John Aldridge has said that it’s indicative of how far Liverpool have fallen this season that, in the final week of the campaign, a win for Manchester City would do them a massive favour rather than curtailing their ambitions.
Over the past few years, the Reds have slugged it out against Pep Guardiola’s side in epic title races which have gone to the final day and seen both teams surpass the 90-point mark, with a fierce rivalry developing in that time.
While the Cityzens still have a chance of overtaking leaders Arsenal right before the finish line, Arne Slot’s team are simply trying to land in the Champions League positions by the time the Premier League season ends on Sunday evening.
If Man City were to win at sixth-placed Bournemouth tonight in what’s set to be Guardiola’s penultimate game in charge, Liverpool would be assured of a place in Europe’s main club competition for 2026/27 before they host Brentford at the weekend.
Aldridge is bemused that, having had such an intense rivalry with the Etihad Stadium outfit for so long, the Reds are now begging for a favour from them in the final week of the season just to fend off the Cherries once and for all.
He wrote in his latest Liverpool Echo column: ‘Liverpool have fallen away to the point where they are not battling with Arsenal and Manchester City anymore for the big prizes. They are now looking over their shoulder at the likes of Brighton and Bournemouth; it’s a far cry from what we are used to.
‘In fact, Liverpool need a result from Manchester City in the final week of the season, which says it all really. Imagine that: Pep Guardiola and his City side can do us a favour in May.
‘It’ll be tough for them too on Tuesday night because Andoni Iraola has been one of the managers of the season for me at Bournemouth. He’s done it in front of the smallest crowds in the Premier League and he is a Basque man through and through.’
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It’ll be strange for Liverpool fans to be cheering on Man City so close to the end of the season when we’ve become so accustomed to begging them to drop points, but as Aldridge says, it’s indicative of where the two teams now find themselves.
It’s a terrible indictment of the Reds’ campaign to be sweating on Champions League qualification at this late stage, but it also reflects just how brilliantly Bournemouth have done that they’re in with a plausible chance of appearing in Europe’s main club competition next term.
If we’re to be assured of a top-five finish tonight and handed the luxury of being able to relax against Brentford on Sunday, Guardiola’s side will have to do something nobody has managed since 3 January – beat the Cherries in a Premier League fixture.
Iraola’s side are on the longest unbeaten top-flight run of any team in Europe’s five main leagues (16 games), and if they extend that against City, they could still surpass Liverpool for fifth place. A win narrows the gap to a point; a draw would leave the Reds three points ahead with a six-goal advantage on goal difference.
Hopefully it won’t be long before we’re back challenging for the title rather than going into the final week of the season trying to merely salvage a Champions League place which only came about because of English clubs’ performances in Europe this term.
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If iraola managed to beat city and win their final game while we draw or lose against Brentford, they will overtake us in ucl spot. What irony it will be if we hire iraola to take over slot…
Bournemouth have to beat Manchester city and then go and beat forest away, and we need to lose at home against brentford, can’t see it happening.
We are not battling with Arsenal or Manchester city anymore for the big prizes. Manchester United and Aston villa have passed us. Vill thrashed us the other day. Chelsea will be next to pass us with Alonso.
All this talk of champions league, it’s a red herring. We are now a mid table team content by FSG with mediocrity. Alisson, Robertson and Salah are leaving, I fully expect Liverpool to decline even further next season. Those who think it’s bad now haven’t seen anything yet,
Slot Should have been sacked last December, failure to act from charlatan owners FSG will further the decline.
Soon we will be struggling to compete with the likes of Brighton , brentford and Everton. FSG out or keep sinking.
Mate, if bournemouth beats man city, anything is possible as they will be high on morale. For us, I don’t even harbour any hopes of us beating Brentford considering they are fighting for an European spot. We might just draw the game or they might nick it at the end. The game later is important. City players might play to their best to give pep a good send off. This is a big contradiction to our situation, when our players no longer believe in the boring football slot is coaching.
I think it is over the top to blame FSG! I would blame Edwards Hughes and Slot. Of the players we forked the big dough for Wirtz has been so/so (I put that down to Slot!)…Isak well he has been missing in action most of the year…and sadly the major buy highlight Ekitike has an awful injury. We let top players like Kvaratskhelia, Guehi and Semenyo…not to mention Dorku and Cherki…so te Management and coach bear a lot of the current malaise we find ourselves in! YNWA.
I don’t think fans blame fsg as they are just businessmen. They only care about profit and loss. Obviously someone here in UK has been feeding them with rosy pictures of our future. But we have in fact been so bad that we might not even qualify for ucl next season. What mo has done suddenly woke up the owners. A senior player, a legend who is leaving posts something about our precarious situation. What is alarming is the post is liked by current 1st team players and ex players. Slot has lost the fans. Now it is confirmed he lost at least half of the dressing room.
I cannot see us beating Brentford, could even lose the game. We are in total freefall and don’t deserve Champions League football. The Cherries will win tonight and at Forest and pip us to 5th
Bournemouth can still nick it if we lose to Brentford at home. I do not hope we lose and slot is the master of draws so we should survive. In the event we lose 1 nil to Brentford, bournemouth needs to score 6 goals to surpass us for ucl spot. So far bournemouth have not won on big scorelines so we should really survive. Unless we lose by a big margin at home like 4 nil again, then bournemouth only needs to win 3 nil. Now this could be interesting but really very difficult to achieve. If we really lose at home to this kind of scoreline, I expect anfield to erupt and boos to encompass Liverpool…
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