Liverpool coming good in late bid for Champions League qualification

7Feb 2013

England - Premier League

With just two more Champions League qualification places realistically up for grabs, the last thing Everton and Spurs wanted was for Liverpool to get their act together. Hannah Duncan explores the Reds' top four credentials over the remainder of the season...

A few weeks ago many people were writing off Liverpool for Champions League contention, but it's taken just a few short weeks for boss Brendan Rodgers and his players to drastically flip the form book on its head, as they make a genuine bid for the top four.

As discussed in a previous column, it's shaping up to be one of the toughest races for Champions League qualification in many a year.

We've often hit Christmas with several team vying for a top four spot, but the stresses and strains of the festive period, plus the typical ebbing and flowing of form have usually conspired to send a few plucky hopefuls tumbling down the table.

But that doesn't look to be the case this season. If anything, more teams are being added to the mix - one of which is Liverpool.

After the Reds came through a tough couple of fixtures undefeated away at Arsenal and reigning champions Manchester City, it finally looks as though Brendan Rodgers has put his stamp on the side, although Liverpool are still 7.8 outsiders for a top four finish.

They're playing free-flowing football and while they still have a fair bit of work to do defensively, the January signing of Daniel Sturridge seems to have given them the cutting edge they were missing in the final third - even Stewart Downing's contributing!

Former Chelsea man Sturridge has already scored four goals for his new club in six games - double the amount he'd netted in the first half of the season, allaying the fears of many Reds fans that he and Luis Suarez would be unable to play in the same starting XI.

Suarez, meanwhile, is second-favourite only to Robin Van Persie to be the Premier League's top goalscorer this season at 3.85, having bagged himself 22 goals in 33 appearances this term.

Add Steven Gerrard to a strikeforce which is firing on all cylinders and Liverpool are starting to look like a side capable of competing again.

The England captain is enjoying a superb season on a personal level, capped by several typical Gerrard piledrivers of late, most recently in the Reds' 2-2 draw with Manchester City last weekend.

Rodgers and co. just have to hope it's not too little too late for a side who started the season on such a shaky footing with a heavy 3-0 defeat to West Brom. Liverpool have not been in the Champions League since 2009-10 - an underachievement almost unthinkable for a club their size.

And it's the Baggies who Liverpool face next, as they look to continue their recent good league form.

The Reds host Steve Clarke's men - who are going through their own rough patch at the moment - next Monday night and are big 1.4 favourites for the win.

The Baggies have not won a league game since their 2-1 victory over QPR on Boxing Day and have slipped from a promising position and pushing for a European place to ninth.

And the West Brom fixture is the first of what Liverpool fans will consider a very favourable run-in. Of their remaining games this season, the Reds only have three against those sides currently above them (Tottenham, Chelsea and Everton), all of which will be played at Anfield.

Liverpool's recent run of good form has certainly added as extra spark to what was already shaping up to be an enthralling conclusion to another Premier League season, but with all factors considered, it could be even better than any of us are anticipating.