A win at Anfield, and the title is Chelsea’s. But anything other than three points against Liverpool and it’s as good as over. 90 minutes away from glory or 90 minutes away from a whole season’s work being undone. That’s the tantalising situation the Blues find themselves in.

With a bit more conviction and belief, it needn’t have come to this. They have had several opportunities over the course of the season to pull away at the top of the table and open up an unassailable lead. But anytime they threatened to do so, they wimped out. The attitude, hunger and desire hasn’t always been there and it’s opened the door for Manchester United when it could have been slammed shut.

 

And if they bottle it now, there will be no coming back because United will not pass up the chance to beat Sunderland and Stoke to retain their crown.

To bring the Premier League back to Stamford Bridge, Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti will have to overcome his old adversary from the 2005 Champions League final, who of course defied the odds to come from three goals down to deny his AC Milan side. By 6pm on Sunday he will either be sick of the sight of them or relishing victory.

Mathematically at least, the title won’t necessarily be decided even if Chelsea win on Merseyside (although it depends on what United do at the Stadium of Light) because failure to beat Wigan on the last day of the season will almost certainly hand the title to the Old Trafford club. And while there have been extraordinary twists in this season’s title race, that won’t happen.