Mass Effect wrote:
Finding it bizarre that a lot of people are bringing Liverpool's integrity into question regarding the title race and "possibly" wanting to lose to Chelsea. Fergie and Rooney talked about Liverpool's "pride", but yet no-one has even mentioned another deciding factor..........
...........Steve Bruce and Sunderland.
Wonder if anyone is going to set the ball rolling with the conspiracy theories that the former Man Utd captain and legend will get his side to lie down and let his mentor and former club take an easy 3 points?
The Liverpool-Chelsea match is the decisive one. If Chelsea beat Liverpool, it doesn't particularly matter what Sunderland and Man United do.
There is an obvious reason why Liverpool wouldn't want to help United, they would overtake them as the most successful league side in the history of the English football. IMO that matters far more to the supporters than it will to the players or manager.
Benitez and the players still have the chance of 4th, and even if that's not possible they will still want to get Thursday off their minds and end a horrible season on a high. And while they enjoy helping United take the title by beating Chelsea, it's not like they wouldn't take great delight in screwing up our title bid.
I think the figure I've seen for the difference between Sunderland finishing the highest they can and the lowest is something like £4m. That's an enormous amount of money at stake for a club like Sunderland for a couple of games. There's also Sunderland's home record at stake. They've lost two games at home all season.
For me everyone has made the right noises over these games. Unlike in the last few seasons where United's opponents in some of the last few games virtually congratulated United on their wins over them before the games had been played.
