The Premier League title race will go into a final day but for all intents and purposes Liverpool have ceded the league to Manchester City.
With a significant goal difference advantage, the Sky Blues need just four points from their home games against Aston Villa and West Ham to almost certainly secure a second title in three years.
They do have Crystal Palace to thank for reeling in Liverpool's seemingly unassailable 3 - 0 lead at Selhurst Park last night and Samir Nasri did recognize that fact...
What a game , what a league , i love crystal palace so much now our turn to do the job
— Samir Nasri Official (@SamNasri19) May 5, 2014
But Liverpool will be blaming themselves. The stats from Squawka showed a sudden drop in output during the last 15 minutes of the game.
By the 75th minute, the Reds had rarely given the ball away with a pass success rate of 89 per cent, while their tackle completion rate was just shy of 50 per cent.
Yet the drop off in the final quarter of the match was alarming. From the 75th minute, the Reds managed to complete just three-quarters of their attempted passes...
Their success from tackles began to become a failure in those final minutes as their completion rate dropped to 25 per cent.
Of course Palace more than played their part and 65th minute substitute Dwight Gayle grabbed the headlines with two goals.
Coming on for Jason Puncheon who had operated from the right flank, Gayle operated more centrally and to the left as Yannick Bolasie roved from flank to flank.
On Gayle's side of the pitch, Glen Johnson's passing success was minimal with just 2 of his 7 attempted passes reaching their intended target in the final quarter. All of his four attempted tackles in that period of the game were also unsuccessful.
Prior to that he had completed over 90 per cent of his passes in the first 75 minutes of the match.
So many sofa experts in this game.... Absolutely no idea about football what so ever! #Jokers
— Glen Johnson (@glen_johnson) May 5, 2014
While he was a bit miffed by last night's criticism, he wasn't the only Liverpool player to give the ball away more often during the crucial juncture of the game with the likes of Steven Gerrard, Joe Allen and Lucas Leiva all dropping significantly in the pass completion stakes.
