STEVIE G SLIP SUMS UP REDS TITLE SLIDE
HISTORY will judge it as a season of change, the crushing end of the most successful era in English football history – but will remember it for one slip.
In Manchester, Sir Alex Ferguson was finally gone, replaced by his hand-picked successor David Moyes to supposedly ensure a seamless transition of power at Old Trafford.
But it was across the city that a replacement changed the face of the Premier League.
Quietly, in his unassuming manner, Manuel Pellegrini slipped into the Etihad to take over from Roberto Mancini, to ultimately usher in a transfer of order from the old money of United to the brash nouveaux riche of City.
They had won the title two years earlier, but this time around, with their neighbours collapsing into a dramatic decline, the shift seemed more permanent.
Pellegrini almost invisibly conjured a miraculous six-month run from November 11 to May 11, when they lost just two matches – to Chelsea and Liverpool – to go top only in the final week of the season and lift the trophy.
Yet, for all the quality of a team based on the talents of Silva, Toure, Aguero and Kompany, City were not the main story that season – nor perhaps even the best team.
Liverpool were compelling, a hint of what was to come offered with an astounding 5-0 win at Spurs in December, confirmed in February when they swept Arsenal off top spot – and out of the title race – with one of the greatest Premier League performances of all, when they were 4-0 up after 20 minutes and the Gunners were too scared to venture over the half-way line.
Luis Suarez was the obvious star, lifting awards for the PFA Player of the Year, Football Writers’ Player of the Year and Barclays Fans’ Player of the Year for his 31 league goals – but not the title trophy.
The Uruguayan’s greatest moment came against Norwich in November when he scored four world-class goals, but he did not get the title his play deserved, with the narrative suggesting it was because of that one slip by Steven Gerrard.
Liverpool’s attacking brilliance ensured they had a five-point lead with three games remaining.
But in total control against Chelsea in a home game they did not even need to win, Steven Gerrard slipped on the half-way line, Demba Ba stole the loose ball and the Anfield legend was for ever more taunted with cruel songs and banners (left).
Only now can Gerrard address it, as he remembers the journey home afterwards: “I sat in the back of the car and felt the tears rolling down my face. I couldn’t stop. The tears kept coming.
“It killed me. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about if that hadn’t happened. It hurt, it will for a long time, probably forever.”
And yet, as neatly as that moment fits to the narrative, it was not the reason Liverpool lost the title.
They did because they were too naive against Chelsea in a game when they did not need to be gung-ho, and again a week later at Palace, when they squandered a 3-0 lead.
But history prefers dramatic moments to more nuanced analysis. And so it was the season of the slip – when Manchester United’s crown slipped and Gerrard stumbled into folklore.