Brendan Rodgers’ side were unlucky to miss out on top four after a season racked by injuries, while Chelsea imploded but held on to fourth and Liverpool stormed to thirdAs you were, then. At the end of this most unpredictable and turbulent of seasons, a time of pandemic and insurrection, the top four places in the Premier League ended in the hands of its four biggest and richest clubs.Eight restless months after we started, English football’s new order – it turned out – looked largely like the old. Related: Leicester’s defeat to Tottenham hands Champions League place to Chelsea Related: Chelsea qualify for Champions League despite stumbling at Aston Villa Continue reading...
Chelsea and Liverpool aim to seal their Champions League places as Sergio Agüero bids farewell to the Etihad StadiumIf Harry Kane really is making his Tottenham swansong at the King Power Stadium, he will have wished it could come with stakes rather higher than a fraught battle to cling on to seventh place. The emotions will be inescapable and the motivation to provide one last star turn presumably huge. Winning at such a difficult venue would be bittersweet for Kane and Spurs, given how costly the collapse of their away form has been to their campaign, with only two wins in their last nine. Such an outcome would also be deeply frustrating for Leicester, who are still in with a...
Near the end of what has supposedly been a difficult season the Liverpool right-back treated Old Trafford as his playgroundThere was a decoy Liverpool bus. That was the one that ended up getting its tyres slashed by Manchester United fans on a side street near Old Trafford. The real Liverpool bus, unmarked and unheralded, sneaked around the back entrance to avoid the hundreds of protesters out front. Related: Firmino fires Liverpool past Manchester United and into top-four reckoning Related: Manchester United 2-4 Liverpool: Premier League – as it happened Continue reading...
Amid the grievances that have brought fans into the streets in recent weeks there is a yearning to feel something againA lone saxophonist was playing in the sunshine outside Old Trafford on Sunday evening. This was after the tumult, after the crowds had been pushed back, after the police had regained control of the concourse outside the megastore, before the inevitable 0-0 draw between Manchester United and Liverpool had finally been called off. And on another surreal and poignant day in English football, it was possible to hear in those breezy notes a lament for something that had been lost, something that even now might never be recovered.Earlier in the day, by all accounts, the mood had been mutinous, bordering...
Liverpool were knocked out by a team of big personality players who do the right things at the right momentsOn a night of steadily deflating momentum, Jürgen Klopp’s marauding Liverpool did their best Jürgen Klopp’s marauding Liverpool impression. And for a while it was tempting to believe.Anfield looked splendid under open blue cold skies, one of those nights when the wind comes scudding in off the sea and the place seems to boil and throb with, well, what exactly? Related: Liverpool rue missed chances as Real Madrid end Champions League hopes Related: Liverpool 0-0 Real Madrid (agg 1-3): Champions League quarter-final – as it happened Continue reading...