That penalty against West Ham, Henderson’s winner against Swansea, Gerrards’ 90th minute penalty against Fulham for the win… it seems that the stars have lined up perfectly for us to be crowned champions this season. But this is a dangerous belief, because if we and the players believe that this is destiny, then we are letting external forces determine what happens. There is no such thing as destiny. Our current league position is as a result of hard work from our manager and staff, and our players. However, I must admit that when Man City grabbed that soft equaliser, my soul fell to my knees. We threw it away, I thought… then up stepped Coutinho! But was it destiny? It is 24 years since Liverpool last won the League title. It has been 25 years since 96 LFC fans were taken too soon. So maybe it is in the stars that we win the title this year… but I prefer to see it as poetic, and not destiny. After all, is that not how we have played this season? Like poetry in motion.
So how do we beat them?
After Man City drew with Sunderland, I saw an arrogance of Chelsea fans (a new collective noun) rushing to Twitter to claim that they will be winning the league. A little presumptuous in my opinion, considering their captain and manager had to harass the officials to get a Swansea player sent off in order to win the match… and they still limped home with a 1-0 win. But we cannot worry about them. In the words of our captain, our toughest game this season will be against Norwich. I know we like to believe that we will beat the Canaries with Luis Suarez and 10 pieces of wood, but we cannot afford to take them lightly. We need to approach this match with the same intensity and passion that we approached the Man City match. We need to play Norwich as if we are playing Barcelona or Bayern Munich.
Defensively, I do not see Rodgers changing things at all. However, we do need to fill the space left by Henderson because of his red card. Personally, I would like to see Lucas in the side, however, I think you will get the best out of the Brazilian in a deeper role. A role that Gerrard is playing in at the moment with superb success and I would not like him to be moved. Therefore, I think a more creative player in Allen would be the better choice. Daniel Sturridge limped off against Man City, though Rodgers seems to believe he is 50/50 to be fit enough to face Norwich. I would rather not see him risked. Instead, I would like to see either Aspas or Moses given a place in the starting eleven and Sturridge given a rest for another week. Eager to get into Chelsea.
And our competitors…
Chelsea host Sunderland on the weekend. The Black Cats were unlucky not to get all three points against Man City in a fearless display. Alas, a goalkeeping error cost them the maximum reward. But they can still get out of the relegation zone with a positive result against Chelsea and a good finish to the season. Hopefully, that is how they will see it. Chelsea are heavy favourites for this match, and rightly so. But they may already be looking past Sunderland as a ‘gimme’ and be focusing on Liverpool. We can hope… and maybe Borini can make it sweeter by getting a goal or two. Now that would be poetic.
Man City are hosting WBA this weekend. This will be a comfortable win for City. WBA’s confidence should be as low as dirt. They threw away wins in the last minute of matches against Tottenham and Cardiff in recent times and I think WBA will get no luck at all against a team that is angry.
And as for us, I see the red tide taking another step forward with a win. Come on you Reds, make us dream!