Rush in a hurry for title glory

It was back on August 24, just two games into the campaign, when Ian Rush began to suspect that Liverpool’s stated target of qualification for the Champions League need not be the sum of their season’s ambitions.

For too long, the club had hamstrung itself by drawing games they should have won and losing ones they might have drawn. It was an opening day 1-0 win over Stoke City and follow-up defeat of Aston Villa in Birmingham that suggested better times were to come.

Simon Mignolet was key to both. Nerves had got the better of the former Sunderland goalkeeper on his debut against Stoke, but then he saved a late penalty from Jonathan Walters and followed it up with a key save from Christian Benteke at Villa Park.