Only one thing can save the season for Liverpool fans: defeat by Chelsea tomorrow. Any other result would open up the possibility of a summer of pain.
That statement will provoke the inevitable question: how can you say you are a Liverpool fan and want the team to lose? The opposite is true. No real Kopite could want to beat Chelsea. Victory for the home side at Anfield would probably deliver the title to Manchester United. It is hard to see Sunderland getting a result if Chelsea fall flat.
The antagonism between Liverpool and United is well documented and handing the trophy to Old Trafford is bad enough. But there are bigger forces at work. Sir Alex Ferguson, piling on the pressure in typical style, said: “Great clubs don’t throw their history and traditions away for one game.”
He is right. For once, his logic is spot-on. If Liverpool lose, only three points are at stake. A defeat will soon be forgotten at Anfield. If, however, the result goes the other way, it will probably hand United two unprecedented achievements. It will be Old Trafford’s nineteenth title and the fourth league win in a row. Liverpool, left on 18 titles and one of four clubs to have won three in a row, would fall behind their rivals on two fronts.
For United it would be an historic moment, one to savour. Liverpool’s claim to be English football’s enduring force would be, for want of a better phrase, history. Until United edge ahead, it is still the history, especially when the five European Cups are taken into account.
Which brings us to Europe. The club certainly need the Champions League income. However, the proposition would be more attractive if Liverpool’s ownership and boardroom were not so destructively erratic. If Uefa’s cash props up George Gillett Jr, Tom Hicks and the rancid regime at Anfield then Europe can keep it. Defeat could force Martin Broughton, the new chairman charged with selling the club, to ask a more realistic price than the £500 million that potential buyers are being quoted.
Some will ask what of the rivalry with Chelsea? What rivalry? Fans of the West London club are desperate to hate Liverpool, but it does not work in reverse. Chelsea are inconsequential — think Nottingham Forest in the late 1970s. The antipathy is all one way.
It is not the same with United. The East Lancs Road rivalry is deep-seated and venomous. It comprises the sort of mutual loathing that gives the elation of victory an extra edge and the despair of defeat a greater depth. Agony for United fans tomorrow would be a delicious little sweetener after a bitter season.
By contrast, losing at Anfield would cause Liverpool little consternation. The best thing that could happen is a Chelsea victory.
If you do not understand this, you do not understand the history and traditions of the club and the city.
If you want to beat Chelsea tomorrow, you are not a Liverpool supporter. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_u nited/article7113345.ece
