Few Premier League champions have ever experienced a 180 quite as sobering as this. Last April, Liverpool thrashed Tottenham to confirm their 20th title in the Anfield sunshine. It was the greatest day the iconic stadium has ever seen. While the sun was out again against Spurs yesterday as the Londoners returned to L4 for the first time since, the outlook at full-time was so much gloomier for Liverpool after a 1-1 draw. For Arne Slot, the dark clouds loom overhead.
After 30 games last season, Liverpool had won 22, drawn seven and lost once. The gap to second-placed Arsenal stood at 12 points. Four games later, the Reds were champions. At the same stage this season, they're fifth, a chasmic 21 points behind the league-leading Gunners. Slot's side have won 14 of 30, drawing seven and losing nine. Since September 20, the record worsens to W9, D7, L9. The drop-off from 12 months ago - for multiple reasons - is stark. And the harsh reality is that Slot does not look like he can turn the tide.
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This Liverpool team aren't losing as regularly as they were in October and November, he might argue. But their actual performances have changed incredibly little since then. This latest showing was so far beyond the standard required. No wonder there were boos at full-time. There was plenty of empty seats too. Many fans gave up as soon as Richarlison scored.
The belief and optimism that was Anfield's heartbeat under Jurgen Klopp is fading - fast. This Liverpool are far likelier to throw away points in the final stages than they are to win them. What a change that is from the side that started the season with late winners in all of their first five fixtures.
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This latest slip-up was against a Spurs team desperately low on confidence. Their morale was on life support thanks to missing 13 players due to injury and suspension, winless in 2026 and scrapping for their lives in the Premier League relegation fight.
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A feeble Liverpool team gave them confidence. And they deservedly conceded a game-changing goal in the 90th minute for the eighth time in the Premier League this season. That is pathetic. It has cost them 11 points. It was the 21st goal this season, across all competitions, that Liverpool have let in after the 75th minute. They've gone from mentality monsters to mentality midgets.
The draw against Spurs was unacceptable on multiple levels. Liverpool were at Anfield. Liverpool took the lead. The game opened up in the second half, which should have suited a team who have struggled against low blocks all season, and who brought on Mohamed Salah and Hugo Ekitike on the hour mark. Tottenham are on a historically bad run of form and Liverpool had the chance to move fourth, and take advantage of slip-ups from their top-four rivals.
Yet 16th-placed Spurs, off the back of a six-match losing streak, created more big chances and had more shots on target. It is the worst low yet of a campaign that has been full of them. There is no excuse for failing to beat Igor Tudor's charges.
The Anfield fear factor so key to the club's success under Klopp is all but gone. On top of this, Ruben Amorim's Man Utd won here, as did Sean Dyche's Nottingham Forest 3-0. PSV finished 28th in the final Champions League table yet smashed the Reds 4-1 on their own turf. All three newly-promoted teams - Sunderland, Leeds and Burnley - left with a point.
In the Premier League home table, Liverpool are fifth with 28 of a possible 45 points. The maximum they can finish the campaign with is 37 from 54. With fans in the stadium you have to go back 10 years for a tally that low. The lockdown season aside, the lowest Klopp mustered was 43 in 2017-18.
Goalscorer Dominik Szoboszlai went as far to say post-match: "We have to wake up because if we carry on like this, we should be happy with the Conference League [next season]." For the champions to miss out on Champions League qualification would be like taking a punch to the jaw from prime Mike Tyson.
This is a team who had a massive summer transfer window. It was exciting, too, at the time. Granted they lost several key players, but the signings of Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz and co. were meant to elevate the team; to take them on to another title and European glory too. Isak, watching from home, probably cannot believe what he's watching. "Intensity is our identity," said both Klopp and his No.2 Pep Lijnders in 2019. What even is the identity now?
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Liverpool live in a world where, when Brentford face Wolves tonight, they're hoping for a favour from the team bottom of the league against a team who finished 10th last term. If the Bees win, they're two points behind Liverpool and all of a sudden seventh is a plausible finish this season. For the reigning champions of the country. Who spent hundreds of millions of pounds in pre-season.
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The sad truth is that even if Liverpool do get a top-five finish, there are major question marks about whether Slot can make this team great again. He is not solely to blame for all of the team's troubles. The players must accept plenty of criticism too. But this team is less than the sum of its parts.
The performances and results being served up by a team of title-winning players, and expensive summer signings, is unacceptable. It is not a bad group of players. But it is a group of players who aren't being coached well. Liverpool still need another big transfer window but it is not Slot who should be overseeing it. He's too far gone to save himself.