As the stresses multiply, romance has a habit of being flipped on its head.

No image from this battle between attack and defence could have been crueller than Steven Gerrard miscontrolling the ball and slipping over to allow Demba Ba to score Chelsea’s first goal in their 2-0 win at Anfield on Sunday.

The rebirth of Brendan Rodgers’ team has been two stories in one — the quest to win the English title for the first time in 24 summers, and Gerrard’s mission to complete his medal collection with a Premier League disc. His loyalty and perseverance have come to express the whole club’s striving to be back on the pedestal, and none of that changes with one bad first touch and a slip of the studs.

Liverpool had many chances to cancel out Ba’s breakaway goal before Willian scored a second moments before the final whistle. But the symbolism was easy to recognise as Chelsea returned to the chase and Manchester City defeated Crystal Palace 2-0, renewing hope of regaining the title they lost to Manchester United last year.

Gerrard, the narrative ran, was finally receiving his due for rejecting Chelsea’s advances, tolerating a never-ending influx of substandard players and seeing United, Arsenal, Chelsea and City all mount the podium during his time at the top.

In the autumn of his playing days, “Stevie G” found a manager of great creative energy and attacking intent. He would lead Liverpool back to the land of plenty at the head of a wonderfully entertaining side: “The polar opposite”, to use Rodgers’ phrase, of the Chelsea team who confounded them three games short of the finishing line.

Gerrard and Liverpool will fight on at Crystal Palace and at home to Newcastle, though the outcome is no longer in their hands. “This is a boy who’s picked up this club so many times, and it was just really unfortunate, at a crucial moment, right on half-time,” Rodgers said.

While Gerrard’s fine contribution this season was hardly erased by one error, the cost of it, though, was to send Liverpool out for the second-half more jumpy and hurried and probably less hopeful that the blue barricades could be broken.

Twice in a week, Chelsea have smothered league leaders — they held Spain’s Atletico Madrid to a 0-0 draw in the Champions League semi-final first leg — and kept clean sheets.

The purist will endorse Rodgers’ comment that Chelsea probably had “two buses parked today rather than one”. But what Liverpool needed, their manager said, was “a wee bit of combination play around the box”, icy composure rather than a banging of heads against walls.

Liverpool are now on a long and distinguished list of Jose Mourinho’s tactical victims. There is only one way to win the title after a 24-year wait and Gerrard knows it better than anyone. The hard way.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Paul Hayward is The Daily Telegraph’s chief sports writer.