EPL: Reds' dream still alive

EPL: Reds' dream still alive

The dream could become a reality. Against all odds and expectations, Liverpool's seventh consecutive league win has taken them to within a point of leaders Chelsea.

With both the Blues and Manchester City scheduled to visit Anfield before the season is out, Brendan Rodgers' men can still make it a photo finish.

If they continue to win and if their rivals slip up, who is to say Liverpool can't land their first league title since 1990?

This was not a vintage display, the kind of performance that leaves other teams trembling in apprehension.

Liverpool took their time breaking down Sunderland, failed to put the game beyond doubt and then wobbled horribly in the final stages as Gus Poyet's team attempted to stage an unlikely comeback.

But that matters not. At this stage of the season, as the likes of Chelsea and Manchester City know well, a win is a win.

Sunderland, quite understandably, came with ideas of defiance, not dominance.

CAGEY CATS

Having lost three of their last four games, scoring only a single goal in the process, the Black Cats laid down a back five, guarded it with two defensive midfielders, and hoped that a series of quick out-balls might release Connor Wickham and Jozy Altidore.

For 39 minutes, it worked. But when Santiago Vergini escaped a red card for bringing Luis Suarez down on the edge of the box, Steven Gerrard took the law into his own hands and punished Sunderland with a glorious strike.

Three minutes in the second half, the advantage was doubled through Daniel Sturridge, curling home his 20th league goal of the season with the aid of a deflection.

Sunderland hit back through Ki Sung Yeung's late header, but Liverpool held out to secure three vital points.

Poyet, who dismissed Liverpool as a one-man team reliant on Suarez, will doubtless note that the Reds' three most important players were Gerrard, Sturridge and Jordan Henderson, who gave another impressive performance in the middle.

Suarez was simply one of a number of player striving for victory. Liverpool's success is built on goals, of course, and this is the first season in 50 that two of their strikers have broken the 20-goal barrier, but there's more to them than that.

After a difficult start, Joe Allen is growing in confidence.

John Flanagan, while being culpable for Sunderland's goal, has become an uncompromising force at fullback and this was his ninth consecutive first team start in the league.

Philippe Coutinho continues to look like a bargain at just £11 million ($23m).

Liverpool are contenders for a reason.

However, it's not hard to find reasons for them to fall short.

 

EXPERIENCE

Few of the players have any experience on chasing a title and coping with the gruelling scrutiny of the final furlong.

The defence, as has been well documented, is highly unstable and there are question marks over the ability of Simon Mignolet to marshall his six-yard box.

But what Liverpool have in their favour may yet trump all of that. They have no expectations.

They weren't supposed to come this far. From this moment on, 11 points clear of Everton in fifth, everything is a bonus.

They almost have Champions League football secured.

Most importantly, they have their swagger back.

For all the cup successes of Rafa Benitez and Gerard Houllier, for all the old -school style of Roy Evans, this is the first time that Liverpool have played with the attitude of champions since the 1980s.

You can sense it in the crowd, a body of men and women who have seen too many false dawns to be easily taken in. They know that something is happening here.

It may not end with this season's title, and that would hardly be surprising given that no team have ever even come close to leaping from seventh to first in a year.

But, if Liverpool can end this season with the knowledge that people genuinely fear them again, that will pay dividends in the future.

Poyet was foolish to write them off as a one-man team. Liverpool are far more than that.

BY THE NUMBERS

3 - Daniel Sturridge and Luis Suarez are only the third pair to both reach the 20-goal mark in an EPL season. The others are Newcastle's Andy Cole and Peter Beardsley (1993/94) and Chelsea's Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard (2009/10).

 

LIVERPOOL 2

(Steven Gerrard 39, Daniel Sturridge 48)

SUNDERLAND 1

(Ki Sung Yeung 76)

 


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