Three draws first, then the wins: an unbeaten five that took its time
Start at the end this time. Liverpool's most recent league afternoon in these records is a 1-0 win at the Vitality Stadium, away to AFC Bournemouth on 20 September, and it arrived five days after a cup win. Walk backwards from there and the shape of this start is all in the waiting. The five league games began with a draw on Tyneside — 2-2 at Newcastle United on 23 August. Then another 2-2, this time at home to Nottingham Forest on the twenty-ninth. Then a win that finally behaved like one: 2-0 away at Ipswich Town on 4 September. Then the flat one, 0-0 at home to Fulham on the twelfth. Three draws in four league games, eight goals shared across those three, and only one afternoon where the points came home whole. Both 2-2s finished the same way and were read differently, if the scorelines are any guide. Two-all on the opening weekend away from home is the kind of afternoon you take and move on from. Two-all at home to Forest six days later is the kind that sends a ground away arguing. Same score, same point, completely different weather. Nor is the scoring rate itself a crisis on this evidence: seven goals in the five league games, and at least one in four of the five — the Fulham afternoon excepted. What cracked the pattern open was the cup. Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield on 15 September — the file names the venue — finished 3-1, as wide as any win in these rows. Then Bournemouth away, 1-0 at the Vitality Stadium, and the last fortnight is two wins in five days after a month of almosts. The clean-sheet count deserves a line of its own, because it is the quiet engine underneath all this. Three of the six matches on file have ended without a goal against: Ipswich away, Fulham at home, Bournemouth away. In the league the goals let in are two in one afternoon at Newcastle and two in another at home to Forest — the table's four — and seven scored at the other end, spread thin. Hold unbeaten at its actual size, though. Unbeaten is not the same as satisfied. Three draws from five is a lot of points left standing at the roadside, and two of those draws were 2-2s where the goals arrived but the margin did not. The Fulham game is the one the grumblers will circle: no goals at all, at home, ninety minutes with nothing to argue about except the arguing. It is worth setting this against the close of the previous campaign, which had a different texture entirely. The last six league results in the file from last season went: 2-1 away at Everton in April, 3-1 at home to Crystal Palace, 2-3 away at Manchester United in May, 1-1 at home to Chelsea, 2-4 away at Aston Villa, 1-1 at home to Brentford. Two wins, two draws, two defeats, and a season that drifted to a halt. Whatever else is true, this one has started from somewhere steadier. What the table says, plainly: five played, two won, three drawn, none lost. Seven scored, four against. Nine points from fifteen. Sixth, with draws doing most of the talking. What comes next is not in these data, so the writing stops here. Europe sits on this club's competition list — the Champions League, alongside the Premier League and the Carabao Cup — which is three calendars trying to occupy one autumn. What is in the data is a run that has not lost and has only lately started winning, which is a better place to argue from than most. By the numbers — Premier League: 6th · 5 played · 2-3-0 · 7-4 · 9 pts · form DDWDW (oldest first). All data from ScoreCrowd's match records, retrieved 24 September 2026.