Matchdays 1-16 - 1st - level but clear on GD from Utd Played 16 Won 9 Drew 6 Lost 1 Goals37:20 Points 33
Matchdays 17 -25 17th - 20 points behind City in first Played 9 Won 2 Drew 1 Lost 6 Goals 8:14 Points 7
Matchdays 26-38 - 1st - 2 points clear of City in second Played 13 Won 9 Drew 2 Lost 2 Goals23:8 Points 29
I was going to post something very similar to this, but I'd slightly revise it to be:
Games | P | W | D | L | Pts | PPG |
1- 14 | 14 | 9 | 4 | 1 | 31 | 2.21 |
15- 28 | 14 | 3 | 3 | 8 | 12 | 0.86 |
29- 38 | 10 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 26 | 2.60 |
Or graphically (Top 3 bars = 13 games, Middle 3 bars = 15 games, Bottom 2 bars = 10 games):
For me the turning point was the West Brom game (the first game of that second 14 game stretch) for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it was the first game where we showed that we were going to struggle to break down the low block, and that became the blueprint of how to play against us at Anfield. Secondly, it was a game which we were in complete control of and ultimately threw away by conceding a completely needless corner. Having just beaten palace 7-0 this was our chance to extend the gap at the top of the table going into a run of very winnable games and I remember being far more frustrated with the result than I should have been with a draw at home, because it felt like a big moment in the season, and sadly it proved to be the case. I'm definitely not blaming him for what happened next, but that moment when Jones dallied on the ball rather than just playing the easy pass or hoofing it up the field was a real 'sliding doors' moment.
It should also be noted that we really lacked any luck or help from referees/ VAR during that run. I'm pretty sure we had decent shouts for penalties in just about every game that we dropped points during that run and didn't get any of them, plus we had to deal with referees constantly letting teams slow up the play by falling over under the tiniest bit of contact. And the less said about VAR against both Leicester and Everton the better...
Ultimately injuries were obviously the biggest killer of the season, and although pundits will talk about the injuries to Van Dijk and Gomez, the injuries to Henderson, Jota, Fabinho, and Thiago were almost as damaging. If Thiago would have been able to play himself into form and adjust to the PL earlier and had Henderson or Fabinho alongside him I think things could have been very different, and obviously Jota was a huge miss when both Mane and Firmino were struggling for form. Plus of course the lack of a crowd at Anfield. I refuse to believe that we would have lost 6 in a row at home had we had fans in the ground, even with all of the injuries and lack of form in the team.
Ultimately it was a hugely frustrating season, but one that finished up being the best it could have been after the middle part of the season. I have huge confidence that next season will be far more like the start and end of this season than the middle.
