Every title race has a defining week and this is Liverpool’s

THERE COMES a moment in every Premier League season when you think, “That’s it. That is where the title was won or lost”. For Liverpool, you cannot avoid the feeling it may arrive this week. Jurgen Klopp leads his team to Old Trafford this weekend and Goodison Park next Sunday – two of the biggest games in any season, where the stakes are even higher this year. If the title is still in Liverpool’s hands after the next eight days – and they continue to fight off Manchester City – this is a week everyone at Anfield will look to when re-telling the story of the campaign. If not, and City go on to retain their crown, Liverpool’s greatest rivals will feel they have salvaged something precious and memorable from their own, generally underwhelming campaign. They will have cause to celebrate a massive contribution to stopping Liverpool winning the league.

For all the recent, premature talk about increasing pressure, or even nervousness in the title race, the decisive twist is yet to come. Including Liverpool’s forthcoming home game with Watford, these are the sequences of fixtures that stand out as being potentially defining.

Go through any season, particularly those where two or three clubs are in contention heading towards March, and you can pick out a game where you saw momentum swing irreversibly in the direction of the eventual champions.

As a youngster, I always recall the 1985 season when Everton ended a 15-year wait to win the league title, fending off the challenge of Tottenham Hotspur. I was seven years old and preoccupied with the fixtures and results of Spurs in the way Liverpool supporters have obsessed about what Manchester City are doing this year (and vice-versa). I would run out of the Gwladys Street at full-time on Saturday afternoon, straight into a betting shop outside the ground and demand to know, ‘How did Spurs get on?’

The game that changed everything was a 2-1 away win at White Hart Lane in April. After that, I was sure Howard Kendall’s side would stay top. Whenever I think about that season, that is the fixture that stands out.

Manchester United fans will feel similarly about 1993, when Aston

Villa and Norwich were the biggest threat to their chances of ending a 25-year wait. A 3-1 win at Norwich in April edged them closer to what they craved.

More recently, there was Vincent Kompany’s header in City’s slender victory over United in 2012, just before the most dramatic of climaxes when Roberto Mancini’s side brought the first title to the new regime. What these have in common is the clubs in question were seeking to end a long, torturous wait to win the title, and although there was still plenty of work ahead, the victories proved the foundation – and generated the belief – the finishing line was in sight. They deflated their closest challengers. Rival fans were watching and asking the same questions directed at Klopp’s players over the past few weeks.

Can they really get over the line? Will the weight of history get to them?

Any lingering doubts about going the distance will be erased if Liverpool achieve positive results against Manchester United and Everton. Nothing will be taken for granted against any other side, but they will feel the two biggest hurdles have been overcome.

Coming off the pitch at Old Trafford with a win would make Klopp’s players more certain everything is possible. It would also deliver a psychological blow to Manchester City as they prepared to line up at Wembley, knowing they too must travel to United before the end of the season. This is a fixture City will have noted, believing Liverpool can drop points.

As a Liverpool player, there are two away games you look at first when the fixture list is printed – United and Everton away. Traditionally, they are the toughest and most intense.

Liverpool may benefit from the despera-

tion of the hosts to stop them winning the title, particularly at Old Trafford.

It is strange that despite United’s problems since Alex Ferguson retired, Liverpool have managed only one victory during those six years – the season they were runners-up to Manchester City in 2014.

Both Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho were able to frustrate Liverpool, their pragmatic style ensuring there was no space for Klopp’s more adventurous approach to flourish.

The reverse fixture at Anfield triggered the end of Mourinho’s United reign, but he was never beaten by Klopp at Old Trafford. For all the criticism of Mourinho, no manager was more adept at nullifying Liverpool’s front three.

The statistics are worrying for Liverpool. Since becoming a trio, Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah have been least effective against Manchester United than any other side. They have a solitary goal between them in 699 minutes. United are one of only two clubs Salah has faced and failed to score against in the Premier League since his move to England (the other being Swansea).

But now Mourinho has gone and United play a different way. What is more encouraging is it was this time last season Liverpool’s attacking trio hit their peak to inspire their side towards the Champions League final.

It was the second half of the campaign when the world started talking about them. They need to replicate that form to ignite a title charge, and I have a feeling they will be more confident of having success against the reshaped United team.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer won’t curb the instincts that have brought him so much success in his caretaker. He won’t follow the Mourinho blueprint.

There are sure to be more opportunities for Liverpool this time, even if they have different problems due to United’s more attacking approach. Solskjaer has done fantastically well, but Liverpool must not forget the Paris Saint-Germain performance at Old Trafford in the Champions League, or that United’s previous home game was a 2-2 draw with Burnley.

Liverpool have already enjoyed several of what could be described as ‘season-changing’ wins.

There was a hugely impressive, comfortable victory against Tottenham at Wembley in September – a game which sent the message they were capable of challenging.

There was the Champions League win over PSG which looks even more impressive given the French club’s form since. Most memorably, there was the last-minute winner over Everton and the emphatic victories over Arsenal and Manchester United.

These all came before the turn of the year. Liverpool are yet to make a statement in 2019. There would be no better place to deliver it than Old Trafford.

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