So what did Liverpool’s excellent, if somewhat surprising, win at Old Trafford do to the Premier League title race?
In truth, it probably hasn’t made too much difference as United are still four points clear with a game in hand and will probably go on to win it. Having said that, for the neutral it was a great result. The title race is still slightly open and the aura of invincibility that was beginning to build around United was well and truly shattered.
Menace
Were Liverpool really good or United really bad? It was probably a bit of both to be honest. Liverpool attacked with menace and the previously faultless pairing of Ferdinand and Vidic suddenly looked pretty poor. Vidic in particular, couldn’t cope with Torres and his supporting cast.
Steve Gerrard who for reasons best known to him usually seems to be less than his very best in games against United, bucked that trend and together with Torres, he controlled the game. It was his surge into the box that led Patrice Evra to make a ridiculous suicidal tackle that gave away the penalty and the lead to Liverpool that they never looked like giving up.
Comedy
Earlier on Vidic had produced his entry for the ‘comedy defending of the season’ award, allowing Torres to equalise Ronaldo’s earlier penalty.
When Vidic decided that he had been embarrassed enough and got himself sent off for rugby tackling Torres, the only way he could stop him, there was clearly no way back for United. The fact that the resulting free-kick was beautifully struck home by Aurelio did seem to be some sort of justice.
Icing
An injury time goal for Dossena was the icing on the cake for Liverpool and gave the match a scoreline that will long live in the memory of the Liverpool faithful. That’s two in two for Dossena who has been a bit of a nightmare purchase at left back. Maybe he is the answer to play alongside Torres!
So as I say, the result probably won’t affect the actual destination of the Premier League trophy in the end, but it will have made a huge difference to how the clubs at the top end of the table are feeling.
Humbling
Despite all the talk of ‘taking nothing for granted’ and ‘not getting carried away’, I would imagine that prior to yesterday, the United players were probably ‘taking things for granted’ and ‘getting carried away’. They certainly won’t be now after yesterday’s humbling experience. In the long term that might be a bad thing for the other teams, but in the short term it was a message that many neutral fans are happy to have been delivered.
For Liverpool the message was very clear. They are good enough to challenge for the title. The message may have been received too late for the players to win it this season but the fact remains that this victory will do an enormous amount of good to the confidence and belief in those players.
Encouragement
For Chelsea, the result gave a little bit of encouragement and they will go into today’s game against Manchester City believing that they too have a slight chance of catching United.
For everyone else, it matters little other than to keep the interest in the Premier League alive for a few weeks more.
Challenge
Arsenal are too far behind to make a challenge but they did move back into the top four yesterday with an excellent 4-0 win over Blackburn. They may only occupy that position temporarily as Aston Villa will go back above them if they beat Tottenham today.
So it actually looks as though the Premier League may end up something like this. Manchester United champions. Chelsea runners-up. Liverpool third. Arsenal fourth.
Who could possibly have predicted that outcome before the season started? Oh yes. Everyone could.
That is why yesterday’s result was so exciting for us neutrals. It has at least delayed the inevitable!
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