Liverpool’s capitulation to Crystal Palace has left their title hopes hanging by the most slender of threads.
Realistically, they were never going to win the title on goal difference.
And now the equation is clear – Manchester City have to lose to either Aston Villa on Thursday morning or West Ham on Sunday night for Liverpool to possibly win the title.
And in an ironic twist of fate, Liverpool’s hopes depend on two men who were expensively purchased, before being quickly and cheaply discarded to West Ham – Stewart Downing and Andy Carroll.
Carroll will undoubtedly go down in history as one of the greatest panic buys in the history of football. Liverpool paid Newcastle the large sum of 35 million pounds in the last moments of the January 2011 transfer window, after he had scored 11 goals in 19 league games.
In the following eighteen months he scored six goals in 44 league games. He won the League Cup in 2012, but his greatest chance at glory came in the 2012 FA Cup Final, in which he scored in a Liverpool defeat.
He was subsequently loaned out to West Ham, then sold for 15 million pounds, and the Carroll experiment was largely decried as a failure.
Downing had split opinions throughout his career, despite being an England international. He arrived at Liverpool for roughly 20 million pounds in July 2011. His first season appeared to settle the argument in favour of the naysayers.
36 league games. Zero goals. And even more damningly for a winger, zero assists.
Granted, it was not his always his fault – in his sole trip to Anfield your author saw the aforementioned Carroll head a cross onto the bar when he really should have scored – but the numbers do not lie.
A stronger second season was not enough to save him from being sold to West Ham in August 2013.
It was a new dawn at Liverpool – as seen by their rise from also-rans to the present – and neither Carroll nor Downing were to be a part of it. Until now.
Barring a superhuman effort from Aston Villa, Liverpool’s hopes rely on their two discards striking it richer than Man City owner Sheikh Mansour. Downing has provided two assists all season. Carroll has two goals in his 13 injury-interrupted games.
But as we know, in football, all it can take is one cross and one header. And of course, a superhuman effort from the West Ham defence to hold out the opposition strikeforce.
Liverpool fans once hoped that the Downing-Carroll combination would win them titles. It may have cost them more time, money and ribbing from other fans than they anticipated, but it will have all been worth it should the duo get the job done on Sunday night.
mark
Guest
Great read. I disagree that west ham have nothing to play for. Big Sams job is on the line and a win against city under the spotlight would give him a chance of staying. Carroll wants to go to the world cup and a big performance would help his cause. Nolan is their captain, their driving force and a Liverpool fan. Its all on!
Worlds Biggest
Guest
with the emergance of another superpower in City I think the EPL will get harder to win. The Pool just can't compete financially with City, Utd and Chelsea. They have the core of a very good team however the defence needs to be overhauled and depth added throughout the squad. I hope they can remain a contender for years to come, to do that they will have to be smart and good management required on / off the field.
Worlds Biggest
Guest
with the emergance of another superpower in City I think the EPL will get harder to win. The Pool just can't compete financially with City, Utd and Chelsea. They have the core of a very good team however the defence needs to be overhauled and depth added throughout the squad. I hope they can remain a contender for years to come, to do that they will have to be smart and good management required on / off the field.
Mark
Guest
Actually there are two scenarios... Man City lose either of their remaining two games...advantage Liverpool Man City draw both their remaining two games...advantage Liverpool In either case Liverpool must beat Newcastle... Man City only need to draw and win their last two games to win the title...there is no way Liverpool are going to score 10+ goals against Newscastle to overcome the GD deficit
Edwardo
Guest
Who knows? If it wasn't for injury time, QPR would have beaten Man City 2-1 the last time it went to the final day
Dan
Guest
I love all the comments saying it won't happen...Wake up and look at the results throughout the season before making foolish comments. Many people would of said the Hammers wouldn't beat Tottenham 3 times this season but guess what? We did. Anything could happen and it'll be interesting to see how it unfolds.
AT
Guest
Did you think Sunderland had a chance against Chelsea and City before they played. Did you believe being 3 - 0 up on Crystal Palace, Liverpool would capitulate? Don't stop playing till the final whistle, wish someone had told Liverpool that after 75 minutes the other day!
Will Sinclair
Roar Guru
No matter what happens, it goes to the last day. Liverpool win the title if they beat Newcastle and Man City either lose one of their last two or draw both their last two.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
True. It will be good seeing them playing Champions League again next year. Maybe I'll just have to get up for some early morning game watching mid-week again next season. Haven't had reason to do that for a number of years now. But it would have been great if they could finally break through for the title. They ran a close second a number of years back and then weren't able to come close again. So that one they missed out on seemed so much bigger because it was like they had one chance to snatch a title and couldn't do it, then didn't get the chance again. Hopefully they can change that this time and be competing right at the top of the league for that number one spot for many years to come.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
I don't see how they could do anything about it if that happened. If you get to that point and you just have two teams trying to avoid losing and neither trying to really attack and risk losing on the counter, then you can end up with that happening. It doesn't mean the two managers have chatted, come to an agreement and told their players to just maintain the status quo, they wouldn't need to in order for that sort of thing to happen.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Unless both Villa and West Ham manage to pull out draws of course.
Chaos
Guest
You forgot Joe Cole. Downing, Cole and Carroll.
Worlds Biggest
Guest
That's the approach I'm now taking Will, as hard as it has been the last 2 weeks seeing us drop points. If you had told me at the start of the season we would finish 2nd / 3rd playing some incredible football I'd take it 10 times out of 10.
Will Sinclair
Roar Guru
No matter what happens it's been a great season for the Reds. It's hard to think that if you take out the Stevie G slip against Chelsea and the melt-down against Palace they would be on the verge of the title... But we shouldn't lose sight of the fact they were 7th last year, and a million miles from the Champions League.
AZ_RBB
Guest
I don't know how people can be confident about anything this season. Can't wait for this Sunday. My United have very little to play for so I'll be watching in comfort. Will have 2 TVs, laptop and phone set up trying to watch 3 or 4 games at once haha. With Sunderland v WBA playing each other tomorrow I wonder if it's 1-1 after 85min if we'll see a repeat of United v Blackburn from a few seasons back where a draw was ideal for both teams and they just passed it around for 10mins. Will the FA allow it? Desperately hoping for a City draw tomorrow which make for one very interesting Matchday 38.
Worlds Biggest
Guest
It would indeed be quite ironic if either player did the Pool a favour but it won't happen. As much as I would like it to. City are too good a team to drop points from here. They will pump Villa tomorrow also. The Pool had there opportunities.
Reginald Bomber
Roar Guru
Chelsea can still win it if LFC and MCFC lose their remaining games. Come on you Blues! :))
Paul D
Roar Guru
I agree, it won't happen, more's the pity. The smugness from my Man City mate in the office is killing me.
Brian
Guest
By drawing with Palace they don't just need West Ham to draw with Man Cty they need them to beat them. It won't happen.
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
You never know. Though the biggest problem for Liverpool is the fact that both Aston Villa and West Ham are safe from relegation and hence have nothing to play for, whereas Man City............