BEVERLY HILLS, March 07, (THEWILL) – Steven Gerrard, former playmaker and legend of English Premier League club Liverpool and current manager of Scottish side Rangers has shepherded his club to their first league title since 2011 after a mathematical confirmation of their status as the 2020/2021 Scottish Premiership winners.
On Saturday, Rangers thrashed St Mirren 3-0 with goals from former Liverpool Englishman Ryan Kent, Colombia international Alfredo Morelos and the Romanian Ianis Hagi. But confirmation of title win could only come if second-placed defending champions Celtic dropped points away to Dundee United.
The celebration at the Ibrox outfit began when perennial winners Celtic drew blanks in their match throughout and ended with a bland stalemate, effectively giving Gerrard’s charges the League title. Had Celtic taken all three points on offer at Dundee, it would have meant that the win for the title would have shifted to next weekend’s Glasgow derby.
If that was the case, Rangers would have only needed to take one point from their final six games of the season to confirm their league victory, so a draw at Celtic Park would have seen Gerrard’s men confirm the title there on the grounds of their stiffest rivals and former Scottish Champions.
With the confirmation, however, they will go to that fixture as champions. Their victory means they halted Celtic advance to a 10th consecutive league title. After finishing second, 13 points adrift from Celtic in his third season last year, Gerrard has bettered that by taking the title with 18 points separating his side from Celtic.
When he took questions about their ride to the title last week, the English manager said: “For me it’s about becoming champions as quick as we can in any way we can do that. The important thing as a group is to just keeping winning football matches and it will happen when it happens.
“I totally respect that some fans might want to win it this way or that way – but I don’t think anyone will complain when we get this over the line.
“The important thing is to get that trophy back, get 55, knock all the 54s off the walls – that’s the main thing for me, adding to the wonderful history of this club.
“If it happens on Sunday in April or May, I don’t care so long as it happens.”
It has now happened, to his credit.
Meanwhile, his name has repeatedly cropped up in discussions about the decline at Liverpool with current German manager Jurgen Klopp under increasing pressure based on the series of poor results the team is recording at an alarming frequency. A 1-0 loss at Anfield against Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea made it an unprecedented fifth home loss for the Kop and for an EPL defending champion.
Presently, another home tie against relegation-threatened Fulham is not going well for Klopp’s charges who are behind by a lone goal well in the late stages of the game. If another loss is recorded, there might only be a few Liverpool fans who will not join the clamour to have the new League-winning Gerrard return to Anfield for a shot at the EPL trophy he failed to win as a player.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
