LIVERPOOL HAS LOST ITS BEST EVER CHANCE OF REGAINING THE TITLE

It was not at all a pleasant sign for any Liverpool fan as the referee blew the final whistle at Selhurst Park. It was heart-breaking as Suarez,Gerrard and majority of the Liverpool players broke into tears. Those Selhurst Park tears were as much for conceding a 3-0 lead to effectively end Liverpool’s title hopes as for the realisation that an opportunity this golden may not come again soon. Steven Gerrard will urge his team-mates to ‘go again’ before the start of next season but that task will be made more difficult by the certainty that their rivals will ‘come again’. Liverpool had appeared like the irresistible force, possessing enough momentum from swashbuckling football and the memories of Hillsborough to sweep to their first league crown in 24 years.
Manuel Pellegrini was grappling with the finer points of the Manchester City machine, Jose Mourinho was bemoaning his dearth of quality centre-forwards, and Manchester United were plummeting downwards without the jet-pack that is Sir Alex Ferguson. It was Liverpool who had the sense of an unstoppable team building to a climax. But Chelsea’s double decker halted the procession, then Tony Pulis’s Black & Decker chopped it to a stand-still. With City thumping Aston Villa 4-0 at the Etihad this Wednesday, it seems certain that Liverpool will have missed a glorious chance to finally re-emerge as England’s best. They may well be better next season for the experience. But you can be assured that so will all their title competitors.

City will improve their defence with Porto centre-back Eliaquim Mangala a likely arrival, while Pellegrini will have a greater grasp on this league having shorn his nearly-man tag. And with rumours of City bidding for the world’s best player Lionel Messi for 160 million pounds, it is certain that they will go to any extent to win back to back titles. Chelsea will get a top class striker, with Diego Costa set to provide the spike to Mourinho’s weapon, often so blunt this season. Chelsea are certainly going to be stronger the coming season and everyone knows it pretty well that Mourinho does not need many chances to prove himself. The Red Devils after all the thumping they got this season will be all set to regain the lost glory and Louis Van Gaal has the experience to make it happen.  Arsenal will once again consolidate and, should Aaron Ramsey and Theo Walcott be fit for the campaign, prove challengers again. Even Everton, with Roberto Martinez a year wiser, and Tottenham, under a new head coach, will spend money to improve.

Liverpool are back among the big boys but they might well rue not picking them off this season, when they all looked that little bit smaller. With no European football this season, Liverpool had just one trophy to play for unlike the other big teams. With champions league in the next season, Liverpool certainly have to play their best ever football if they want to accomplish the mission they missed by a whisker this season.