Title race looks all set for a Super Sunday in May
Put Sunday, May 12 in your diary now because Liverpool have given the best possible indication that this remarkable title race is going to go to the very final day of the campaign.
Five years after Stevie Gerrard’s slip against Chelsea allowed Demba Ba ruin Anfield’s last title dream, this season’s contenders proved they have the skill, belief, and mental strength to ensure there are no
slip-ups this time.
It wasn’t just the quality of Mo Salah’s wonderful strike, or the sheer determination of captain Jordan Henderson to make an impact in the game when he set up Sadio Mane’s opener; it was the all-round performance of just about every man in red and the fervent atmosphere which surrounded them.
This was Liverpool’s most difficult fixture of the run-in, against a Chelsea side in form and desperate to gain a result to stay in the top four, and they came through a difficult test with flying colours.
Even when the nerves set in, temporarily, at 2-0 up and Eden Hazard had good opportunities to get Chelsea back in the game, Liverpool — as they have done all season — dug in and gritted it out.
It’s that ability, to fight when it’s needed, to score late goals, to cope with nerves, that gives Jurgen Klopp’s side such an excellent chance of ending the club’s agonising 29-year wait for a league title – even though City seem to be achieving the same results with rather less drama.
City proved that point with their 3-1 victory at Crystal Palace earlier in the day and, with a game in hand and only two points behind the leaders, they are still slight favourites - even if their fixture list includes a trip to Old Trafford on April 24 which could play a huge part in deciding where the trophy eventually ends up.
You have to wonder who Manchester United fans will be cheering for when it comes to picking between Liverpool and City as title winners. A quick look at social media suggest City is the lesser of those two evils. City’s fixture list also includes another tough test against Tottenham at home next weekend, just days after facing the same side in a Champions League quarter-finals second leg at the Etihad (and 24 hours before Liverpool go to Cardiff). So no wonder there is hope at Anfield that their rivals will drop points somewhere along the line.
Even if they do, however, you suspect that May 12 will arrive with both teams still in with a chance of lifting the trophy.
Liverpool have the advantage of playing at home that day, when the Anfield crowd could again play a huge part, so the fairytale finale that Liverpool fans, and no doubt broadcasters, across the world are dreaming of is very much a possibility.
A match against Wolves, even at home, looks tougher on paper than City’s trip to Brighton, however, given that the Seagulls’ late-season form has been poor, particularly in front of goal (they have only scored two goals in their last six Premier League games at the Amex).
There was never any real fear that City would slip up this weekend and they won at a canter at Selhurst Park.
Guardiola’s side have now won nine Premier League games in a row in their continuing battle for the ‘quadruple’; and the bad news for Liverpool is that even after 53 competitive games in a hectic season, there’s little sign of the current champions slowing down.
It will not be lost on Liverpool fans, either, that the man driving them at full pace into the last four games is a former Anfield player lost to the Etihad before he had truly developed.
Raheem Sterling’s two goals in south London took his tally to 17 in the Premier League already this campaign and he expects the title race to go the distance.
“Yes, 100% with the way Liverpool have been playing,” he said. “It will go down to the wire. I don’t see us slowing down now. Liverpool have a great squad, great self-belief, but so do we.”
