'As Liverpool continue to take a ferry across the misery of their own making, it is worth remembering that it was only four years ago when they were the second best team in the country. An insipid display against industrious but limited opponents makes one wonder whether we will ever be able to say that again.
Bill Shankly liked to quip that he would draw the curtains if Everton were playing at the bottom of the garden, but had this ensemble of mediocrity pitched up on his lawn even he would have turned off the lights and put in a rockery. That Steven Gerrard, the team’s talisman, was a neutered presence by the end, casting disdainful looks at lesser team-mates and evidently resigned to his fate, was worrying. Against a backdrop of rain, snow and sunshine, he was still Liverpool’s best player and the portents are deathly if their man for all seasons decides that this is his last. Chelsea can rarely have looked more appealing.'