1. Pile-drivers
The Premiership will miss those screamers launched from his right boot. The ones that went from Zero to Goal in a heartbeat. Dubbed as “pile-drivers” for their speed, force and accuracy, these Stevie G stunners tore through the air and tested the structural integrity of the goal as it rammed into the net. Most memorable one would be the beauty against Manchester United in 2001. 

2. “This does not f***ing slip”.… Oops
That is what Gerrard had yelled out to his mates in a team huddle after an emphatic 3-2 win over Manchester City. Liverpool were five points clear at the top of the league in 2013-14 with three games to go. With one hand on the trophy, Liverpool faced Chelsea next and fate decided to troll the captain. Gerrard slipped and fell, allowing Chelsea to score and eventually win 2-0. The meme world exploded, with the Liverpool hero sadly on his knees. 

3. Red card: Gone in 38 seconds
Gerrard, like Raymond, is one of those guys everyone loves. Nothing, not even this incident, could tarnish that though it left him as red-faced as his jersey. On March 22, Gerrard came off the bench as a substitute and was back on the bench in 38 seconds after a red card for a nasty tackle on Man United’s Ander Herrera. His heat map was a straight line from the dugout to the centre and back. 

4. Captaincy
Unlike cricket, captaincy in football is often just an armband around a senior member of the team. Not for Gerrard. He poured his emotion and energy into that armband, leading his team from the front and wearing that band like Bachchan wore his billa no. 786 in Deewaar! “Sometimes I stop on the drive home from Melwood and just sit in the car and tell myself: ‘I’m captain of Liverpool football club’,” he wrote in his autobiography. 

5. L for Loyalty and Liverpool
If Harry Potter was “the Boy who lived”, then Steven was “the Boy who stayed”. In an age of football when loyalty keeps losing out to fat pay cheques, Gerrard has been an inspiration in the English top flight. He was on the verge of wearing the blue of Chelsea in 2005 and 2006 and was flooded by offers from the elite of Europe after Champions League victory in 2005. For 17 years, Gerrard was Liverpool, Liverpool was Gerrard. 

6. Mourinho wanted him
When Jose Mourinho took over Chelsea in 2005, he wanted Steven Gerrard in London. He wanted him again in 2006. Thirty-two million pounds was what Mourinho was willing to pay for the Liverpool talisman. “I dreamt of Makelele, Gerrard and Lampard. It was almost there,” said the Chelsea boss later. Mourinho recently admitted that he would miss the Liverpool number 8. 

7. Kiss cam 
Not just Mourinho and the fans, but the cameras of the Premiership will miss the former Liverpool captain and his lips. Since 2009, when he scored in a spectacular 4-1 victory over Man United and raced towards the television camera and planted a kiss, Gerrard and the cameras have had a kiss-and-tell affair. If only he could have kissed a Premier League trophy or two.

8. 2008-09 season: Torres-Gerrard bromance
That was one helluva season for the captain and his side. He scored 24 goals that campaign, the best tally of his career. Manager Rafa Benitez’s experiment of playing Fernando Torres as striker and Gerrard just behind him saw the two striking up a Batman-Robin camaraderie and come within inches of the trophy. They gave United a run for their money till the end, eventually falling four points short.

9. Mr Liverpool
Some footballers earn the rare distinction of being a personification of their clubs. Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes for Manchester United, Dennis Bergkamp and manager Arsene Wenger for Arsenal, John Terry for Chelsea and absolutely no one for Manchester City. Steven Gerrard has not just been the face of Liverpool but also its heart and soul. 

10. What now? 
This is the question not just the Premier League has been asking but also an entire generation of football watchers since the new millennium, who have never watched a season till now which has not featured Steven Gerrard. How does one fill the void? What now? In certain ways, Steven Gerrard was also Mr Premier League. Something will surely be amiss. 

Sushovan Sircar
My bye-bye message to Gerrard is.... 
Tell t2@abp.in