Reds face longest Premier League gap

The reason for the gap is the fact Chelsea reached the Emirates FA Cup final, with a date against Liverpool at Wembley this weekend, which ensured the rearrangement of our home Premier League match with Thomas Tuchel's men.

The clash with the Blues was switched to 28 April and last month's game ended in a 1-1 draw, with Cristiano Ronaldo equalising the opener from Marcos Alonso.

This rescheduling ensured the 3-0 victory over Brentford at the start of May became our final home match of the campaign.

Following defeat at Brighton & Hove Albion, our 2021/22 term draws to a close with the trip to Crystal Palace on the final day, with a 16:00 BST start.

The pause in action at this stage is very unusual and statistician Bill Edgar of The Times has conducted some research into the matter.

The fact there will be 20 days between our last home fixture and the final outing of the top-flight season is the longest gap between such games since 1989, before the inception of the Premier League, when Tottenham had a 21-day wait.

Spurs beat Everton 2-1 at White Hart Lane, with Paul Walsh scoring both goals, on 22 April. Following a 5-0 win at Millwall, they finished up away to another London side in Queens Park Rangers, losing 1-0 on 13 May.

Edgar also points out that the longest stretch between a farewell home game in a season and the last away match was in 1889/90.

Blackburn Rovers enjoyed their second season in the Football League, finishing third and winning the FA Cup. There were almost three months between the last outing in front of their own fans and the campaign's conclusion.

The Lancashire side's final home match was as early as 4 January, when they beat Stoke City 8-0, before five consecutive matches on the road were mixed with the successful FA Cup run.