Anyone who knows the twisted nature of the rivalry between Liverpool and Manchester United fans will understand the importance of Sunday’s victory for the former over the latter.
The win meant more than three points, more than Mo Salah breaking his duck against the Red Devils, more than extending the hosts’ lead at the top of the table to a barely believable 16 points. It didn’t even really matter that the advantage is over the other Manchester club, City.
Had Liverpool somehow not won, they would still have been red-hot favourites to end their ‘30 years of hurt’ – yet a draw would still have hurt.
Had Manchester United miraculously managed another 1-1 draw, matching the result at Old Trafford back in October, that would have given their supporters a straw to cling to – and they’d have beaten Liverpool fans with it for evermore.
Now, of course it’s not particularly painful to be struck by a straw, but repeated applications could become irksome.
Imagine if – and it’s still an ‘if’, albeit an increasingly smaller one – Liverpool were to go on to win the league, but that Sunday’s game at Anfield had finished 1-1.
Conversations along the following lines would have ensued ad nauseam, perhaps ad infinitum:
‘We’re champions!’
‘Yeah, but you still couldn’t beat us!’
‘We won the league by XX points!’
‘Yeah, but you still couldn’t beat us!’
As I said, that’s the nature of this rivalry, one that’s probably more twisted on this island than anywhere around the hometowns of the two clubs – but twisted in the sense of being inter-linked.
One big difference is that here the relationships are largely good-natured, or at least rarely nasty, beyond those who haven’t outgrown either their teenage years and/or mindsets.
The ‘bantz’ as outlined above can rapidly become tedious but face-to-face (as opposed to online) it’s usually harmless.
A mere marketing slogan sends some into apoplexy but it’s true that ‘This means more’.
Even though Liverpool and Manchester aren’t far apart, there’s not that much crossover between their respective supporters, either working and/ or living together in the north-west of England.
Contrast that with most of the rest of the world, where global support for both clubs is immense.
Fathers and sons, brothers and sisters, mums and daughters, husbands and wives, partners – and friends, mates – Reds and Red Devils often largely love each other, the ‘hate’ mostly reserved for match-days.
Liverpool fans had their own ‘Danny Murphy years’, those sad times when any win over Manchester United probably meant little for their own prospects of success but might – just might - do damage to Fergie’s high-fliers and their chances of winning yet another title.
Indeed the Reds of Merseyside weren’t above celebrating a draw – even at Anfield – against the Red Devils, let me tell you…
Now though?
At the start of this season, if you’d guaranteed Liverpool FC and their supporters the league title on goal difference they’d have been deliriously delighted.
Now, rather ridiculously, dropping any points is beginning to seem like a disappointment, even if that’s only due to a draw not a defeat.
That draw at Old Trafford, even though it resulted from a late leveller for the visitors, has with hindsight rankled, the irritant in the incredible vision of an otherwise perfect campaign so far.
The winning run since then can’t continue forever, of course, but Liverpool fans will be especially glad it didn’t end against the same opponents.
In fact such was the euphoria about beating Man U that many at Anfield finally cracked, tempted fate, and sang, ‘We’re gonna win the League’.
Despite their self-mocking moniker of ‘The Unbearables’ – awarded after winning a sixth European Cup – there’s still a certain caution surrounding many LFC supporters when it comes to the league title.
The reality was that Manchester City won the league last season rather than Liverpool losing it.
Crucially, City took four points from their two league meetings with the Reds, inflicting the only League defeat on Jurgen Klopp’s men.
Yet if you listened to some supporters of Manchester United (or Everton) then the key games of that campaign were matches that Liverpool didn’t actually lose – their draws at Old Trafford or Goodison.
There was some mathematical logic to those arguments, of course, as two more points from a Liverpool victory in either game would have taken the title back to Anfield already.
Yet the gleeful slagging which ensued has perhaps had an unintended consequence, driving Klopp’s team on to its ruthless, relentless surge clear at the top of the table this season.
If every draw is potentially a disaster, the difference between winning or losing the title, then the only solution is winning – winning, and winning, and winning, and…
Perhaps rival fans would have been wiser to commiserate with Liverpool, however insincerely, to tell them ‘You’ll do it next year’; after all, like tomorrow, ‘next year’ never actually arrives.
This time around Everton’s claim to fame might be that they managed to score twice in the League in one game against this red machine.
Sensible Liverpool supporters (and there are some, especially those in their late 30s and older) are well aware that there’s a long way to go, plenty of points to be picked up before the league trophy can be lifted.
That win at the weekend was huge, but they’ll want more victories, and more.
Yet some might secretly wish for the points gap to narrow somewhat before the title is secured, in order to be able to claim that certain matches meant more…
Even then, the Manchester United fans will surely respond: ‘Nineteen titles? So what?! We’ve won 20…’
