Carragher and Neville reminiscing about greatest PL title races of all-time

Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville have been reminiscing about one of the greatest Premier League title races of all-time.

“Rafa [Benitez] came in and we won the Champions League but we were nowhere near the top sides in Europe at that time,” said Carragher.

“It was a great journey and we got a little bit of luck but we were nowhere near those top sides, we needed to build under Rafa and that was almost year four or five.

"Similarly, under Gerard Houllier, if Manchester United weren't happy with a season, they could just go and blitz the transfer market and get themselves to number one position, whereas we had to get better and stronger under Rafa Benitez and it culminated in that season.

"People talk about Liverpool not winning the title last season and losing one game, we only lost two! It was normally if you lost five or six you had a great chance of winning the title.

"I actually think that era, between 2005 to 2010, those four of five years were the strongest the Premier League has ever been. Those were the years we had three out of four of the Champions League semi-finals every year.

"People will say Liverpool never won the Premier League or Steven Gerrard never lifted the Premier League but, at that time, we were up against the best Man United team of all time in that 08/09 team.

"Jose Mourinho's Chelsea team were in there too. Every team in that era felt like it was the best manager they ever had and also the best team in some way. The competition was so strong, it was a pleasure to play in. Every season it felt like we had a great chance of winning the Champions League which shows how strong the Premier League was."

United legend Neville said: "Liverpool were the nearest they got to us in terms of quality that season, I think of [Xabi] Alonso, [Javier] Mascherano and [Fernando] Torres, players like that.

“They were fantastic.”