Having paid a national record £8.5million for Nottingham Forest striker Stan Collymore in the close season, Liverpool were many people's favourites for the league title in 1995–96 – especially as defending champions Blackburn Rovers had failed to significantly add to their squad and runners-up Manchester United had sold three key players but begun the season without a single major signing.

1994–95 had arguably been Liverpool's best season of the post-Dalglish era, as they had finished fourth and won the Football League Cup.

Collymore too was rich on form from the beginning: he found the net on his debut at Liverpool won 1–0 at Sheffield Wednesday on the opening day of the Premier League season.

[1] September started on a low note for the Reds as they lost 1–0 at Wimbledon, but pulled together to win their following games 3–0 over Blackburn Rovers and 5–2 over newly promoted Bolton Wanderers (with Robbie Fowler scoring four times) to end September in third place, with a young Manchester United side and a bolstered Newcastle United leading the way.

They were, however, closely under pressure from a resurgent Arsenal, newly promoted Middlesbrough and also a Nottingham Forest side who seemed to be coping well without Stan Collymore.

[6] Liverpool's best chance of silverware appeared to be in the FA Cup, where they began with a 7–0 third round win over Rochdale in which Ian Rush set a new record for career goals scored in the competition.

April began with a 4–3 home win over Newcastle United – a match widely regarded as one of the most exciting league games of the 1990s.

It was a relatively dull game despite all the hype that surrounded a clash under the twin towers for the nation's two most successful clubs, and with just five minutes remaining it was still deadlock and extra time was looking likely.

Liverpool failed to even make a serious attempt to equalise and the trophy was won by their opponents for a record ninth time.