LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - MAY 25: Virgil van Dijk of Liverpool, lifts the Premier League trophy after his team's victory in the Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Crystal Palace FC at Anfield on May 25, 2025 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - MAY 25: Virgil van Dijk of Liverpool, lifts the Premier League trophy after his team's victory in the Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Crystal Palace FC at Anfield on May 25, 2025 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)
The giant banner, draped from the edge of one penalty box to the other on the Anfield turf, said all that needed to be communicated: Premier League champions. And having waited 35 years for this day, was there any way it could ever possibly disappoint?
Having been handed his medal from the great Alan Hansen, Virgil van Dijk hoisted the Premier League title up high, and the accompanying pyro and confetti burst into the Merseyside sky along with it to light up the sequence that had only been confined only to dreams since 1990.
And having already won two European Cups on May 25, the date that is synonymous with success at Liverpool FC now has a new chapter added to it. It will soon become an unofficial Bank Holiday on Merseyside at this rate.
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This was a world away from the surreal scenes of July 2020, when this club last lifted the biggest trophy in English football in front of an empty Anfield. That one, as the rest of the world watched from their TV screens only, felt like a celebration for the players and staff alone; huddled in their COVID-secure bubble, while the fanbase witnessed it unfold with their noses pressed against the glass.
This, though, was for the fans, an event made all the more poignant and memorable by the one that evaded them five years ago. A generation of hopes and wishes finally became their reality here.
Few predicted this when they were gazing into their crystal balls during the pre-season months and in many ways, it is what makes what comes next under Arne Slot so exciting.
If the head coach can coax this level of performance from a squad that was not of his own making, then it is a mouthwatering prospect to think what might be achieved when the Dutchman is able to add and subtract to the playing staff this summer.
It's why the expected addition of Jeremie Frimpong and the potential arrival of Florian Wirtz, both from Bayer Leverkusen, should foster an early summer belief that Liverpool can now go on and secure their 21st league title in 12 months' time to go clear of Manchester United as the most successful team in English league football.
With a Manchester City side in transition in need of some realignment where their own squad is concerned - ahead of any outcome about their 115 financial allegations - and a goal-shy Arsenal with work to do themselves in the transfer market, who is to say Slot can't guide the Reds to back-to-back titles for the first time since 1984?
The game itself was the mere warm-up act to the main event, but the record books will at least say it finished 1-1. Crystal Palace went off script, taking an early lead through Ismaila Sarr after the Eagles' forward was given the freedom of the penalty area.
The cheer reserved for Trent Alexander-Arnold upon his second-half arrival for Conor Bradley was the perfect way to put a lingering, awkward subplot to bed on a day that was not about the West Derby-born defender's defection to Real Madrid. An emotional Alexander-Arnold was spared the ire that greeted him against Arsenal a fortnight ago - the point had been made then and this was a much grander occasion.
After Ryan Gravenberch had been given his marching orders for bringing down Daichi Kamada as the last man, when already on a booking for diving, it was Mohamed Salah who had the final word, rifling high into the net for the 10 men for his 29th Premier League goal of an exceptional term. The Playmaker and Golden Boot awards presented to him at full time by the great Ian Rush said it all. A legend in his own time.
But it was also a day that saw Liverpool pay tribute to the great and the good of the past with a jam-packed directors box full of stars of yesteryear. From Champions League-winning managers in Jurgen Klopp and Rafa Benitez, through to legendary captains like Jordan Henderson and Steven Gerrard, they all turned out to pay tribute to the class of 2025.
The Reds' heroes were joined by the full complement of the Fenway Sports Group stable in John W Henry, Tom Werner and Mike Gordon, alongside CEO of football, Michael Edwards.
The carnival-style afternoon of unfiltered and unabashed joy shouldn't be lost on the Boston-based owners for what can be experienced at this football club when they get it right in the dugout, the pitch and, more pertinently for FSG, the transfer market.
And in many ways, this title success has been a triumph of that exhaustive, no-stone-unturned approach to recruitment inside the club itself. From the great midfield rebuild of 2023 that saw Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai arrive, through to the mid-season shrewdness to sign Luis Diaz and Cody Gakpo in 2022 and 2023, respectively, and the painstaking contract negotiations for Van Dijk and Salah, that may very well have played a part in keeping performance levels from both at a world-class standard for so long this season.
Slot spoke on Friday of his aim to create an Anfield dynasty in the mould of his predecessor and with so many of the ingredients available to aid the Reds boss, this summer might just be the ideal time to flex the might that this club possesses in stature, finance and now status, as champions of the most exhilarating and exacting league in world football.
The celebrations, quite rightly, will go on long into the summer for the supporters, but while the plumes of red smoke will drift across the Merseyside air until August, there is real work to be done for those on the inside. Standing still is not an option now.
But the final word must go to this group of players and the coach, who marked the end of their formal presentation by showcasing their new piece of silver down the Kop End, in front of their adoring public.
With the trophy itself propped up neatly on the penalty spot, players and staff, as has now become customary, lined up in arms facing the Kop as the departing George Sephton introduced You'll Never Walk Alone one final time. It was everything 2020 simply could never be.