text: March 30, 2014. The slip hasn’t happened and Liverpool are looking strong. They are top of the league with six games to go and only Manchester City are better placed, theoretically, with two games in hand to make up a four-point deficit. There will be a slip, there will be a surge and there will be tears. Theory wins, romance loses. Life at the top, as it was then. Dejected Manchester City players during their 4-2 derby defeat to Manchester United on Sunday . Jubilant Liverpool players celebrate Raheem Sterling's opening goal against Newcastle United on Monday . Man City currently have a four-point lead over Liverpool in the race for the final Champions League place . Today, the last meaningful race among the top teams is between Liverpool and City. But the context is different. Manchester City lead Liverpool by four points and each has played 32 games. The stakes are astonishing, but only because the Champions League is an extremely big deal and they are currently in a pursuit for that last spot in the top four. Times have changed. These days it is Liverpool doing the chasing. They have had their own problems this season but the nitrous balloon has not burst. So, what of Manchester City? The numbers are woefully inadequate. Some examples: City have nine points fewer than at this stage last season; their 4-2 defeat against Manchester United saw them concede four for the first time since 2009; they have lost four of their past six Premier League games and five in 2015, which is one more than in the whole of 2014. They have gone from being champions to contenders to weak also-rans, a side that has amassed two wins, three defeats and three draws in eight games against the rest of the current top five. City profited from a Liverpool collapse to claim the Premier League title last season . Steven Gerrard's infamous slip against Chelsea was the moment the title pendulum swung towards City . Liverpool's surrender of a three-goal lead at Crystal Palace also cost them the title last season . April 19 West Ham (H) April 25 Aston Villa (H) May 3 Tottenham Hotspur (A) May 10 Queens Park Rangers (H) May 17 Swansea City (A) May 24 Southampton (H) April 25 West Brom (A) April 28 Hull City (A) May 2 Queens Park Rangers (H) May 10 Chelsea (A) May 16 Crystal Palace (H) May 24 Stoke City (A) When they fell behind against Manchester United they collapsed. That, perhaps more than the result, could be what crushes Manuel Pellegrini in the final analysis. They are a team seemingly without spirit or direction. Yaya Toure and Samir Nasri are free to leave in the summer, which would indicate an acceptance from the rulers above that major changes are needed. Which brings us back to Liverpool, a team that had far less of a choice in its major change to personnel last summer. Luis Suarez went and the void became a black hole, apparently sucking the energy out of the rest of them. Liverpool fell, but Liverpool climbed again and here they are. It says plenty about each side’s season that on December 28 the gap between them was 18 points. Brendan Rodgers faced heavy scrutiny and he still does – questions over the use of the Suarez money not least among them. But it is a measure of the manager that they have kept their gloves up. They were poor in recent defeats against Arsenal and Manchester United and they were far from their best in the subsequent wins against Blackburn and Newcastle. But they found ways to win and, as such, will contest an FA Cup semi-final and hold an outside chance of a top-four place in the league. Certainly, and rightly, Rodgers will face flak if success is not found on either front. Manuel Pellegrini has come under mounting pressure following a poor run of results . Influential players such as Yaya Toure could be going through the Etihad exit door in the summer . Brendan Rodgers has masterminded Liverpool's return to form at the perfect time . Rodgers will hope the controversies over Raheem Sterling's contract and hippy crack taking do not affect the youngster's performances and Liverpool's run-in . But what he has proven again is that he can inspire this dressing room; he can still generate motivation in a group that has had a mediocre season and among whom is a leading player unhappy with his contract situation. The longer serving among the squad at Swansea still talk of a man who ‘knows the name of every cousin’. An exaggeration, certainly, but it is worth noting that almost two years after his departure, players and staff from Swansea were still using his man-management as a reason to suggest life under Michael Laudrup, a cup winner at the club, was not as good. There are few such testimonies for Pellegrini, whose job surely depends on the outcome of this run in. City face West Ham, Aston Villa, Tottenham, QPR, Swansea and Southampton. Four of those are at home. Liverpool play West Brom, Hull, QPR, Chelsea, Crystal Palace and Stoke, as well as an FA Cup semi-final against Aston Villa. Four of those league games are away from Anfield, but like City, it is not a run-in that would have one cursing their luck. It is a shootout, then, between a side that still has a spark and another that appears desperate for the season to end. From this point last season, City took five wins and a draw from their last six games to take the title. They were storming towards the line. A year on, they look as if they would blow over in a decent breeze.
target: 12 months ago, it was Man City who reeled in Liverpool to win the league .
  Now, the boot is on the other foot as Reds hunt fourth place .
  The gap currently stands at four points but City are in freefall .
  Derby loss to Man United has increased the pressure on Manuel Pellegrini .
  Liverpool, by contrast, may have come good at the perfect moment .
  Missing out on Champions League is unthinkable for both clubs .