If Liverpool go the season unbeaten it is believed they will be presented with a gold trophy the same as Arsenal received back in 2003/04.

Jurgen Klopp, Manager of Liverpool applauds fans after the Premier League match between Norwich City and Liverpool FC at Carrow Road on February 15, 2020 in Norwich, United Kingdom.
NORWICH, ENGLAND – FEBRUARY 15: Jurgen Klopp, Manager of Liverpool applauds fans after the Premier League match between Norwich City and Liverpool FC at Carrow Road on February 15, 2020 in Norwich, United Kingdom. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)

If.

It’s a small word but one with big meaning. Going a season unbeaten is, as we know, an incredibly hard thing to achieve. It not only needs a massive amount of skill and talent but fortune as well.

So far, Liverpool have had all of that and more. Their luck on the injury front has been quite remarkable, for instance. As has their relationship with VAR and officials compared to others.

Informal discussions have reportedly taken place between Premier League bigwigs about handing the Scousers a gold trophy should they follow Arsenal’s feat of 16 years ago.

Their official line is ‘we don’t deal in hypotheticals’ but after making one specifically for Arsenal it would seem odd for them not to do it for Liverpool.

If.

Ever since Arsenal completed an unbeaten season against all the odds in 2003/04, we’ve had to listen to the press ask every season when another side wins a few games, ‘can they go unbeaten?’ Sometimes the journalists don’t just ask the question, they suggest it is very possible.

How very different it was back in 2002 before Arsenal actually did it.

arsene wenger comical wenger
Comical Wenger

Back then, stating such a thing caused ridicule. Now, parts of the press act like it’s something any side could achieve if they just want it enough.

“It’s not impossible to go through the season unbeaten and I can’t see why it’s shocking to say that,” Wenger said, technically on 20 September 2002, but it was reported on the 21st.  “Every manager thinks that but they don’t say it because they’re scared it would be ridiculous.”

This, of course, led to widespread mocking of Wenger because it is ridiculous to think a side could go through a league campaign without losing a game.

But Arsene Wenger was no ordinary manager and the team he put together at Arsenal no ordinary one.

Neither is Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool.

But at this point it is all still ‘if’.