Gerrard: This might be my best chance

Now halfway through his 16th attempt to guide the Reds to the summit of English football, the midfielder can assess his fourth-place team's ambitions with a positive outlook after 20 games played.

The Premier League title is the single major honour to have eluded the 33-year-old talisman during his club career to date, but the passion to achieve that target remains entrenched in the No.8's psyche.

In an extensive and wide-ranging interview with Sky Sports, the skipper has explained why finishing first in the top flight would potentially match the glory of Istanbul 2005 and how it is possible in 2013-14.

Also on the agenda was the Englishman's recent return from a hamstring injury, the competitiveness of the division and his desire to experience Champions League football once more. Read on for the best bits...

On his recent hamstring injury...

Any footballer would echo that being out is the worst time as a footballer. You feel out of it, you don't feel part of the group and it can be lonely when you're in the gym doing your rehab along with the physio. [It is good] to be back in amongst the group training and I've had some minutes now, so I'm ready to fire. Hopefully I'll be in from the start from now on. [It was frustrating] because of the games I knew I was going to miss - Spurs away, City away and Chelsea away are three of the biggest games you play when you're fighting for top-four positions. When I got the injury and got the scan results, I was told four to six weeks initially. I knew that for the whole of the Christmas period I wasn't going to be available. It was disappointing, but more so because of the games and who we were going to be playing against.

On the 2013-14 Premier League...

Teams are taking points off each other. The teams in the middle of the Premier League are very strong now; the league is improving year by year, so the top sides are not having it all their way. It's very exciting for the supporters out there. For us, it gives us a fantastic opportunity to stay in amongst it. If we find some consistency, we believe we can take one of these top four places. That was our aim at the beginning of the season. The key is always your home form; over the years, we have dropped silly points at home and teams have come to Anfield with the attitude of having a chance to take something off Liverpool. But if you look at our home form under Brendan, in 2013 over the calendar year it was very consistent and very strong. If you get your home form right, then you can build on your away form. Our away form has been a little bit inconsistent - that's what we're working on and if we can get that right, we'll be a force in this league. That's the challenge now.

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On hosting top-four rivals at Anfield...

In the away games against City and Chelsea, Liverpool performed very well. I didn't play in the games, but watching them, we more than matched them. I felt we were actually better than Manchester City over the 90 minutes and if a few things had gone our way we could have won that game. Chelsea, to be fair to them, for 45 minutes were very good - the best I've seen them this season - but over the 90 minutes we gave a very good account of ourselves. So I think those sides, coming to Anfield, will show us an awful lot of respect; maybe they'll set up differently and come to Anfield looking for points rather than going gung-ho and trying to beat us. I think what we've earned this year and this season so far is a lot of respect. Those top sides coming to Anfield are in for a hell of a game.

On qualifying for the Champions League...

The manager mentions it, of course - he sets us aims, challenges and certain targets throughout the season. The talk is in and around the place all the time, but that was the case when we never qualified for it. The Champions League, for us players, is the ultimate competition to be involved in. For the club, it's great financially. It's the ultimate competition, where all of the best players and teams are. As a player, you want to compete against the best. I've experienced it before - it's fantastic. All of the lads that are a lot younger than me at this club need to play in it and sample it because they'll have some of the best nights of their career in it, like I have.

On ambitions of winning the Premier League...

I think this is probably my best chance to surprise this country and countries throughout the world and maybe nick a Premier League. Sitting here in the middle of January, I've got a fantastic chance of surprising a few and getting involved in a title race. I've finished second on a couple of occasions but we never really came very close; we slipped up a couple of times at home throughout the season and we never had that really good chance. I feel that if we perform like we have done over the last couple of months, we can get involved in a title race. That's very exciting. If I could add a Premier League title to my collection, it would mean the world to me. It would probably be the best day of my life besides my kids being born. I think it would almost top the Champions League because it's the one I haven't got and I want it so much.

On captaining Liverpool and England...

I love responsibility as a player. To be captain of club and country is a dream come true for me, it's something I've always strived for. The first plan was to become Liverpool captain and show everyone that I'm capable of doing that job - being a successful captain that players respect, the manager respects and also that the fans can relate to. Showing everyone that for many years, that I've done a decent job, has helped me to become England captain.