Luis Suarez has opened up about the Steven Gerrard slip that halted Liverpool’s Premier League momentum and went a long way to depriving them of their first league title in 24 years.
Liverpool lost 2-0 to Chelsea in one of their last three games of the 2013/14 season, and Gerrard’s error to gift Demba Ba’s goal loosened their grip on the title. The Reds then let a three-goal lead slip at Crystal Palace, before a win against Newcastle on the last day of the season; by then the title had gone to Manchester City.
In his new autobiography released on Thursday, Suarez revealed his thoughts on the moment that changed Liverpool’s destiny.
‘If I had been in Stevie’s shoes, I don’t know if I would have been able to carry on playing. Emotionally, it must have been very, very hard.
‘In the previous weeks, so much had been said about him, the expectation had built so much, the talk had been about him leading Liverpool, his club, to a first title in over 20 years, on the 25th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster, in which his cousin had died, and then that happens.
‘The captain, the former youth-teamer, the one-club man, a Scouser born and bred, and he was the unlucky one to make a crucial mistake.
‘I’m convinced that if Chelsea had not scored like that, they would not have scored at all. And once you are a goal down against them, it’s virtually impossible.’
Suarez left Liverpool for Barcelona at the end of the season in a £75 million move in the summer and this Saturday his old side will host Chelsea for the first time since the incident.
Things are different this time around, with an unbeaten Chelsea very much the ones in control. Even a monumental slip-up does not look it could faze Jose Mourinho’s side, wwho have won eight and drawn two of their first 10 league matches.
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