| Premier League - top half | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
| C | Liverpool | 31 | 28 | 2 | 1 | 70 | 21 | +49 | 86 |
| 2 | Manchester City | 31 | 20 | 3 | 8 | 77 | 33 | +44 | 63 |
| 3 | Leicester City | 31 | 16 | 7 | 8 | 59 | 29 | +30 | 55 |
| 4 | Chelsea | 31 | 16 | 6 | 9 | 55 | 41 | +24 | 54 |
| 5 | Manchester United | 31 | 13 | 10 | 8 | 48 | 31 | +17 | 49 |
| 6 | Wolverhampton Wanderers | 31 | 12 | 13 | 6 | 44 | 34 | +10 | 49 |
| 7 | Tottenham Hotspur | 31 | 12 | 11 | 10 | 50 | 41 | +9 | 45 |
| 8 | Sheffield United | 31 | 11 | 9 | 9 | 30 | 31 | -1 | 44 |
| 9 | Arsenal | 31 | 10 | 13 | 8 | 43 | 41 | +2 | 43 |
| 10 | Crystal Palace | 31 | 11 | 9 | 11 | 28 | 36 | -8 | 42 |
LIVERPOOL won their maiden Premier League title - and became English champions for a 19th time - after Manchester City were beaten by Chelsea at Stamford Bridge last night.
Jurgen Klopp's men put themselves on the brink 24 hours earlier with a 4-0 thumping of Crystal Palace at Anfield, stretching their already mammoth lead at the top to 23 points.
Coincidentally, that win made it 23 consecutive home league wins for the Reds since a 1-1 draw against Leicester City in January 2019.
It meant Man City needed to win all eight of their remaining games while Liverpool lost all of theirs.
That was never going to happen, of course - but, after 30 years and 58 days (or, alternatively, over 11,000 days) of waiting, it was understandable that Reds fans still wanted things to be confirmed officially.
After all, last time that Liverpool were English league champions, Margaret Thatcher was British Prime Minister, George HW Bush (senior) was US President, and West Germany and the Soviet Union both still officially existed.
Madonna held the UK number one with Vogue and the mother of Reds' captain Jordan Henderson was pregnant with him.
True, Liverpool have continued to be successful during that 30-year period winning two European Cups, a UEFA Cup, three FA Cups, four League Cups, three European Super Cups and one Club World Cup.
However, the league title itself continually eluded Liverpool, sometimes cruelly.
In 2009, Rafael Benitez's vintage scored more Premier League goals than eventual winners Manchester United - and beat their eternal rivals 4-1 at Old Trafford in a run of 10 wins and a draw out of the last 11.
Man United, though, were just as ruthless against the weaker teams in the league and took that title by four points.
Then, in 2014 under Brendan Rodgers, there was that slip up by Steven Gerrard which allowed Man City to steal in.
Last season was perhaps the hardest to take of all. Despite compiling a record of just one defeat across the 38 matches, it was that sole defeat, away at Man City, which proved costly.
Liverpool, indeed, collected 97 points - but still fell one short of the 98 won by Man City.
Incredibly, the Reds - newly crowned European champions for a sixth time - ramped up their consistency even further in 2019/20 and have dropped just seven points so far.
Win each of their seven remaining fixtures - including at Man City next Thursday - and Klopp's men will have taken 107 points out of a possible 114.
Their last league defeat at home came 38 months ago in April 2017 against Crystal Palace - and that was also the last time Liverpool lost a league match after holding the lead.
Paradoxically, this is the earliest, in terms of matches played, and - due to the coronavirus lockdown - the latest date on which a Premier League title has been won.
Matches being played behind closed doors at the resumption have caused some trolls to suggest that this championship requires an asterisk to be put against it.
But, while there are some asterisks flying around in this oddest of seasons, this is not one of them. Liverpool thoroughly deserve to be champions.
It was inevitable, given the wait, that some supporters would ignore the official advice and congregate at Anfield to celebrate long into the night.
On what had been the hottest day of the year, though, thousands of people earlier had flocked to the beach - so those fans at Anfield were far from the first to flout the lockdown rules and seem unlikely to be the last.
Man United manager Sir Alex Ferguson famously declared his team would knock Liverpool off their perch as the Old Trafford club set about overhauling the Reds' total of English league titles.
Liverpool still remain one short of the Red Devils on that front - but the Merseysiders have regained the outright lead from their rivals in terms of total major honours won.
Not only then is the Liver Bird back on its perch, it is positively alive and kicking with surely more to come.
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