Aluta Continua! Record-Breaking Liverpool Take On Relegated Huddersfield
26th April 2019
The only question that remains in their neck-and-neck race with Pep Guardiola's Manchester City is whether that will be sufficient to end his club's 29-year wait for an English league crown
- Jurgen Klopp will send his Liverpool team onto the pitch in their ongoing pursuit of the Premier League title against relegated Huddersfield on Friday knowing he has already rewritten the club's record books
- Last weekend's victory at struggling Cardiff took Liverpool to 88 points, the most they have ever recorded in the Premier League era
- With the exception of the 100 points amassed by City in winning the championship 12 months ago, no other team in Premier League history has ever notched as many as 97 points, regardless of their finishing position
LIVERPOOL, United
Kingdom- Jurgen Klopp will send his Liverpool team onto the pitch in their
ongoing pursuit of the Premier League title against relegated Huddersfield on
Friday knowing he has already rewritten the club's record books.
The only question that remains in their neck-and-neck race
with Pep Guardiola's Manchester City is whether that will be sufficient to end
his club's 29-year wait for an English league crown.
Last weekend's victory at struggling Cardiff took Liverpool
to 88 points, the most they have ever recorded in the Premier League era, and
has them on course to finish with an astonishing 97 points should they win
their remaining three games.
With the exception of the 100 points amassed by City in
winning the championship 12 months ago, no other team in Premier League history
has ever notched as many as 97 points, regardless of their finishing position.
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Even Liverpool's current tally of 88 points would have been
enough to have finished first in 14 of the 26 seasons the Premier League has
been in existence.
It means Klopp's side could end the season with the
third-highest points total in Premier League history and still see their
frustrating wait for an end to their title drought continue for another 12
months at least.
The form book does not offer Liverpool much hope, with City
having won 25 of their past 27 league and cup games dating back to late last
year, even if Liverpool themselves have lost just once -- to City in January --
in the league all season.
Guardiola has already called Klopp's current side the
greatest Liverpool team he has ever seen, an extravagant claim but one which is
supported, at least in part, by the statistics.
Adjusting the old two points to three points for a win, the
only top-flight campaigns in which a Liverpool side has finished with more
points than their current total came in 1978/79 (98) and 1987/88 (90), meaning
that victory over Huddersfield would leave the 2018/19 vintage as the
second-best Liverpool team ever, at least in terms of league points.
Despite the obvious pressure, and the fact that the lead at
the top of the table has changed hands no fewer than 28 times already this
season, Klopp remained in high spirits in his pre-match press conference.
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- Only one winner -
The German made a joking reference to the movie
"Highlander" when analysing the state of the league table.
"One of us, it's like with the Highlander, will be
there at the end," said a buoyant Klopp, referring to the famous phrase
from the film -- "There can be only one".
"But we don't only play for being champions at the end
of the season," he said. "Yes, it's a main, a big target. This team
tries it for the first time and we are obviously pretty close in the moment and
we still have a chance to do it. We will see what happens until the end of the
season."
The two title rivals appear to have got their toughest
assignments out of the way, after City won the Manchester derby 2-0 on
Wednesday.
Guardiola's side now face Burnley, Leicester and Brighton,
while Klopp's team take on Newcastle and Wolves following the Huddersfield
game.
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"If we do it we will do it," Klopp said. "If
we will not do it there are no regrets as long as we give always our best. I
saw that the whole season from the boys but still the season, however it ends
up, is only the first step in that area. We are not the finished article."
Fabinho, Dejan Lovren and Adam Lallana are all slight injury
doubts ahead of the Huddersfield game.