Them Vs The Other Them

 Sunday sees Man Utd visit Chelsea in a fixture that throws up a real head versus heart dilemma. Who do we want to win? Easy, right? We don't want Utd to win the title and open up a two championship gap on us, that's not a difficult choice. But a quick glance at the league table and it's obvious we don't want Chelsea to pick up maximum points either if we have any ambitions of finishing in a Champions League place.
 Spurs have been largely impressive this season and should build on that next term, the two Manchester clubs will probably finish as the top two this May and quite likely next May aswell. Chelsea and Arsenal have been very inconsistent in the league so far and could both put forward strong cases for why they will be better next season so the remaining fifteen or so matches this time around are vital for Liverpool's hopes of returning to Europe's top table. If we can push on from our recent upturn in form and come through our next group of tricky fixtures relatively unscathed I see no reason why we can't finish the season strongly and look behind us at Chelsea and Arsenal rather than up at them.
 Luis Suarez played in the Copa America last summer so his January 'rest' will have done him good, Steven Gerrard's season didn't really start until October so our key players should still be fresh for the run in. Add that to a kind fixture list meaning of our last eleven league games only one is a fixture (Torres' return to Anfield) against a team challenging at the top and all of a sudden a top four place doesn't seem so far from our reach. Transfer targets will be keenly fought over next summer, especially after the shop window of a major international tournament so if we can offer Champions League football it will give us a massive edge when it comes to persuading top players that Anfield is the right move for them.
 So where does all of this leave Sunday's fixture? It's not an easy thing to say but I think our need for Cheslea to be defeated outweighs our desire to see them put Man Utd to the sword......