Liverpool made their intention of winning the English Premier league known when they beat third-placed Manchester City 3-2 in a thrilling encounter at Anfield on Sunday.
After 24 years of waiting, Liverpool took the lead in 26 minutes with Raheem Sterling and Martin Skrtel before David Silva led a city revival in the second half
Glen Johnson then scored an own goal to make it 2-2 before Brazilian midfielder Philippe Coutinho drove in the winner capitalizing on a mistake by city captain Vincent Kompany just 12 minutes from time to secure Liverpool’s 10th successive victory.
Luis Suarez outmuscled his marker Gael Clichy and fed Sterling, the teenager cleverly dummying Kompany and England goalkeeper Joe Hart before scoring.
Twenty minutes later Hart saved well from a header by unmarked Liverpool captain Steven Gerard but from the resulting corner Slovak defender Skrtel headed in.
Manager Brendan Rodgers, who has revitalized the team in two seasons since taking over, hailed “a remarkable performance”.
“I thought we were incredible today,” he told Sky Sports.
“We showed so much spirit and quality. We have been put under pressure in a very big game but you can see from the quality of our football that we are coping with it.”
Unfortunately, Liverpool’s midfielder Jordan Henderson was sent off in stoppage-time after a lunging tackle on Nasri and will miss three of the four remaining games, including the potentially decisive visit of Chelsea.
In another match, Chelsea won 1-0 at Swansea City to add pressure on the league leaders Liverpool
Chelsea could not break the deadlock even after Swansea were reduced to 10 men after defender Chico Flores was sent off in the quarter of an hour for two yellow cards.
Chelsea dominated but could not get the back of the net until in the 67th minute when Demba Ba who scored the vital goal in the Champion’s League to eliminate PSG did the trick once again scoring yet again the winner to help Chelsea take all the three points.
That left Chelsea two points behind Liverpool after 34 games each with Jose Mourinho’s team due to travel to Anfield for a potential title decider in two weeks’ time.
VINCENT BARAZA.