the 2 point gap was because they were utterly horrendous and we were excellent
you can go on about it all you want (much like when we were the best side in the country outside of the top 4, when in league 1)
but we are not competitors with liverpool, anymore than norwich
our rivals are really, newcastle, swansea, palace, stoke, villa, everton, west ham (for how much longer, I dont know due to their new ground)