Today’s a big day for us, for many reasons. Steven Gerrard edges closer to the end of his Liverpool career, several other players attempt to prove they belong, and all while Brendan Rodgers tries to keep our top four hopes alive.
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As supporters, we can do little more than sit back and watch it happen – hoping for the best possible result. However, there are a number of things we’re all hoping for and we’ve picked our top five in the list below…
Gerrard silences the Stamford Bridge crowd
It’s inevitable. Never the classiest bunch, the chants and songs about Gerrard’s decisive slip last season are going to come from the Chelsea fans. As we all know, if that hadn’t happened, the Premier League title may well have been ours. This will be Gerrard’s last shot at redemption against one of his oldest foes and how we’d love to see him score the winner and propel us back into top four contention. It’s hard to imagine him not doing something!
Coutinho proves that he’s better than Fabregas
There were a few raised eyebrows outside of Merseyside when the PFA Team of the Year was announced last month – with Coutinho selected ahead of Cesc Fabregas, who is the league’s leading assist maker. We all know just how special the Brazilian is – he shows it week in, week out, even if the statistics don’t quite back it up. Numbers aren’t everything in football and there will be no better opportunity for him to prove that than today.
Simon Mignolet to make his golden glove record safe
The Belgian is on 14 clean-sheets, one more than his nearest rival – Southampton’s Fraser Forster – and two more than today’s opponent, Thibaut Courtois – who shares third place with Man City’s Joe Hart and Swansea’s Lukasz Fabianski. If we can keep the Blues out, then Mignolet will be guaranteed at least a share of the award, with only two games to go after this. Forster is out for the rest of the season with injury and therefore cannot catch us.
Lambert and Lallana partnership gets more time
These two linked up well against Queens Park Rangers last time out. While we’re not suggesting that they’re both definitely going to start – see our predicted line-up for more details – it would be nice to see them given at least some time on the pitch together, particularly if we’re chasing a goal. There’s been a lot of discussion about how many strikers we need to sign this summer and perhaps a strong performance from Lambert will prove he deserves another season in a back-up role.
We keep our hopes of making the top four alive
Manchester United’s incredibly fortunate win over Crystal Palace on Saturday evening means that we have everything to do in order to catch them. Even three wins out of three will require them to take just one point from their final two games – which are at home to Arsenal and away to Hull City, who dropped into the relegation places yesterday. What’s certain, is that defeat today will completely end our chances and we can’t let that happen!
