Liverpool dispatched West Brom 2-0 on May 17, with a first half goal from Steven Gerrard and a second half strike from Dirk Kuyt, ensuring that the Reds will maintain the distance from third placed Chelsea and accumulating their highest tally of points ever in the Premiership.

Boss Rafa Benitez was delighted at his team's perfromance and spoken of his pride in his players for "overcoming their heartache at losing the title to United, and still having the drive and determination to go out and win".

The Reds had to endure a strong and determined home side who knew they had to beat Liverpool to have any hope of suvival in top flight football next season. West Brom played bravely, with passion and aggression, but Shelton Martis made a terrible mistake in presenting the ball to Steven Gerrard after misreading the situation. The opening Liverpool goal did little to dampen West Brom's spirit and their surges to Pepe Reina continued, backed by a spartan crowd.

The Baggies were leaving themselves short in defence and Liverpool took a second advantage as Kuyt advanced on the right flank, saw that Fernando Torres was well offside, and dispatched a vicious low strike in the right corner which spelt relegation for West Brom.

Following the end of the game, Rafael Benitez refused to congratulate Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson for beating his side to the Premier League title.

"I prefer just to say well done to the club, a big club, a good club," he said after Liverpool beat West Brom 2-0.

"Normally you have to be polite and respect the other manager but during the season we have seen a lot of things that I didn't like, so that's it," he said as quoted by the BBC.

"I say congratulations to United because they have won. And that's it."

Those remarks will only intensify the on-going feud between the two managers as they have traded blows while their teams battled for the league crown.

In another controversial moment during the match with Albion, the boss decided not to scold or take any punitive action against his players, Jamie Carragher  and Alvaro Arbeola who had a toe to toe late in the second half.  Instead, he dismissed this as proof of their commitment and drive for success and evidence of a winning mentality that should serve the Reds well next season.
 
"You could see Carragher and Arbeloa because we wanted a clean sheet and they were a little bit nervous, " he said as quoted by the Liverpool website.
 
"Arbeloa was going forward and then we had some problems in defence. We wanted to protect Pepe Reina because now I think he has 20 clean sheets - van der Sar has 21," he said.