Paul Merson's Reason for Why Liverpool Should Not Be Given the Premier League Title

Former Arsenal and England midfielder turned pundit Paul Merson has said it would be a ‘shame’ if the Premier League decided to hand Liverpool the title without completing the full campaign.

Liverpool have famously not won a top-flight title, since the First Division was rebranded as the Premier League in 1992.

However this season, the Reds - who are also European champions - sit 25 points above second-place Manchester City, who pipped them to the title by just a single point this season.

With their maiden title but two victories away, all football in England, including the ​Premier League, has been halted until at least 3 April, due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

With the football calendar up in the air, there is uncertainty over how the season will be finished if at all.

With ​Euro 2020 now officially postponed until 2021, some feel the domestic season must be finished however long it takes, others expect it to be rendered void with no titles, promotion or relegation decided, unless the health crisis is brought under control.

Speaking on ​Sky Sports, Merson falls in the latter camp, using a snooker analogy to make his point.

He is quoted as saying: “It’s all well saying ​Liverpool are 25 points clear, but if I played snooker with my mate tomorrow, and I needed 25 snookers to win, and he said: ‘The game has finished, there’s no point playing on’, for the next week or two, I’d be saying 'I could have won that.’”

Merson, who won the league twice with ​Arsenal, sympathised with the patience Liverpool fans have had to show after 30 years of waiting for an English top flight title.

“You really feel for them, waiting 30 years for a title," he said. "If it was ​Manchester City 25 points clear, nobody would care, because they’ve won it already.

“This team hasn’t won it for 30 years. This is like a film. I really feel for them. Even if you gave them the league now, mathematically it’s not won.

“I know they’ve won it in essence, we all know that, but it’s not the same. It’s a shame.”