on the field. He had been introduced at half-time and with that another one of the day’s sub-plots played out. Bound for Real Madrid and booed for that sin two weeks ago when Liverpool played Arsenal, there was no repeat of it here. He played beautifully, as it happens, and reminded everybody how much he will be missed. One pass from his own half in to the path of Nunez had a margin for error of about 2 per cent yet he pulled it off. Up in the Main Stand, his former manager Klopp mouthed only: ‘Wow’. Still there was a little apprehension as Alexander-Arnold came up for his medal. How would that go? Swimmingly, as it turned out. The reception was rousing and he responded by raising both hands and then, after a hug and a punch to the chest from Hansen, kissed the badge on his shirt. Amid the adrenaline of a title celebration, peace had broken out in a squabble that had briefly threatened to tear this football family apart. Back when Hansen last had his hands on a league title trophy, the celebrations were a little milder. No fireworks back then. No fancy stage, no pop music. Back in the day, the Liverpool coaching staff used to dish the medals out from a plastic bag in the dressing room. Liverpool's Premier League title win was celebrated with fans - unlike their victory in 2020 Former manager Jurgen Klopp returned to Anfield for the first time to witness the trophy lift The trophy was handed over in front of a thronged Anfield. That hadn’t happened for 35 years Crystal Palace gave champions Liverpool a guard of honour at Anfield before the match began The favour was returned as Liverpool applauded FA Cup winners Crystal Palace pre-match Liverpool finished 10 points ahead of Arsenal in second and 13 ahead of third placed Man City These days, it’s different. Everything seems to be bigger and brasher and louder and last longer than ever before. But it doesn’t really matter because when it comes down to it, the feelings of winning remain exactly the same. And here, after the initial burst of music had dimmed, the Liverpool squad lined up on the 18-yard line at the Kop End and, with the trophy on the penalty spot, for a communal singing of their anthem ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’. A moment to stir the soul, maybe that will be the take-away memory for those present. A club at one with its people. The end of a journey that for Slot began less than a year ago but for some in the stands started way back in 1991. Anfield remains one of English football’s great cathedrals and this was a day for the choir. Liverpool (4-2-3-1):  Alisson, Robertson (Elliot, 85), van Dijk, Konate (Jota, 52), Bradley (Alexander-Arnold), Jones, Gravenberch, Gakpo, Szoboszlai (Nunez, 61), Salah, Diaz (Endo, 69) Subs not used:  Endo, Gomez, Kelleher, Quansah, Tsimikas Booked:  van Dijk, Gravenberch (red) Scorers:  Salah, 84 Manager:  Arne Slot Crystal Palace (3-4-2-1):  Henderson, Lerma, Lacroix, Richards, Mitchell, Kamada, Hughes (Esse, 79, Franca, 93), Munoz, Eze (Devenny, 62), Sarr, Mateta (Nketiah, 62) Subs not used:  Kporha, Turner, Ward Scorers: Sarr, 9  Manager:  Oliver Glasner Referee:  Darren England

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