We need to keep calm, says tearful Gerrard

Steven Gerrard felt Liverpool made the biggest statement of their title intentions yet as he revelled in the emotions of his team’s dramatic win over Manchester City.

Brendan Rodgers’ team are now seven points ahead of third-placed City, who have two games in hand, with four matches remaining and with Chelsea still to visit Anfield.

The Reds led through Raheem Sterling and Martin Skrtel and after David Silva and Glen Johnson’s own-goal evened it up in the second half, Philippe Coutinho fired in a winner 11 minutes from time as the club prepares to mark the 25th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster.

Gerrard, 34 next month, feels his team have shown they can hold their nerve, with matches against Norwich, Chelsea, Crystal Palace and Newcastle between them and a first title since 1990.

The England captain looked to be wiping away tears at the final whistle and said: “I’m emotional. We need to keep calm. There are still four big games to come. That meant so much especially when they got back into the game and you feared the worst at that point. But I think we have shown today that we are going to go to the wire and go all the way. Nothing is won yet, but that was the biggest statement we’ve made.

“It was probably the longest 90 minutes I’ve played in. I kept flashing back to how long the clock was taking in cup finals and big games I’ve played in before. It felt like the clock was going backwards in some parts.

“I’m lost for words at the moment because that is such a big result for us. We’ve got four cup finals left. People said that was the biggest one, but I disagree. The biggest one now is Norwich.”

The only downsides to Liverpool’s win were the hamstring injury sustained by Daniel Sturridge and a late red card for Jordan Henderson that will keep the midfielder out until the final match of the season.

City manager Manuel Pellegrini refused to criticise referee Mark Clattenburg but clearly felt Luis Suarez should have been shown a second yellow card for two separate diving incidents.

The Chilean said: “Suarez has a special way to play and everyone knows him. Our defender managed without any problems and the referee must decide if he dives or doesn’t dive.”

Pellegrini defended the decision to start with Vincent Kompany despite the City captain sustaining a knee injury in training on Saturday and looking short of fitness.

The City manager maintains that defeat at Anfield does not kill his team’s title hopes. “I said before the game that this is not the end of the Premier League. The most important thing now is about what we can do in the future,” he added. “Liverpool now has to play more and if they win four more games and end up winning 14 straight games, then maybe they deserve to win the title but we are going to continue fighting until the end.”