the times | Monday May 23 2022 1GG 7thegame
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January 2
Chelsea 2-2 Liverpool
Liverpool let a two-goal lead slip
against Chelsea, but the draw is the
start of a 17-game unbeaten run yet
to be broken
January 22
Southampton 1-1 Man City
Guardiola’s team drop points
for the first time since October
February 19
Man City 2-3
Tottenham
Kane, right, brings
City’s unbeaten run
to an end with his
95th-minute header
April 10
Man City 2-2
Liverpool
A Premier
League classic
at the Etihad
May 7
Liverpool 1-1 Tottenham
Son puts Tottenham ahead at
Anfield, but Luis Díaz, left,
rescues a point for Liverpool as
they temporarily go top
May 15
West Ham 2-2 Man City
Jarrod Bowen’s
first-half brace gives
Liverpool hope, but
City come back
through Jack Grealish
and a Vladimir Coufal
own-goal
March 14
Crystal Palace 0-0
Man City
City spurn a chance
to go six points clear
of Liverpool with a
frustrating draw at
Selhurst Park in
which Laporte
misses an open goal
January 15, Man City 1-0 Chelsea
City open up a 14-point lead over
Liverpool in third thanks to Kevin
de Bruyne’s brilliant goal, right
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2 Chelsea P22 Pts43
3 Liverpool P20 Pts42
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89
92
Alcantara injury fears
Jürgen Klopp said the Premier League
title disappointment has increased
Liverpool’s hunger to win the
Champions League, but he faces a
wait to see if Thiago Alcântara will be
fit to face Real Madrid in Paris on
Saturday. He walked straight off the
pitch with a muscle injury picked up
at the end of the first-half (Paul Joyce
writes). The setback for the Spaniard,
who missed the Carabao Cup final
after sustaining an injury in the warm-
up, comes with Fabinho battling a
hamstring issue. “Not good but I can’t
say more,” Klopp said. “Hopefully
Thiago will have a chance.” Divock
Origi has already been ruled out.
Still, it speaks volumes for the
mentality of Klopp’s side that they
pushed City all the way.
Salah’s strike edged them into the
lead and Robertson’s smart finish
from Firmino’s cut-back sealed
matters. And that was that, but not
before game 62 in this marathon
season would end with a guard of
honour formed on the Anfield pitch.
It was not for the champions but,
rather, Divock Origi. The Belgium
striker is joining AC Milan on a free
transfer after eight years with
Liverpool in which he may not have
played regularly but still provided
some enduring moments.
The frustration of falling short was
evident, but Liverpool now have
reason to look forward, not back.
ANDREW POWELL/LIVERPOOL FC/GETTY IMAGES
Liverpool
The high-bar for last-day-of-the-
season epic finishes is, of course,
Sergio Agüero in 2012. Sky Sports like
to remind us of this whenever
possible and yesterday, with the pre-
match hype fast gathering
momentum, seemed the perfect
opportunity to let it roll again with
the famous Martin Tyler commentary
where he honours the moment with
the wholly credible line: “I swear
you’ll never see anything like that
ever again.”
Tyler might now like another go at
that line because, ten years on, we
have indeed seen something very
much like that. Something similarly
extraordinary. It wasn’t quite the
94th minute. But City didn’t have to
rescue their league title from one goal
behind yesterday, they had to rescue
it from two. They didn’t have to score
two late goals, as in 2012, they had to
score three.
Which is the more epic finish? It
doesn’t remotely matter.
It doesn’t really matter because the
epic end to the 2021-22 season came
with dangerous pitch invasions being
the latest issue to face the game, a
game which has a new issue every
day and, indeed, you could take the
broken crossbar at the Etihad as a
metaphor for — well, for whatever
you wish it to be. Take your choice.
Yet yesterday was not about the
broken crossbar, it was all about the
ending, another day when football
held your attention and so shook you,
you could not quite believe it.
You couldn’t believe that City were
going to lose the title this way and
then you couldn’t believe the way
they won it. Insert Sir Alex Ferguson’s
most famous quote wherever you like.
For this season, at least, a most
illustrious rivalry has been settled.
Locked in their combat, though, City
and Liverpool have elevated the
game. It has been like the best of
Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal,
Epic fight to the finish that
rivalled Agüero moment
with pledges of his integrity, making
the point that, actually, his Aston
Villa side were motivated to win for
themselves. The TV coverage, of
course, loved the banner shown
proudly at Anfield: “Come on Stevie
lad, for old time’s sake.”
Gerrard’s Villa did indeed rise to
the occasion. Their counterattack
enjoyed a success rarely allowed by
City. Yet Liverpool were susceptible to
the counter too. So here we were, the
38th game and finally the two leaders
looked fallible. Wolves should have
gone 2-1 up. Liverpool tried to redress
the balance by bringing on Roberto
Firmino but he proved suddenly
incapable of bringing the ball under
his command.
Could City really choke and yet
become champions in the process?
Did Liverpool not have the stomach
for it, with a title just asking to be
stolen? These were the questions that
sport — the pressure, the nerves —
was asking of them. In the last
15 minutes of this season, they both
finally found an answer and there,
then, unfolded the epic climax.
You wonder what would have
befallen City had they not managed
that rapid three-goal reply. After
squandering a place in the
Champions League final, how would
it have felt to squander this too?
Yet that is irrelevant — because the
opposite is now the case. The story
became about City holding their
nerve, rising like champions to
the challenge to complete a
remarkable comeback.
Liverpool, then, chased them
all the way to the finish line
but could not quite catch
up. They finish the league
season on 92 points, one
behind City. Only one
club has ever before
finished above 90 points
and failed to win the
title — which was
Liverpool in 2019 with
97 points. Again, City
were one point ahead.
That rivalry relented
last season but is now as
compelling as it ever
was. The completion of
the 2021-22 edition was
so extraordinary that
people will be swearing
that they will never see the
likes of it ever again.
beautiful and captivating, a head-to-
head that has been a privilege for all
who came to observe and with a final
act, yesterday, that had an intriguing
narrative all of its own.
No, neither City nor Liverpool
could quite locate the fluent form that
has taken them above the rest of the
league. If you wanted fluency and
dominance, you probably got that
with Tottenham Hotspur or Arsenal,
the two teams chasing the fourth
Champions League place.
Spurs, 2-0 up early against Norwich
City, were able to relax and enjoy
their success. The pressure lifted and
they scored five. Arsenal had nothing
to lose and everything to gain against
Everton. So they scored five too. Who
knows how different this storyline
might have been had Norwich so
much as mounted a challenge and
pressure had come to join the
occasion. The pressure certainly told
at the very top. Cool heads were
required. For much of the afternoon,
they were absent among both the
City and Liverpool players.
What do these titans look like with
the finishing line just ahead of them
and the title within touching
distance? They look human; they look
frail. Both sides dominated possession
but the final day robbed them of the
accuracy of their final touch.
At one point, the finish of the title
race just looked flat. Against
Wolverhampton Wanderers,
Liverpool could only score a single
equaliser. Against Aston Villa, City
couldn’t even manage that. Until
the 78th minute, City were set to
lift the Premier League trophy
on the back of a final-day
home defeat. The only
person remotely doing his
job at this stage was
Steven Gerrard.
Part of the
entertainment of this
past week has been
watching Gerrard’s
straight-faced patience
in those numerous TV
interviews when he was
asked if he was
motivated to win the
title for Liverpool.
Gerrard responded to
that line of questioning
Captivating but flawed
finale brought out the
human factor
in two great
teams, writes
Owen Slot
Klopp would have gone through
a range of emotions yesterday