Gerrard plays kingmaker as Liverpool look to keep pressure on Man City in title race
Villa manager faces old club in Premier League on Tuesday then Guardiola’s side on final day of season “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, Liverpo...