Roberto Firmino nets winner at Tottenham as Liverpool set new top-flight points total 21 games into record-breaking season
Sunday 12 January 2020 07:16, UK
Premier League leaders Liverpool set a record for the best start to a domestic campaign in the history of Europe's top five leagues with Saturday's victory at Tottenham.
Jurgen Klopp's relentless Reds are hurtling towards the Premier League title and Saturday's 1-0 win on their first visit to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium moved the league leaders up to a staggering 61 points from their opening 21 games this season.
It means Liverpool's points tally at this stage of the season surpasses the previous Premier League record of 59 points, set by Pep Guardiola's Manchester City in 2017/18 before they went on to win the title.
And if that wasn't enough, Liverpool's start this season has also bettered totals set by Paris Saint-Germain in Ligue 1, Barcelona in La Liga and Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga to stand alone as the greatest start to a top-flight season on the continent.
"I really tried to respond in an appropriate way when someone told me [about the record] but I didn't feel anything," Liverpool manager Klopp said in his post-match press conference. "I don't know what is wrong with me!
"But the record is really cool, it's exceptional. When I analysed after the game, I told the boys what we could and should have done better because, of course, I know if it was easy to have a winning streak then so many other teams would have done it. It's obviously exceptional.
"We didn't think about it for a second before and after the game someone had to remind me about it. If it stays like this, I can think about it in five years or so."
Liverpool joined a select group of clubs to have gone a year unbeaten in the Premier League with victory over Sheffield United on January 2.
Victory at Spurs extended their unbeaten run in the top flight to 38 games, the equivalent length of an entire Premier League season, and the Reds remain on course to emulate the division's best unbeaten runs.
Liverpool are just two games away from equalling Chelsea's 40-game unbeaten run, set under Jose Mourinho between 2004 and 2005, while the overall record set by Arsenal's Invincibles between 2003 and 2004 is just 11 games away from leaders.
Liverpool may have reached an unprecedented milestone in this sensational season, but manager Klopp, as he has done all season, has urged his players not to distract themselves with talk of records.
"If we thought about any kind of record, we would not have won the number of games we have won so far. That's it," Klopp said.
"In sport, teams have never set a record because they wanted to set a record. It just happened because of being focused on each step we make and that is what we have to do.
"All I can say is that we try to create a basis for the rest of the season with all we have. The rest of the season is still quite long, we have a lot of tough games to play, the next one is especially tough, and we have to make sure we are ready for that."
