Liverpool’s season has entered a period where even matches against teams fighting relegation feel like high-stakes moments. This is a weird position to be in for a club that’s neither in the title race nor down at the bottom of the table. And while Top 4 is certainly a fight, lumping in the FA Cup and Champions League, every match feels deeply consequential when it comes to the hopes of the Reds taking something positive out of this season. The margins, as they say, are razor thin in elite football.
Liverpool have suffered what feel like significant set-backs in terms of their remaining objectives in both the Champions League and the Premier League. Starting most recently, Liverpool were held by Galtasaray in the first leg of their Champions League tie on Tuesday. And the previous week, likely-to-be relegated Wolves also dealt the Reds a loss in the Premier League. Two matches where the club were denied in games they were clearly favored to win, but failed to do so.
Liverpool have generally been bailed out throughout the year, though, and given that the Reds kick off on Sunday, there was an opportunity to put themselves in a position to remain in control of their destiny in terms of the chase for a Top 4 spot. Liverpool are in a tight fight for those spots with Aston Villa, Chelsea, and Manchester United, with the lads needing to only beat out two of those teams to meet their objective. It is quite fortunate, then, that both Villa and Chelsea are currently in the kind of form that provides the Reds the kind of cover for their own wonky form. In fact, for all of Liverpool’s own issues, Chelsea and Villa are both giving prime examples of how much worse it can be for clubs with ambitions and the personnel to maybe make them become real.
On Saturday, Chelsea were held by ninth-place Newcastle – who are going through their own disappointing year – and have now opened the door for Liverpool to potentially jump from 6th to 4th place, if results in the Aston Villa’s match against Manchester United go the Reds’ way. At the very least, the simplest outcome of the Reds winning and a draw in the other match would see the Reds in sole possession of 5th place and 1 point behind both Villa and United. If United lose, though, and Liverpool are able to outscore Tottenham by at least 2 goals, they would draw level to United on points but slide into 4th on goal difference. If Villa lose and Liverpool win, they take 4th outright based on goal difference.
The only common thread here, it must be noted, is that Liverpool win. So, even with all of the friendly outcomes, it still comes down to a club whose form, while improved, is far from the point where we can come to expect a win even in circumstances that make them favorites. Liverpool don’t look invincible and in this time of the year, where all of the matches count, it’s often the team that become temporarily invincible that manage to nudge themselves ahead.
I’d settle for that – a 6 week burst of form that tips to the promise and quality we think exists in the side as well as what next year could mean with folks healthy and reinforcements brought in. May that burst start tomorrow when the Reds host Spurs at Anfield.
