London: Liverpool moved to the brink of celebrating a first league title in 30 years with a 4-0 win over Crystal Palace on its return to Anfield behind closed doors on Wednesday.
Jurgen Kloppās men will be champions on Thursday should Manchester City fail to win at Chelsea or with a point when it faces City in its next outing on 2 July.
Trent Alexander-Arnold, Mohamed Salah, Fabinho and Sadio Mane scored the goals as Liverpool opened up a 23-point lead at the top of the table.
Imagine if this stadium would have been full today and all the people could have experienced it live, said Klopp. ‘ I donāt think the game could have been better because my boys played like everybody was in the stadium.’
Befor kick-off Youāll Never Walk Alone boomed around a deserted Anfield, but without the usual accompanying chorus of nearly 55 000 fans.
Instead, banners and flags were draped over The Kop on the night Liverpool could have clinched the title had they won the Merseyside derby on Sunday.Klopp was able to bring back Salah and Andy Robertson from that 0-0 draw at Everton and the champions-elect were much more like their old selves as Palace struggled to keep the score respectable.
There was a lot more rhythm and fluency than Sunday, said Alexander-Arnold. Today weāve come out, started fast and didnāt really put a foot wrong in the whole game. It will go down as one of our best performances of the season.
Alexander-Arnold opened the floodgates when he curled a sumptuous free-kick beyond the grasp of Wayne Hennessey to settle any nerves on 23 minutes.