Emotional Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard said yesterday’s 3-2 victory over title rivals Manchester City seemed like the longest 90 minutes of his career.
The 33-year-old midfielder has experienced the full range of feelings during his lengthy career at Anfield but, having seen his side’s 2-0 lead pegged back in the second half, there was still time for a nervy finish.
Goals from Raheem Sterling and Martin Skrtel had put the hosts ahead inside 26 minutes, only for a rejuvenated David Silva to score one and force a Glen Johnson own goal to level things up before Philippe Coutinho drove home the winner with 12 minutes remaining to keep Liverpool’s title dream on track.
Jordan Henderson’s lunge on Pablo Zabaleta in added time resulted in a red card and a three-match ban which may yet damage their prospects, as may a hamstring injury to attacker Daniel Sturridge.
“That’s the longest 90 minutes I’ve probably ever played in. It felt like the clock was going backwards in some parts of that game,” said Gerrard, who delivered a rousing speech to the players in a huddle at the final whistle.
“That win means so much. That is such a big result for us. We’ve got four cup finals left. Nothing is ours yet. The important thing now is not to get carried away.”
Manager Brendan Rodgers felt it was a game his team may well have lost in the early part of his tenure but the Reds are made of much more resilient stuff these days.
Their 10th successive league win opened up a seven-point gap to third-placed City, who have two matches in hand, but have had their destiny taken out of their own control. Chelsea moved into second spot two points behind Liverpool by beating beating Swansea 1-0 yesterday.
“The group is very tight. We foster a real closeness here in our spirit and you need that if you are going to win anything. There has to be a cause to fight for,” said Northern Irishman Rodgers.
“Getting pegged back to 2-2, we may have gone on to lose that game when I first came in here but we dusted ourselves off and went again and the level of some of our football was so good we ended up getting a terrific goal.
“The performance level of the players was sensational – to dominate as we did in the first half with that energy and intelligence was remarkable.
“We showed our resilience to see it through.”
Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini accepted his players failed to deal with the early onslaught launched by Liverpool but was pleased with their comeback and does not consider the title race done and dusted just yet.
“The team played very well. We had chances to score and win the game and we didn’t. Finally Liverpool won the game with a mistake,” he said.
“It is not the end of the Premier League. The most important thing today is now it is not dependent what we do in the future. If Liverpool win their four games maybe they deserve to win the title, but we will continue fighting until the end. We have to play one of our games in hand on Wednesday.”
Pellegrini felt they should have had a penalty in the first half with the score at 2-0 when Mamadou Sakho clattered into Edin Dzeko but he refused to criticise referee Mark Clattenburg.