Pressure reaches boiling point

WHEN you have faced up to your mortality as recently as Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier, it is advisable to keep sport in perspective.

But if Houllier and three other Premiership managers get just a little tense and irritable tomorrow on touchlines up and down the country, it would be entirely understandable.

Because while Alex Ferguson and his Manchester United players are relaxing at Goodison Park, having already won the Premiership trophy, Liverpool will be taking on Chelsea at Stamford Bridge with the winner taking the prize of a qualifying place in the Champions League.

If that, with a potential £20m resting on the outcome, was not fraught enough, then spare a thought for the fans of West Ham and Bolton.

West Ham have to beat Birmingham at St Andrew's to stand a realistic chance of avoiding relegation which would cost them £15m and see the break-up of a side packed with some of the most burgeoning talent in English football.

Bolton, meanwhile, have to beat Middlesbrough at the Reebok Stadium to be sure of Premiership safety, which would signify the latest miracle of manager Sam Allardyce who has not spent a penny on transfers in the last two seasons.

Rags or riches? Security or oblivion? All hinging on the outcome of the final 90 minutes of a season which, while proving the rich get more powerful with each passing year, has also demonstrated that shoestring clubs such as Bolton still have the wit and resourcefulness to take four points off worthy champions such as Manchester United.

But first let's look at Liverpool's task at Stamford Bridge and argue that English football would be better served by an Anfield presence in the most prestigious tournament in club football. Not just because of Liverpool's history though with four European Cups under their belt they are by far the most successful British club in Europe with a name, carved by such as Keegan, Dalglish, Rush, Hansen and Souness, which stands for power and passing excellence.

There is a solidity and a depth to Liverpool's squad which, with a couple of close-season additions, perhaps on the lines of Leeds United's Harry Kewell, could see the old red machine once again purring along with the genuine elite.

Chelsea are not nearly in the same bracket. Despite Claudio Ranieri's attempts to bring on a local youngster such as Carlton Cole, together with a whole legion of foreign stars, they remain a club with more style than substance.

Gianfranco Zola is as industrious and intelligent as ever at 36, but still Chelsea struggle to break down packed defences and we can be sure Liverpool, the classic counter-attacking team, will be tighter at Stamford Bridge than when generously gifting Nicolas Anelka two late goals at home last weekend.

The fact that Chelsea need only a draw could also militate against them because there is nothing like the clarity of purpose in knowing you have to win, a fact conceded by goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini.

"I think we have to try to win," he said. "Otherwise I am scared it could end up like the games at Aston Villa and West Ham when we thought a draw could be a good result and ended up losing."

A draw might be good enough for either West Ham or Bolton, locked together on the same number of points, with the northwest club having the superior goal difference, but neither can rely on it.

Unsatisfactorily, it could all come down to the mood of their opponents. Middlesbrough and Birmingham are both safe, their seasons are effectively over in lower table respectability. Inevitably, players' minds at such times turn to deck chairs, sun tan lotion and travel agents. Which is why I can see both West Ham and Bolton winning and the Hammers going down, deserved punishment for a season in which they stirred themselves only when it was too late.

It would be tough on Glenn Roeder, recovering from his minor stroke, though his early-season prevarication and inability to extract the best out of Paolo Di Canio was instrumental in West Ham's demise.

It would be tough too on caretaker boss Trevor Brooking, whose iconic status among everyone attached to the claret and blues has brought hope as well as triumph in his first two matches in football management.

If only West Ham's players had shown more of his commitment and loyalty, qualities which saw Brooking stay with his only club when a player because he was too embarrassed to leave when they were relegated in the 1980s after he had enjoyed a testimonial the previous year.

How times have changed.