Is The Premier League Title Race Still On?

For a while now, it has looked as if Liverpool would walk the league. With Arsenal’s constant slip ups and Manchester City falling apart, the Reds have been the only side performing consistently for the most part. Before kickoff last night, they were six points clear of second with the opportunity to extend that to nine. With 14 games left, and Liverpool’s form for much of this season, that would’ve been an extremely difficult task even without Arsenal’s injury crisis.

A Fiery Derby

The final Merseyside Derby at Goodison Park took place last night, and it had all of the elements of a classic, with three red cards shown, and four goals. Beto opened the scoring after 10 minutes when a clever pass from a quick freekick found him in acres of space inside the box. Everton’s lead didn’t last long however, as Mohamed Salah’s cross found Alexis Mac Allister to head past Jordan Pickford. Salah was on hand in the second half to turn a deflected shot from Curtis Jones goalward to give the visitors the lead, but James Tarkowski’s last gasp winner, that was subjected to two separate VAR checks, earned Everton a well fought draw.

After the final whistle, tempers boiled over on the pitch as Abdoulaye Doucoure celebrated in front of the Liverpool fans and prompted an angry response from Curtis Jones. Both players were sent off in the subsequent melee as well as Liverpool boss Arne Slot, who made his opinions too vocally for referee Michael Oliver’s liking.

What Does The Result Mean For The Title Race?

The Liverpool players will be disappointed by the result, but captain Virgil van Dijk made it clear that they will move on and focus on their next match. After the game he told BBC Sport that they won’t “look at what others are doing” but instead look at themselves, and dust themselves off from this setback. Seven points in just 14 games is a big gap to close, but then again, everyone thought that Liverpool would breeze past Everton in this game, and look what happened.

Liverpool dropping 2 vital points last night in the Merseyside Derby means their lead at the top is cut to just 7 points now.📊

Arne Slot's men still have Arsenal to play, and have visits to Villa Park and The Etihad coming up!😯

Could this be a much closer title race than we… pic.twitter.com/8fPFDGfSFW

— Football Park (@thefootballpark) February 13, 2025

History tells us that to win the league from Arsenal’s position is nearly impossible. The biggest points gap that has been overcome in the final 14 games of a season has been five. This has been done twice, once by Manchester United over Arsenal back in 2003, and once by Manchester City over Liverpool in 2019. It is possible for Arsenal to overtake Liverpool in the league then, just very unlikely and would most likely require the Gunners to win every single game for the rest of the season. The Opta Super Computer suggests that Liverpool have an 88% chance of winning the league still, while Arsenal have just 11%.

Arsenal face Liverpool in May, but by then the title race might be over. The next few weeks could be interesting for Premier League fans however, as the Reds have trips to Villa Park and the Etihad coming up, as well as a visit from Newcastle. If Arsenal are able to overcome the challenge of Nottingham Forest in the next couple of weeks, then things might get interesting up at the top.

What Does The Result Mean For Everton

Now the Toffees have played the same number of games as everyone else, we can take a look at their league position and it will make a lot more sense. Despite a poor start to the season, they are now 10 points clear of the relegation zone and level on points with Tottenham. This means that the relegation battle is pretty much over, as Wolves’ new manager has started to get a tune out of his players, leaving the three teams that were promoted to the division at the end of last season in the bottom three.

How impressed have you been with David Moyes' start to his second spell in charge of the Toffees? 💙#EVELIV pic.twitter.com/HeToj88KFn

— Premier League (@premierleague) February 12, 2025

David Moyes has done an excellent job since he took over, with the only black mark next to his name the FA Cup defeat to high-flying Bournemouth at the weekend. The atmosphere at Goodison last night shows that the fans are behind him and that there is some life back in a team that desperately needed it. Next up for the Toffees is a trip to Selhurst Park on Saturday evening, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there was more Moyes magic on the way.