Klopp, beware: Crystanbul is a reminder that chasing down City is not easy

It is May 5, 2014, shortly before 10pm, and crouched down on the turf at Selhurst Park, Luis Suarez holds his shirt over his eyes to mask the tears.

Liverpool's players are shell-shocked, and fans watch on from the away end in disbelief, the Premier League title having slipped from their grasp in the space of 11 mad minutes.

Crystal Palace players celebrate as though they have won a trophy and, 230 miles up the M40, Manchester City's players do the same because they legitimately might have.

From 0-3 to 3-3, this was the night dubbed Crystanbul, when Liverpool threw away their first league title in 24 years.

Although eight years have since passed, that fateful night at Palace should be a warning to Jurgen Klopp.

Of course, the situation is slightly different, but there are plenty of similarities that will worry Liverpool fans as they once again battle City to become Premier League champions.

Heading into the Palace game in 2014, Brendan Rodgers' side sat top of the league, three points above City, who had a game in hand on their rivals.

The most interesting part, though: goal difference. Should City have won that spare match, the pair would have been level on 80 points with just two games to go.

The bad news for Liverpool: City's eight-superior goal difference meant the title was theirs. Klopp's side still had plenty of work to do.

And so the Reds arrived at Anfield knowing that a heavy victory over a Palace team with nothing to play for could spark a near-miraculous chase of City's goal difference, and they were all set to fly out of the traps.

Eighteen minutes in, Joe Allen netted the opener, but Palace held firm until half-time to keep the score down to one, and the goal difference remained a seven-goal split.

It was the second half that exploded into life. Damien Delaney's own goal made it 2-0 Liverpool, and two minutes later Luis Suarez fired home to make it three. The goal difference split was down to five, and the away team were baying for blood.

Suarez raced over to Joel Ward, the Palace defender who had picked the ball out of the net, grabbing it off him and sprinting back to the halfway line. With another couple of goals, Liverpool could swing the title race back in their favour.

Alas, here's where it went wrong. Palace, who had seemed down and out, found a second wind. On the sidelines, Tony Pulis ranted and raved at his players' collapse and urged them to fight back.

First to spark the team into life was Delaney, whose own goal a few minutes earlier had helped Liverpool double their advantage. At half-time, he had been on the end of a barrage of abuse from his manager, too.

Liverpool legend Mark Lawrenson explains: 'I spoke to Tony Pulis about it a couple of years later. And he came in at half-time in that game, 3-0 down. And he just said to his two centre-backs, "You know what, you two?" He said, "I'm ripping up your contracts at the end of the season. You're absolutely hopeless."'

With one swipe of that left boot, though, Delaney proved he was not. His speculative shot from long-range found the top corner... new contract: earned.

'Once my goal went in, the whole of Selhurst seemed to come alive,' Delaney has since recalled. Seventy-nine minutes were on the clock and from 3-0 down, Palace had a goal. At that point, surely it was just a consolation?

The clock ticked on, into the 80s, and still Palace ploughed forward. From eyeing five or six a few minutes earlier, Liverpool were now pegged back and being forced to fight.

Yannick Bolasie picked the ball up on the left, weaving his way towards the box and attacking Glen Johnson with tricks and flicks. As he rolled the ball over his right foot and poked it to substitute Dwight Gayle in the middle, time seemed to stand still at Selhurst.

Opening his body up, Gayle side-footed into the bottom right and once again the home crowd erupted. 3-2, comeback well and truly on.

By this point, all plans were out of the window for Liverpool, as they desperately clung on to three points, goal difference thrust to the back of their minds.

Still the time ticked on, through 84, 85, 86 and 87, before Palace mounted yet another attack in search of that near-impossible equaliser.

In defence, Joel Ward thrust a long ball towards the Liverpool half, and the chest of star striker Glenn Murray. Rather than bring it down, he saw an opportunity to knock it on, and Gayle raced on to the ball.

With Simon Mignolet bearing down on him, Gayle poked the ball into the bottom-left corner, sparking pandemonium inside Selhurst Park.

In the stands, fans toppled over one another and on the pitch the players beamed. On the Liverpool bench, silence. Rodgers, hands in pockets, grimaced at what he was witnessing: the downfall of their season.

Fast forward eight years, and although Liverpool are currently second and three points behind, the goal difference dilemma remains with just three games to go.

Manchester City +68, Liverpool +64. The Reds once again behind and stuck with the same question: do we go for it, or not?

Up next is Aston Villa away, tonight. In the opposite dugout will be Steven Gerrard, a man who remembers Crystanbul all too well. He was the man picking Suarez up off the turf, pushing away the TV cameras to give his team-mate some privacy.

This time, though, he could be the one inflicting pain on his boyhood club. There have been plenty of goals between the two sides in recent years, with 42 in their last 10 meetings.

There have been 7-2s, 5-0s and 6-0s at Villa Park in the past three seasons alone, and the Reds know that if they can replicate a scoreline like that in their favour tonight, then they could overtake City and complete the goal difference swing. A psychological blow to their rivals ahead of the run-in.

But, of course, Klopp will be wary of trying too much. Liverpool have been here before, and the heartache of Crystanbul still remains. The pressure is on.