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Throughout Steven Gerrard’s career, he has experienced a plethora of spectacular moments that would define any footballer as a legend of the sport, Istanbul 2005 and Wembley 2006 to name a few.
However, one of the most widely remembered moments from his entire career, particularly by opposition fans is that infamous Steven Gerrard slip against Chelsea in 2014 that many saw as the beginning of the end for Liverpool’s title charge.
Throughout this blog post, we are going to be discussing some of the key moments in the 2013/14 season that got Liverpool to this game, Gerrard’s dream for the Premier League title and will dive into the game itself.
2013/14 is a season that goes down in history for many Liverpool fans as one of their biggest chances to win the Premier League before the Jurgen Klopp era. They had managed to acquire so much attacking threat that no one seemed to be able to compete.
Liverpool were going into this season looking fairly shaky at the back and somewhat weak in midfield, this would eventually change with heroic performances from players like Coutinho, Gerrard and Martin Skrtel.
While many would look back and see the vast attacking threat as the primary reason why Liverpool were able to mount such a strong title charge this season, we simply cannot go without mentioning how many unexpected players managed to step up their game to a whole new level.
Manchester City went on to win the league this season despite Liverpool being on top of the league for the majority of the season, a fact that Liverpool fans would be heartbroken by for many years to come.
This season would forever go down in history as the year they couldn’t get over the line even when it seemed they fully deserved to, with many people believing that this would be their last chance for many years to come.
Liverpool FC is one of the biggest clubs in the world and has been since their impressive dominance of European football in the 70s and 80s however this was one of their first seasons since 1990 where it looked like they could finally reclaim the league title.
At the start of the season, Luis Suarez was out due to suspension from biting Branislav Ivanovic the previous year which would leave Liverpool without their star goalscorer for 6 matches, after scoring 22 in 2012/13.
However, during these matches, it allowed one Daniel Sturridge to step up for his side and become the main attacking goal threat. He scored the only goal in the opening three matches which Liverpool all won 1-0 against Stoke City, Aston Villa and even Manchester United.
When Suarez returned in the 6th game of the season against Sunderland, he immediately made his presence known scoring two goals and Daniel Sturridge getting another, marking the beginning of the SAS partnership.
As the season progressed, and Liverpool’s incredible run of form continued, people truly began to believe the impossible was becoming probable. With such attacking prowess as Luis Suarez, Daniel Sturridge, Raheem Sterling, Philippe Coutinho and more firing on all cylinders they were showing no signs of slowing down.
Huge victories against the likes of Arsenal, Everton and Tottenham in the latter stages of the season really put Liverpool in charge and showed them to be true title contenders if not the favourites to win it.
Despite having an incredibly decorated career with plenty of ups and downs, most people would agree that the Premier League title would have been the final piece in the puzzle for his career, cementing him as an all-time Premier League great.
Not winning this competition is what sparks constant debate about his career and this season could have put this all to rest. Undoubtedly one of the greatest players the Premier League has ever seen, it is this fact that may prevent people from placing him in an all-time 11.
This was the last thing that Gerrard had left to win in his career was this trophy as it illuded him throughout, finishing second multiple times under different managers and they simply could not get their hands on it before Jurgen Klopp’s reign.
It is commonly seen as one of football’s greatest travesties that a player of his stature never managed to acquire league glory in his long career in Merseyside.
Steven Gerrard himself has even stated that this was the one trophy he wanted to win more than any other, particularly when considering the long wait that Liverpool fans had to win a Premier League title.
Going into this game, Liverpool were top of the league by 5 points over second-place title rivals, Chelsea, when they had to travel to Anfield while Liverpool were on the back of a 16-game unbeaten streak, winning their last 11 including a dramatic late victory against Manchester City.
After another dramatic 3-2 win against Norwich, Brendan Rodgers' side simply had to pull a result from Chelsea at home to put themselves in a great position for the last two games of the season against Crystal Palace and Newcastle.
Liverpool seemed to be dominating the majority of the game seeming fairly comfortable while Chelsea stood firm in defence. Without creating too much threat, Liverpool were in the ascendency when suddenly, on the stroke of half-time, Steven Gerrard failed to control a pass from Mamadou Sakho and slipped while trying to retrieve it.
This allowed Demba Ba to snatch the ball up and slot it past Simon Mignolet giving Chelsea the lead at Half Time. For the remainder of the game, Liverpool began to look panicked and much less likely to score the longer time went on.
In the dying seconds of the game, Fernando Torres had found himself beyond the Liverpool defence where he gave the ball to Willian to finish off, delivering the final blow to the game.
This would eventually lead to Liverpool’s impressive and unexpected title challenge being completely derailed and meant that Manchester City’s many games in hand would lead to them taking the lead if they won all of them.