Alex Keble highlights the key talking points from another big night in the title race, after Liverpool's 2-0 win over Newcastle United and Arsenal's 0-0 draw at Nottingham Forest.
A lot of Liverpool supporters inside Anfield on Wednesday night will have had the moment; the moment their breath caught in their throat and they felt the pang of realisation that – surely - nothing will stand in their way now.
There will be plenty of disbelievers still – football supporters are a nervous, pessimistic bunch by nature – but when Mohamed Salah’s magic opened up a line of sight for Alexis Mac Allister and the ball hit the back of the net for 2-0, the atmosphere shifted. The penny dropped.
Liverpool are 13 points clear of Arsenal with 10 matches left to play. Nobody has ever lost the title from a position of such strength so late into a season.
Only once has a team overturned a 13-point deficit. That team was Arsenal in 1997/98, but they started to cut the lead in December, not in February.
| Position Pos | Club | Played Pl | GD | Points Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Liverpool
LIV
|
28 | +40 | 67 |
| 2 |
Arsenal
ARS
|
27 | +28 | 54 |
| 3 |
Nott'm Forest
NFO
|
27 | +11 | 48 |
| 4 |
Man City
MCI
|
27 | +16 | 47 |
If this really was the night when Liverpool became champions-elect then it was a fitting couple of matches that symbolised how the gap between Arsenal and Liverpool has widened so suddenly.
Salah and Liverpool were ruthless and brilliant against Newcastle United. Arsenal laboured to a goalless draw at Nottingham Forest, desperately lacking attacking options.
It was the last three weeks in miniature.
Arsenal's uphill task gets even steeper
Arsenal could still do it, technically. The 13-point gap could be cut to 10 with their match in hand, a lead that has been overturned a couple of times before… although never with the gap holding later than December.
But there are plenty more stats that make for grim reading for Arsenal.
For starters, their distance to third-placed Nottingham Forest (six points) is less than half the distance to Liverpool (13 points). They are closer to Aston Villa in 10th than Liverpool in first.
With no win in three Premier League matches, and with injuries decimating their forward line, Arsenal aren’t so much looking up to Liverpool as glancing nervously over their shoulder.
Indeed, Arsenal are averaging two points per game this season, with 54 points from 27 matches. At that rate, they will end on 76 points, meaning Liverpool would require just 10 points from their final 10 matches.
Arsenal need something huge, then: a dramatic upturn in form and a Liverpool collapse.
The latter certainly doesn’t look likely. Arne Slot’s side could even equal their 97-point total of 2018/19, when they finished runners-up to Man City, although at the current rate they will hit 91.
That should easily be enough.
Arsenal’s lack of a striker is once again the problem
Arsenal’s 0-0 draw with Nottingham Forest was confirmation, as if it was needed, that injuries to Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus have derailed Mikel Arteta’s team.
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The Gunners have failed to score in back-to-back Premier League matches for the first time since May 2023.
They had just a single shot on target at the City Ground, which has now happened for Arsenal in three different Premier League fixtures this season, as many as in the previous three campaigns combined.
Arsenal lack a goalscorer but, more than that, a No 9 able to stretch the defence and give their creative midfielders an option.
Instead Arteta has been forced to play midfielder Mikel Merino, whose tendency to come short made life easier for Murillo and Nikola Milenkovic, as Nuno Espirito Santo pointed out after.
“As Arsenal doesn't have a striker playing that position, there's no need for an extra body,” Nuno told TNT Sports when asked why Forest played four at the back instead of five.
It’s true that Merino didn’t give Forest any problems, while Raheem Sterling struggled off the bench and Ethan Nwaneri was crowded out by the Forest mid-block.
That much was a familiar story for Arsenal in 2025. They have drawn nine Premier League matches, their most in a single season since 2019/20, when they drew 14.
Liverpool capitalise on stretched game
Slot, watching from the stands due to a touchline ban, could hardly have asked for a better night.
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Liverpool raced out of the blocks and after surviving a slightly more even second half, Salah’s assist – his 17th of the season – ensured they deservedly got over the line.
Both goals came from counter-attacks in what was a stretched game at Anfield, and although on another day Newcastle might have benefited from an end-to-end encounter, here they struggled to counter-press effectively.
For the first goal, notice how Newcastle failed to press quickly upon losing possession, instead backpedalling frantically.
The second goal was very similar as Liverpool drove through the heart of a wide-open midfield that did not want to commit to a counter-press.
But we should not be too harsh on Newcastle. Failure to counter-press in these moments reflects the exhaustion and tactical chaos that comes with facing the league leaders in full flow.
That energy is, of course, defined by the great Salah. He is now on 42 goal involvements for the season, just two short of Erling Haaland’s record set in 2022/23.
That record will surely be Salah’s soon, alongside with a second Premier League title, this one made all the more special for the presence of supporters inside Anfield; supporters who on Wednesday, perhaps for the first time, let reality sink in and dared to believe.
