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Pair of defeats puts hole in Liverpool’s top four aspirations

Two games. Two defeats.

That is all it took to undo almost three months of work and put Liverpool on the outside of a top four Premier League finish and a coveted Champions League spot for next season.

Liverpool followed up a disappointing home loss to Manchester United on March 22 with an even more dispirited loss on Saturday against Arsenal at the Emirates. The pair of defeats leaves Liverpool seven points back of fourth-place Manchester City with just seven games remaining. (Although they caught on break today when City lost to Crystal Palace.)

“It’s frustrating that we got ourselves in a position over the last three months, very close, to then come up short in the past two games,” manager Brendan Rodgers told The Guardian. “But I look at Arsenal and their bench, the world class players on the field with big talent and it shows the continual work we have to do.”

There was a common thread that ran through both defeats, dating back to Dec. 14.

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A disappointing end to an otherwise great season

It’s taken us  most of a week to come to terms with the fact that Liverpool somehow managed to let the Premier League title slip through their fingers this season.

The club’s first championship since 1990 seem assured following the win over Manchester City in mid-April. But a slip from Steven Gerrard and an embarrassing 10 minutes at Crystal Palace derailed the championship dream, which officially died last Sunday when City easily handled West Ham.

Even though they fell three points shy of the title, it was still an exciting season, one that promises hope for next year as Liverpool makes its return to the Champions League.

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Rodgers sees Red after Boxing Day loss to Manchester City

Following Liverpool’s 2-1 loss to Manchester City on Boxing Day, Reds manager Brendan Rodgers left no doubt as to how he felt about the officiating at the Etihad Stadium.

Rodgers let loose on the officials after they failed to call a possible penalty on a Luis Suárez take down and when they waved off a Raheem Sterling goal after ruling Sterling offsides – when it was clear that Sterling was in an on-side position.

“They had no help whatsoever from the officials. I never go on about officials but I thought today they were horrendous, in terms of performance.” he said. “We had nothing that went our way at all. I thought that the linesman on the offside one – they weren’t even on the same cut of grass, and if you’re working at this level, you have to get that right. It’s not even a difficult one, that. These are the things we work on and talk about, we are asking a young player to try and break their line. It was a perfect timed run and he’s given offside when he’s through one-on-one on goal.

“Listen, the officials make mistakes. I just felt that the mistakes made tonight shouldn’t have happened at this level.”

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