Liverpool’s long unbeaten run is finally over – and their hopes of an invincible season have slipped away.
The Reds were beaten 3-0 at Watford on Saturday evening, with winger Ismaila Sarr bagging twice for the Hornets before he set up Troy Deeney for number three.
Jurgen Klopp’s men weren’t expected to lose at Vicarage Road, but the relegation-threatened Hornets turned in a superb display to finally end Liverpool’s 44-game unbeaten record.
This defeat won’t stop them from winning the Premier League title, but it does now mean that they can’t join Preston and Arsenal in winning it unbeaten.
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The frustration for Preston fans is that North End’s achievement often gets overlooked. Liverpool’s defeat left many pointing out that the Reds now can’t match Arsenal’s Invincibles season, but Preston decided to remind those people of North End’s own achievements…
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Back in the 1888-89 season, North End became the first Invincibles team, avoiding defeat in their 22-game league season whilst winning the league title.
For some reason, this achievement gets a caveat every time; ‘oh football wasn’t very good back then’, ‘it was only 22 games’, ‘it was in black and white’, etc etc.
Yet the fact is that Preston went unbeaten, dropped just eight points over the course of the season and won every game in the FA Cup to complete an Invincible double-winning season.
No team in English football has ever matched that, regardless of the games involved. Arsenal drew 12 of their 38 games in their unbeaten, and couldn’t win the FA Cup that season.
Preston’s achievement hasn’t been matched in over 125 years, and Liverpool now can’t do it either, with North End clearly pleased to remind people of that fact.