If the Premiership is to be thrown wide open, then there is an urgent need for some stamping and hollering just now while Manchester United are taking 40 winks. So far, their challengers have tended to approach the recumbent champions on tiptoe.
Since holding a six-point lead on St Stephen's Day, United have been beaten in three league games out of four, but all that has happened immediately below them is a closing of the pursuing ranks. Whereas six points covered Blackburn, Chelsea and Liverpool, they are now level on 45 and separated only by Chelsea's superior goal difference and Blackburn's greater number of goals scored.
Manchester United remain just out of reach, and their blue periods rarely last long. A win for Liverpool or Blackburn would have cut United's lead to two points, instead of which, Chelsea have slipped into second place and all three are four off the lead.
A resurgent Liverpool is Ferguson's biggest fear, with the consistency of Roy Hodgson's well-organised, disciplined Blackburn side not far behind. Somehow, Chelsea's flower power does not pose quite the same threat.
The news from Old Trafford made Saturday's goalless afternoon at Anfield all the more frustrating, not only for the participants and their supporters, but for those who would like the championship to go the full distance. While there were a number of good things in the match - Blackburn's defending, for example, and the determination with which Liverpool laid siege to their goal after half-time - the failure of either attack to break the stalemate left the occasion unfulfilled.
"The hare is a little bit closer," observed Roy Evans afterwards, but even now, with 14 games left, the tortoise will need to get its skates on.
The Liverpool manager, rightly encouraged by his team's run of six wins and two draws in the league since losing 3-1 at home to Manchester United on December 6th, was full of enthusiasm for his players' discovery of the work ethic. Yet with the great Liverpool sides of the past, one took the effort for granted and marvelled at the quality of the football. Sweat alone will not be enough to bring Anfield its first Premier League championship to add to the 18 titles won under the old system.
On Saturday, for all the possession they enjoyed in the second half, Evans's team could not find the inspiration to outwit a Blackburn defence superbly marshalled by Colin Hendry and Stephane Henchoz.
What chances they had were either blocked by the centre-backs or saved by the goalkeeper - Henchoz thwarting Michael Owen in the 12th minute, Hendry preventing Oyvind Leonhardsen exploiting a rebound after Tim Flowers had kept out a close-range shot from Owen in the 53rd - or indeed missed altogether.
It is Manchester United's good fortune that their present lapse of form is being shared by the Liverpool player most likely to make them suffer for it, Robbie Fowler. Against Blackburn, Owen's precocious qualities were not quite enough and touches of the pre-Christmas Fowler were unforthcoming.
"Fowler's contribution to the team today was fantastic," declared Evans loyally. But it was not sufficiently `fantastic' to accept the chance which came his way 14 minutes from the end. Steve Harkness and Patrik Berger found the weight and angle of pass to split the previously unsplittable Blackburn defence, leaving Fowler with all the goal to aim at and only Flowers to beat. He shot wide.
By then, Liverpool's hopes of victory rested entirely with Fowler and Owen. At half-time, they lost Steve McManaman, kept off as a precaution because of a tight hamstring, and just past the hour, more seriously, Jason McAteer broke the fibula in his left leg during an innocuous tackle with Billy McKinlay near the Blackburn byline.
McAteer may be out for two months and the strength of his right-wing partnership with McManaman, which during the first half on Saturday looked Liverpool's most promising avenue of approach, is bound to be missed. With Jamie Redknapp recovering from a cartilage operation, Evans suddenly finds himself short of the players he needs to maintain the pressure on United.
The way Blackburn played keep-ball after forcing a corner in stoppage time suggested that they had long since settled for a point, an understandable attitude in view of the amount of defending they had done, but had they been a little more positive in the first half, their afternoon might have been more rewarding.
Tim Sherwood's composure and assured passing enabled Blackburn to control the tempo of the early play and had the prolific partnership of Chris Sutton and Kevin Gallacher been given more consistent support, David James might have had more to do than keep out a couple of Sutton's cross-shots.
Again, Hodgson did not introduce the in-form Damien Duff until the 80th minute, when the young winger replaced the injured Gallacher. With Liverpool's right flank deprived of both McManaman and McAteer for much of the second half, Duff would surely have made more of a difference had he arrived earlier.
Hodgson is convinced that the only way to take the title off Manchester United is to beat them in the field and not rely on the champions to drop points elsewhere. But Liverpool and Blackburn missed a trick all the same and there are not that many trumps left in the pack.
Liverpool: James, McAteer (Jones 63), Babb, McManaman (Berger 46), Leonhardsen, Fowler, Harkness, Ince, Owen, Matteo, Carragher. Subs Not Used: Riedle, Murphy, Nielson.
Blackburn Rovers: Flowers, Kenna, Sherwood, Hendry, Ripley, Gallacher (Duff 80), Sutton, Wilcox, McKinlay, Croft, Henchoz. Subs Not Used: Pedersen, Bohinen, Valery, Fettis. Booked: Hendry.
Referee: P A Durkin (Portland).
