Whilst the Reds will have to wait at least a week until they're mathematically confirmed as the 2024/25 winners of the Premier League, the way in which the visitors celebrated was an indication of how important that 76th-minute goal was.
The Foxes had, somewhat improbably it has to be said, held out until that point. Over the course of the 90 minutes, Liverpool had attempted 28 shots on goal, 10 of which were on target, compared to just five from the hosts with none on target.
One-way traffic at the King Power Stadium
With Arne Slot's side also having 58.3% of the possession, it really was one-way traffic for the most part, and despite having to patiently wait until Alexander-Arnold's intervention, there was a feeling of when rather than if Liverpool were going to score.
Indeed, Leicester were that poor that they became the first team in English top-flight history to go nine consecutive home league games without scoring. It was also the first league match at the King Power Stadium since February 2023 against Arsenal in which they’ve failed to land a shot on target.
Alexander-Arnold's 23rd goal of his professional career (all competitions), was the first ever with his left foot, as the previous 22 had all come with his right, and not only did it relegate Leicester for the fifth time (1994/95, 2001/02, 2003/04, 2022/23, and 2024/25) - only Norwich (six) and West Brom (five) have suffered more relegations in the competition - it gave Liverpool their 24th win of the season.
The Reds have only recorded more wins after 33 games of a top-flight season on two previous occasions - 25 in 2018/19 and 29 in the 2019/20 title-winning season.
It's actually worth taking a look at some of the numbers from 19/20 and comparing them to the current campaign, to give an idea as to whether Jurgen Klopp's side were better in certain aspects than Arne Slot's, if the reverse is true, or if things are somewhat equal.
For a start, if Liverpool beat Tottenham, they’ll have secured the title with four games to play, which is three fewer than the record seven games to play when they won it in 2020.
Liverpool haven't lost to Tottenham at Anfield since 2011
The Reds haven't lost at Anfield to Spurs since May 15th, 2011, and the only other Anfield loss before that in the Premier League was a 2-1 defeat on August 25th, 1993. An FA Cup defeat in 1995 and a League Cup defeat in 1998 are the only other home losses against the Lilywhites in the last 30+ years.
In 19/20, the team collectively scored 83 goals, of which Mohamed Salah managed 19 (plus 10 assists) and Sadio Mane pitched in with 18 (and seven assists).
So far this season, the team has 75 goals with Salah again top scoring (27), and Luis Diaz a distant second with 11. Salah's 18 assists are the most from any player this season, and Trent is the 'best of the rest', supplying the final pass on six other occasions.
That's less than half of the right-back's 13 assists in 19/20, when Andy Robertson also supplied an assist for 12 more goals, which suggests that the full-backs either haven't got forward anywhere near as much of late, or they just aren't creating as much.
Though certain things change, some stay the same, and Virgil van Dijk leads the minutes played this season (2,970 so far) as he did when Liverpool last held the trophy aloft (3,420).
The Dutchman is also one of only three players under Arne Slot to have started all 33 of Liverpool's Premier League games this season, with Salah and Ryan Gravenberch being the others.
In 19/20, Van Dijk, Alexander-Arnold and Robert Firmino played in all 38 games, but only the former started them all.
Luis Diaz showing his importance this season
Salah has ever so slightly worsened his shooting accuracy with a 60% showing just below the 62.1% from five seasons ago. In 19/20, Jordan Henderson also scored highly in this metric with 66.7%, whilst in 24/25, of those players who could be considered regulars, only Luis Diaz emerges with any credit with a 60.5% stat.
In terms of converting big chances into goals, the Egyptian King is bang on the money this season as he's hit the back of the net 50% of the time - exactly the same conversion rate as in 19/20. Alexis Mac Allister has the same ratio as his colleague, but has had just four big chances this season compared to Salah's 42.
They're joined by Colombian livewire Diaz, who has a fine 55% conversion ratio - the best in the squad.
With 2,579 overall passes this season, Van Dijk is head and shoulders above his contemporaries, and his pass accuracy of 91.6% is also the gold standard. In 19/20, he made 3,259 passes with an 89% accuracy, again the best in the squad.
Five seasons ago, Robertson was second in terms of overall passes made (2,492) with an 83.7% success rate, and Trent was third (2,440 passes), though his 76.7% completion was one of the lowest in the squad.
Gravenberch has made 1,722 passes so far in 24/25, and Ibrahima Konate is third with 1,667, but neither of them is in the top three in terms of accuracy. Jarrell Quansah follows Van Dijk with the same 91.6% success rate, and Kostas Tsimikas comes in right behind on 91.3%.
Alisson has been busier than in 19/20
If we break that down further into most passes made in the final third, Robertson had 871 in 19/20, followed by Trent on 820 and Salah on 611. So far in this campaign, Trent has 615, Salah has 605, and Gravenberch makes the podium with 502.
Defensively, Alisson Becker has been a busier boy than five years ago, his 28 keeper sweepings so far (100% accuracy) already seven more than in the previous title-winning season (95.2% accuracy). A 71.6% save percentage this season is ever so slightly down on his 72.5% from 19/20.
In terms of ball recoveries, which is a decent enough indicator of work-rate too, the Brazilian custodian came out top in this metric in their title-winning campaign (249), followed by Trent (221), Van Dijk (220) and Andy Robertson (210).
2025 has seen Gravenberch lead the list with 171 ball recoveries, Alisson (169), Alexis Mac Allister (132) and Trent (120).
Tackles made by the team this season have already surpassed their predecessors too, as 554 made and 338 won (88 made by Trent, 68 by Alexis) is four better than the 550 made in 19/20 of which 325 were won (41 made by Jordan Henderson, 35 by Fabinho).
Time to celebrate soon... with the fans
In terms of winning duels, the squad were much better off before than at present.
Joel Matip's 75.9% success rate and Van Dijk's 74.7% were way more than anyone else, whilst this season Van Dijk's 67.8%, Joe Gomez's 65.8% and Konate's 65.6% are markedly lower.
As with any squad, there have been improvements and also things to improve upon, and that's surely something that Arne Slot and his backroom team will attend to over the coming months and seasons.
In the meantime, as the champions-elect wait to be crowned as the best in the land again, they can at least be secure in the knowledge that they'll get to celebrate wildly with their fans, which is something COVID robbed them of back in 19/20.
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