Former Arsenal striker Paul Merson has said that awarding Liverpool the title early without winning it mathematically would feel wrong.
The Reds are currently 25 points clear at the top of the Premier League and require a win in their next fixture against Manchester City on April 4th to secure their first title in 30 years.
With this in mind, the league has been postponed until at least April 3rd due to the coronavirus, and no guarantees at this stage that the full 38 games will be played by all 20 teams in the division.
However, the number of cases in the UK is on the measured increase, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson has told the public to avoid social venues.
Merson had his say on how the Premier League should be resolved. He believes if the Reds were handed the title without it being impossible for others to catch them, it would not be right.
What will happen to the Premier League?
Liverpool win the title
Cancelled and Reds miss out
He wrote in his Sky Sports‘ column, “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: ‘But I could have won that!’
“You really feel for them, waiting 30 years for a title. 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.”
With all due to respect to Merson, fans like me are not going to care less about the style and the manner in which we win the Premier League. In an ideal scenario, we would love to win it in the manner that Manchester City did in 2012, with the last kick of the season. But I’m sure that the Kop faithful will not be complaining when Jordan Henderson is lifting the Premier League trophy aloft. Full stadium or not, they all count.