The 100-point, Invincible Treble-winners? How Liverpool could have the best season ever

At various stages during this quite incredible season for Liverpool, it has been suggested that they could be in course to match one or other of these achievements. Following a 1-0 win against Tottenham that extended their lead to the top of the Premier League to 16 points, and ensured they have locked up 88 of the last 90 points available, it is not being too outlandish to suggest that they may yet match all three in one season.

Who could rule it out when a record of 20 wins and one draw from 21 matches represents the best start ever made by a club in any of Europe's top five leagues?

The scenario of Liverpool doing something utterly extraordinary was raised by Opta’s Duncan Alexander on Friday, but how likely is it that Liverpool could actually follow through and match the three greatest seasons of all time, wrapped into one?

We have ranked the three achievements in level of difficulty from this point on for Liverpool - and given our verdict on whether Jurgen Klopp’s men can really do it.

Liverpool have an unprecedented 61 points from 21 games played, having dropped just two points all season. That means they can afford to drop 12 points in the final 17 games of the season and still hit a century. A record of W13 D0 L4, or W11 D6 L0, would see them match Manchester City's mark from two seasons ago. To miss out at this stage would require a drop off in form that Liverpool have simply shown no sign of succumbing to. Klopp's men are utterly relentless and even at this distance, a previously thinkable tally now seems a mere formality.

This is a degree more difficult than reaching 100 points, where Liverpool have considerable margin for error thanks to their extraordinary campaign up to this point. A handful of teams have looked capable of matching Arsenal’s Invincibles since 2004, all have failed. The truth is that however exceptional a team is, they still need *everything* to go their way. If Ruud van Nistelrooy hadn’t smacked the bar with a penalty in September 2003, or Robert Pires hadn’t taken a dive against Portsmouth, there would have been no Invincibles.

Such has been Liverpool’s dominance (Arsenal drew 12 matches in 2003-04 to Liverpool’s one so far) though, they have not required fortune to be on their on side in quite the same way. Their remaining fixtures also don’t look particularly daunting. Trips to Old Trafford and Emirates Stadium beckon, while Chelsea visit Anfield in the penultimate game of the season, but the only genuinely difficult outing looks like being the away trip to Manchester City on April 4.

As such, this achievement is probably more likely than many people realise. Even Arsenal’s Invincibles never gained the machine-like efficiency that Liverpool have generated in terms of dominating matches and never looking in danger.

By far the most unlikely of the triple crown given that Liverpool may find more of a challenge in Europe’s top teams than they have found in England’s, and the Champions League last-16 sees them pitted against a problematic Atletico Madrid side. Moreover, Real Madrid are the only team to have ever retained the trophy since the competition was reinvented.

But then again, Liverpool are indisputably the best team on the planet and have reached the past two finals in a row already. Champions League success runs deep in their blood. Moreover, where United had to battle for the league against a spirited Arsenal side in 1998-99, juggling their efforts towards the end of the campaign, Liverpool are walking the Premier League and should be able to switch focus to Europe without too much danger.

An unlikely hiccup could be the FA Cup. Although Liverpool's kids impressed in the 1-0 win over Everton in the third round, the 5-0 pumping they took at the hands of Aston Villa in the League Cup was a bigger concern. Klopp will likely use the competition to rest his biggest names for at least another round or two. The complexity of winning three major trophies means Liverpool have a long, long way to go before they can start truly dreaming of emulating that great United side.