Gerrard plays kingmaker as Liverpool look to keep pressure on Man City in title race

"This does not slip,” Steven Gerrard told his Liverpool teammates on the afternoon he felt as close as he ever would to lifting a league title with the club that defined his career.

It was the spring of 2014. His leadership qualities were at their peak. A television microphone picked up his urgent words – “this does not slip” – in the celebratory huddle after a tough 3-2 victory over Manchester City had kept Liverpool before City in the title race.

That season, Liverpool ended up second, their momentum broken by a defeat to Chelsea. City won the Premier League, and would go on to wait several years into the post-Gerrard era at Anfield before Liverpool again became the chief obstacle to their accumulation of more and more titles.

The next one looks imminent, with City leading the table by three points with three fixtures left, and although Gerrard would never say so, Liverpool’s challenge for the 2021-22 Premier League may have just slipped a little too far. They dropped points at home for the first time in 13 matches on Saturday, drawing 1-1 with Tottenham Hotspur.

Gerrard is in the unfamiliar position, for him, of hoping Liverpool drop more points on Tuesday, just before the six-month anniversary of his appointment as manager of Aston Villa, who host Jurgen Klopp’s side. Safe to report this will have been one of the more reflective weeks of Gerrard’s so far successful first adventure as a manager in English football.

Last Thursday, he saw the club he left for Villa achieve a hugely significant milestone. Glasgow Rangers, guided by Gerrard to last season’s Scottish league title, reached the Europa League final under his successor, Gio Van Bronckhorst. On Tuesday, Gerrard will be plotting to thwart, as opposition coach,