Reds’ field of dreams
Playing Possum José Mourinho could pull the sky down on one of the great title races
LIVERPOOL attempt to surmount the last major obstacle barring their path to a first league title since 1990 when they welcome third-place Chelsea to Anfield today.
Victory for Brendan Rodgers’s side today will leave Liverpool needing just four points from two games against Crystal Palace and Newcastle United to claim the crown.
Should Liverpool win and City lose at Palace later today, however, the Merseyside club could secure the Premier League trophy as early as next weekend.
With Liverpool on a run of 11 straight wins and the title now in sight, these are heady days at Anfield, and Rodgers has dismissed fears that his players might suddenly succumb to the pressure of expectation.
“I think everyone is talking about pressure, but that is Manchester City or Chelsea, when you spend that sort of money and expect to win the league,” he said.
“I don’t think there is pressure on ourselves, only from what we have within. Look at Tottenham — you spend over £100-odd million you’d expect to be challenging for the league title.
“We will do the best we possibly can. We have been absolutely outstanding.”
Rodgers’s biggest selection issue concerns striker Daniel Sturridge, who sat out last weekend’s 3-2 win at Norwich City with a hamstring injury, but is expected to be fit to start today.
“We’ll give it another 24 hours,” Rodgers said on Friday. “He’s working hard with the medical team, so we shall see. If he’s not fit, we’ve coped before; we’ve managed before without a number of players.”
Liverpool have scored 38 goals during their 11-game winning streak and need only four more to bring up a century in the league this season.
Their last three victories have all been by a one-goal margin, however, and last weekend’s success at Norwich was a nailbiting affair.
Another victory will equal Liverpool’s top-flight record for successive wins of 12, which was set in October 1990.
As for Chelsea, it doesn’t matter whether they play the reserves or the pensioners, they will receive the same welcome to Anfield as usually greets José Mourinho. Intimidating.
The most important Anfield fixture for two weeks will either end Mourinho’s title hopes or give the impetus back to Manchester City.
Liverpool, for all their rivals’ problems, still can’t afford a slip-up. On another afternoon of high emotion at Anfield, this game is certain to linger in the memory whatever the outcome.
But, a potentially momentous clash had already been undermined by the “Political One” threatening to field a shadow side at Anfield and treat the match as a rude interruption in his quest to scrape past Atlético
After 11 consecutive league wins, there is nothing Chelsea can do to diminish the Anfield rebirth
Madrid in the Champions League semifinals.
Some think Mourinho is playing possum ahead of today’s fixture. They think Chelsea will leap off the floor and do unto Liverpool what they did unto Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium, hounding and counterattacking Manuel Pellegrini’s team with gusto.
That night showed us Mourinho the master strategist. If the mind-games theory is wrong, today will show the Mourinho who is willing to pull the sky down on one of the great title races out of self-interest.
After 11 consecutive league wins for Rodgers’ men, there is nothing Chelsea can do to diminish the Anfield rebirth.
If Liverpool return to where they last were in 1990, it will not be because Mourinho turned Machiavellian on the run-in.
Yet the thrill is gone when a team who could still theoretically win the title pass it up in favour of glory in another competition. — © The Daily Telegraph, London and AFP