Liverpool’s win at Portsmouth last night was all that Liverpool could do about getting into fourth place. Everton beat a poor Manchester United to keep the gap to three points. After the game Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez spoke about these results: "Everton’s result tonight makes it a bit more difficult for us,
but we can’t control what happens on other pitches. All we know is that we need to collect three more points than Everton in our last four games and our idea at Crystal Palace on Saturday will be to win and hope we can reduce the gap."
He continued: "We deserved this win tonight and the players controlled the game, but we should have scored more. When you dominate a game but only have a one goal lead there is always the chance of a surprise at the end. We had so many chances tonight and John Arne Riise could have had a hatrick."
Rafa left Gerrard on the bench tonight for most of the game and so probably expected to be asked why the captain didn’t start. It was to rest him, with the heavy schedule Liverpool are now in the middle of to consider: "We have a lot of games coming up and we have to take that into account when we’re picking the team. I will need to speak to Steven and decide whether he plays on Saturday."