WHEN you sign up to become a football supporter, the first thing you sacrifice is emotional stability — the last 10 days serving as a reminder of why a little self-restraint is advisable.
First, Liverpool’s Irish fans took to social media to sing like Canaries after a 3-2 win at Carrow Road, which following on from their two rivals’ slip-ups against Sunderland, left the title seemingly destined for Anfield.
And then — after Jose Mourinho reminded everyone of his capacity to produce a tactical masterclass — despair set in. “We’ve blown it,” those same fans said.
At this juncture, a little history lesson — as well as a dose of perspective — is the best medicine Liverpool’s neurotic fans could take. English and Irish football is dominated by a history of close finishes, unexpected twists, shock results.
Just ask Manchester City.
Two years ago, they entered injury time of the final game of the season 2-1 down to QPR. Four minutes and two goals from Edin Dzeko and Sergio Aguero later they were champions. And yet six matches earlier they trailed Manchester United by eight points.
If that title race ebbed and flowed then it hardly compared to the 1988-89 season, when Arsenal, on February 27, held a 19-point lead over Liverpool. By May, the gap had been closed and after losing 2-1 to Derby and drawing 2-2 with Wimbledon, Liverpool had the chance to overtake the Gunners.
They did so, moving three points clear with a 5-1 victory over West Ham — leaving Arsenal with the seemingly impossible task of having to win the final game of the season at Anfield by two clear goals.
Somehow they managed it, clinching the title with the last goal of the season, scored a minute into injury time.
Similar narratives were told in the 1995-96 season — when Newcastle held a 12-point lead at Christmas over Manchester United yet ended up in second place — and a year earlier when Blackburn stayed top for most of the season, held a five-point lead with four games to go and then lost to West Ham.
Back came United. They went to Upton Park on the final day of the season needing to win, and when news emerged that Liverpool were leading Blackburn at Anfield, whatever impetus they needed was there. Yet somehow West Ham clung on for a draw and the title went to Ewood Park.
And the list of the unexpected goes on.
United’s treble winning season in 1999 is remembered mostly for two stoppage-time goals in the Nou Camp and a Ryan Giggs wondergoal in the FA Cup semi-final replay, but Arsenal fans remain haunted by Denis Bergkamp’s penalty miss in that same game and a sloppy League defeat at Leeds. Otherwise they’d have won another double.
'Liverpool’s fans were misguided to look downbeat after losing to Chelsea'Similarly Leeds — in the Don Revie era — remember what they lost rather than what they won. The 1971-72 league season was theirs for the taking.
Instead they, Manchester City and Liverpool finished a point adrift of Derby County, who beat Liverpool in their last game before watching Liverpool and Leeds blow their remaining title hopes by failing to win their final matches of the campaign.
Other seasons — 1975/76 (Liverpool profiting from QPR’s meltdown), 1980/81 (Ipswich beating title rivals Aston Villa one week before losing to Arsenal the next) and 1991/92 (when Manchester United choked at the finish line and Leeds overtook them) — were also memorable.
Which is why Liverpool should continue to walk with hope in their hearts.
They have two very winnable games left where a pair of victories will take them to 86 points and heap the pressure back on City to go three-from-three from their concluding games.
Chelsea cannot be discounted either. While their fate is not in their hands, two victories — coupled with Everton beating City and Crystal Palace beating Liverpool — would be enough to send the title back to Stamford Bridge.
But by now — after what happened last Sunday, and after what happened at Stamford Bridge when Chelsea lost to Sunderland — predicting outcomes has to be parked. The game — despite being lopsided in favour of football’s richer clubs — remains an unscripted drama.
And in the Premier League the unexpected can, and does, happen. How else do you explain Chelsea’s season?
They beat Manchester City and Liverpool home and away, took four points out of six against Arsenal, Tottenham and Manchester United — and yet lost to Newcastle, Stoke, Aston Villa and Sunderland.
Sunderland remain the strangest of teams, having been in a relegation dogfight all year and yet they have played superbly in recent weeks against the three sides fighting for the title, taking four points from three games at Anfield, Stamford Bridge and Eastlands — when seven would have been a fairer return.
Even Villa — another side in danger of going down — have recorded decent results, drawing at Anfield, beating Chelsea at home.
It’s why when people sell the notion that the Premier League is the best in the world they make such a compelling argument.
No result is ever guaranteed, which is why Liverpool’s fans were so wrong to be prematurely exultant after their win over Norwich and equally as misguided to be downbeat after losing to Chelsea.
In English football, the only thing predictable is its unpredictability.
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