The Liverpool side who lost more than most to Manchester City cheating: 'We fought a team who had an unfair advantage'
Quick summary
Liverpool players reflect on the 2018-19 Premier League title race they lost to Manchester City by a single point, in light of the recent ruling that City breached financial fair play rules across multiple seasons.
Full article
Attributed to original sourceThe 2013-14 Liverpool team finished two points behind City - 'It's hard to take when you know it could have been even better'
Source attribution: this article content is based on the linked publisher feed/source. Chance adds independent soccer context, impact analysis, entity links, and related news.
What happened
This feature revisits one of the most dramatic title races in Premier League history, when Jürgen Klopp's Liverpool amassed 97 points but finished second to Pep Guardiola's Manchester City, who finished on 98. The piece gathers reflections from key Liverpool players including Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mané, Virgil van Dijk, Andrew Robertson, and Roberto Firmino, alongside staff, about what it felt like to push City so hard only to fall short. The retrospective is framed by the recent independent panel ruling that found City had breached Premier League profit and sustainability rules, validating longstanding suspicions about how the club funded its rise. Players describe a sense that the competition was never truly level, though they also acknowledge City were an exceptional footballing side.
Chance analysis
The story reframes one of the defining Premier League title battles through the lens of the recent regulatory ruling against Manchester City, giving Liverpool's near-miss a new emotional weight. For Liverpool supporters, the piece functions as both vindication and grief — confirmation that the 2018-19 squad was title-worthy, but also a reminder that no retrospective adjustment can change history. For the wider football landscape, it sharpens the debate over competitive integrity, sporting sanctions, and whether regulators have the appetite to impose meaningful penalties on the biggest clubs.
The piece has no direct sporting impact on upcoming matches, but it intensifies the reputational and competitive-integrity debate surrounding Manchester City that could influence league governance decisions.