Another 4 but no 3 points for Liverpool.

We failed to see off Arsenal @ Anfield yesterday after a great performance by the Reds. Liverpool dominated the entire first half creating at least 4 very good opportunities to take the lead but a combination of good saves by the heavily criticised Arsenal keeper Fabianski and poor finishing in front of goal, we found ourselves behind at half time to a goal gifted to Arsenal when Masherano uncharacteristically got caught in possession on the edge of our penalty area. So 1 nil down @ half time but all wasn't lost we just needed to convert the chances we were creating in the second 45 with no more defensive errors, for yet another comeback win.

The Second half was much like the first Liverpool came out flying and were soon level with another an El Nino header and before long we took the lead when Yossi headed home a deep cross from Dirk Kuyt, as Arsenal's terrible defending continued, At this point I for one was expecting us to keep it tight and probably go on to win but 2 more awful defensive errors gave Arshavin & Arsenal two more goals and unbelievable we were 3-2 down with 20 mins or so remaining. We were however still playing the better football all over the park, and continued to look very threatening so Arsenal brought on Walcott and that did help to push Liverpool back, but Rafa soon countered that by bringing on Babel for Riera, but not before he winger could cross a lovely ball that Torres control feinted to shoot, that got him the yard he needed to struck a right foot shot firmly towards Fabianski's left, and although the keeper got a hand he couldn't keep out Torre's second and Liverpool's third to take it to 3-3.

So now there's a few minutes left and Liverpool get a corner and we rightfully went for the winner as a clearly a win would have been a real bonus but low and behold Arsenal clear the corner, it falls to Walcott how races up field with Arshavin travelling at speed to his right, Walcott waits slips it to Arshavin who smashes it past Reyna who's beaten for the forth time by the same player despite not making any other save for the entire game. I'm now in a state of shock I can't believe we've dominated a game in this manner and we're losing to the point I'd given it up as we were already past the 90 mins, but just like the last three league games Liverpool's score yet another injury time goal, and just like the Fulham game it was Yossi Benayoun who pounced on another poor Arsenal clearance to level it again.

A draw against arsenal isn't the worse result but given their defensive frailties and the way we played, this is a game we should have won comfortably, we know Arsenal are more than Capable of beating Manchester Utd so this draw could indeed be 1 of the 4 points needed to overhaul Man Utd but only time will tell.

Great advertisement for the Premiership.........

 

 

 

 

Liverpool hit 4 & take 3 Points

Having already beaten Utd earlier this season 2-1, I saw no reason why Rafa's men could not produce a repeat performance especially after watching Gerrard & co brush Real Madrid aside 4-0 during the week to reach the last 8 of the Champions league.

To complete the double over Man Utd would complete a very impressive 7 days and add mileage to the fact that the League title dream wasn't over yet, and with Rooney's comments earlier this week the stage was set for the clash of the titans. Clearly another high tempo start was required, but With Arbeloa getting injured in the warm up and Alonso missing from proceeding the task was made a little harder, or was it!

If you wrote a story line prior to the game as a Liverpool fan you would have wanted Man Utd to score first & the Liverpool to come back and win convincingly and that's exactly what really happened. A nice through ball from Carrick to Park saw him earn a penalty against Reyna which Ronaldo converted with his usual precision, but within a few minutes El Nino caught Vidic dallying in possession and duly dispossessedd him before tucking it past an advancing Van Der Sar, Then came a penalty to Liverpool as Evra Caught Gerrard as he drove into the box, Gerrard converted and all of a sudden I stopped receiving SMS messages from Man Utd fans (Funny That).

So 1-2 @ half time and the second half continued in much the same way, Ronaldo produced very little (which is normal when playing against better players) and Rooney kept running in to Cul-de-sac's for most of the game, united did have a few little moments but certainly not enough so Sir Alex tried the 3 Man Subs thing but was soon hit with another Sledge hammer blow.

The Demolition job was almost complete when Vidic who'd been under siege all afternoon trying to deal with Torres, found himself red carded for bringing down Stevie G as he once again lost possession on the edge of the box, then it got even better when Fabio Aurelio converted from the resulting free kick, leaving Van Der Sar rooted on his goal line.

The traveling reds screamed attack, attack, attack, attack, attack, as Rafa's men calmly picked off Utd eventually scoring a 4^th calmly taken by Dossena who ran onto a Pepe goal kick to calmly lob Van Der Sar who once again found himself rooted to the spot.

The stadium of dreams had turned in to a ghost town as the Man Utd faithful left @ 3-1 (you'd never see that @ Anfield) and I'm still trying to hear what Sir Alex's has to say about the game or Rooney for that matter.

I bet there will be little mention of Rafa's rant now.

Rafa 100^th win, the double over united this Season and Manchester United's worse beating @ home for some time.

MOTM Aurelio (shackled Ronaldo almost all game & scored a sweet free kick)

Back to winning ways.... But is it too late

I missed Saturdays game but I heard the groans from afar as most of the Red Faithful lost all hope of clinching this elusive title, as its now clearly Man Utd to lose now, after our defeat to Middlesbrough, still we need to keep winning just in case cos you never know.

Team selection was on most people’s lips again, as Masherano played at right back Insua at Left and Ngog started his first Anfield league match upfront, but to be fair the all play really well.

Sunderland created just 1 real threat for the entire 90 mins of tonight’s match, and what a glorious chance it was. It could have been VERY different had Kenwyne Jones taken an early 1 on 1 after just a few minutes, having found himself striding towards the Liverpool goal all on his own, after a little mix up with Carragher & Skirtel, but somehow Pepe Reyna stayed big and managed to save a certain goal.

The crowd were unusually subdued, but grew in confidence as Liverpool started to turn the screw. I thought Yossi, Durk & Masher combined well at times early on as did Insua & Reira with nothing to show after 45 mins

It wasn’t till the second half that Liverpool got the break though a deep cross found Stevie G coming round the back of the Sunderland defence to steer a very purposeful header to Ngog for a simple tap in, which was quickly followed by another Yossi goal after some poor keeping by Fulop, and that was effectively game over. Liverpool just stroked the ball around and kept Sunderland chasing till the final whistle.

By no means a classic, but 3 points and a very comfortable won.

My man of the match has to be Yossi Benayoun whose jinking runs kept the Black Cats guessing all night. 

Liverpool Back To Winning Ways

Every game now is a must win situation for Liverpool these days, but when Chelsea come to town there’s even more reason to be victorious , and all set for El Nino to open his Anfield account (we hoped). So No Robbie Keane in the squad is the first thing that hits the headlines on the morning of the game, I have to say I was a little baffled as to why that would be, as we know he isn’t injured which makes those rumours of him leaving to go back to Spurs a real possibility, still back to the game. Liverpool started with a real positive high tempo, closing Chelsea down at all opportunities and as result totally dominated the first 45 mins to the extent that Lampard, Anelka and Co really didn’t feature at all, yet despite this all of our attempts were long distance shots which didn’t really trouble Cech, apart from a lovely bit of skill from Reira which saw him ghost past two players and force a good save from the Chelsea keeper which nearly saw Ashley Cole put the rebounded save into his own net. So 45 mins gone, Liverpool in the ascendancy, but still no goal to show for their efforts. The second half started in similar fashion to the first, Liverpool pretty much controlled the play and Chelsea offered nothing really in return, then came the sending off of Lampard (which at the time seemed like a terrible challenge) so now it 11 v 10 and Xabi Alonso at the heart of the decision once again, like previous games against Arsenal, Man City, Everton, etc. The Kop immediately erupted with a clear message to Rafa’s men. Attack, Attack, ATTack, ATTACK, ATTACK, and that’s exactly what Liverpool did, Rafa took off Reira and brought on Benayoun and then Masherano for Babel as the Reds took the game to Chelsea. Liverpool went on to create a string of good chances which were either blocked or made Cech pull off a few smart saves but on 86 mins El Nino STUCK, a nice piece of inter play with Gerrard & Kuyt left Aurelio with time to pin point his cross which was meet with a fantastic header from Torres who got in front of Alex (who had a good game) to guide the ball past Cech. Anfield exploded as the 90 mins was nearly up then the board went up signalling another 5 mins to add on, so the opportunity for Chelsea to equalise was still there but as Chelsea sacrificed defensive duties trying to get and equalizer Ashley Cole got caught in possession by Benayoun (who had impacted the game well since he came on) who drove in to the box before squaring to Torres to calmly strike home for his Second GAME OVER. Liverpool return to winning ways with a good all round performance. My man of the match despite Torres’s double is Martin Skirtel who had Anelka and Drogba in his pocket all afternoon.

Stumbled on the home straight

Monday’s game was another must win affair, like every game but being a Derby game it was never going to be easy as these contests over the years have been fierce and frantic.

With Torres back but not 100% Rafa went back to 4-4-2 starting keen up top, so we were back to trying to prove this formation can get going, but to be honest, it never did against a very dogged Everton side, we rarely saw signs of a premiership winning outfit. The first half was littered with fouls from both sides which led to a bit of a non event for the first 45.

The second half was better, and we controlled the game well, but you could feel the tension rising as we struggled to find too many opportunities to break the stalemate, then as usual up Steps Stevie G with yet another sweetly struck shot from fully 25 yards to put us in front. Having taken the lead I think we got a little negative and played like we just wanted to keep the lead instead of pressing for another, I would have liked to have seen us push on and pin Everton back, and that lack of drive almost handed Everton a get out clause especially once Rafa took off Keane (who wasn't really involved) & Torres who was clearly out on his feet. To be fair to Rafa the first substitution (benayoun) was a good move but I have to say Lucas for Torres I felt was too negative and perhaps Babel playing up top would have proved a better move which would have kept Everton a little more occupied at the back.

Eventually I believed that lack of ambition invited our opponents to try their luck, and we paid for that in the 88 min when Everton got a very sickening leveler to relieve us of 2 points, GUTTED.

Still it's not the end of the world but a win would have been very satisfying against a depleted Everton side.... still we march on.

Another Stalemate against Stoke.

In a week where Rafa singled the war cry to Mr Ferguson (as he’s now known) I really hoped for a resounding victory against Stoke, but again, Liverpool found it impossible to breakdown Tony Pulis’ men. The first thing that struck me was the starting 11, to say I was a little surprised not to see Stevie G in the middle and Keane up front is an understatement, still we have all learnt to trust Rafa’s judgement but when the final whistle went after 90 plus mins of football I think it’s fair to say we never looked like securing all 3 points, in a fairly one paced performance which lacked creativity all over the park, particularly centrally where I think Xabi’s ability to see a pass was sadly missed on Saturday. Although we got a point I don’t think we put Stoke under enough pressure, Delap’s long throws and lofted balls into the box were their only real weapons, and they used it at every opportunity,

I just can’t believe we didn’t try to get 90 mins from Torres and Keane combined and play Gerrard in the middle, but I guess there must be a reason; however you would have to say another opportunity to step closer to the finish was missed again.

So on the plus side Skirtel played the 90 and Torres played a part too, which is good news, let’s hope he can start next week with Keane and we can get back to winning ways as united draw ever closer.

Liverpool Just Too Good for Newcastle Today.

Today Three points were needed if Liverpool were to keep the pressure on Chelsea & Man United, with Aston Villa & Arsenal lurking not too far behind, and there was also a chance to set a new club points total going into the New Year and boy did Liverpool deliver.

Today I think I witnessed probably the most one sided game in the premiership this season, Liverpool from the whistle were so dominant I bet Michael Owen wishes he never left.

Although it took us 30 mins to break the deadlock, had it not have been for Shay Given we could have easily been 4 or 5 up by then, as he made a string of really good saves that were deserving of the man of the match award by half time. Newcastle just couldn’t get near Liverpool today as they were completely out played, add to that a pretty dismal defensive performance and you end up with a 5-1 walk over which to be honest should have been more, how it was only 2-1 Liverpool at half time I’ll never know.

The one thing the team hadn’t managed to do this season was give someone a real hiding, till today, we were so good going forward today we could have hit 10; it was the kind of walk over that can lose a manager his job. The opener came courtesy of Steven Gerrard after Benayoun pulled it back after getting to the bye line, Captain Fantastic was very good today, and took his goals particularly the second one with outstanding coolness, Lucas, also had a good game and came into his own, he looked much sharper, and was unlucky on at least 2 occasions, not to find himself on the score sheet, it was he who delivered the killer ball for Gerrard’s second. Ryan Babel looked really pleased to get Liverpool’s 3^rd goal, albeit a 2 yard tap in but I think again he was guilty of cutting In too early on too many occasions today; I would love to see him mix up his runs a lot more when he gets it wide. Hyypia and Alonso got the 2nd & 5^th respectively which rounded off a good afternoon’s work which was further embellished by the return of Martin Skirtel.

So half the job has been done now it’s time to finish it off the second half................

Bolton No Match as Liverpool Stay Top

The Christmas period is always a hectic one & getting Maximum points is always the priority, and it usually tests the quality, depth and desire of your squad, so to thump Bolton 3 nil was very satisfying as we went back to the top.

The press have been trying there best to unsettle Robbie Keane in recent weeks but on Boxing Day he silenced the pundits with two trade mark goals against Bolton to add to his superb strike against Arsenal, and all of a sudden no one had anything to say. Riera opened the scoring with a simple tap in from a Stevie G corner although you would have to say Bolton had a glorious chance to go ahead after just 2 mins, fortunately, Nolan wasn’t able to pick out Elmander who was completely unmarked in the 6 yard box and Pepe Reyna was able to thwart what would have been a simple tap in.

From that point onwards Liverpool were majestic and Bolton couldn’t deal with Liverpool’s passing or movement, Benayoun, Gerrard & Alonso simply ran the show with a near faultless performance from young Insua who has settled really well in the first team.

To write anymore would be unfair as all I would do is marvel at the way we completely dominated the match. So another impressive victory, but the question remained, could we do it again against Newcastle two days later?

Liverpool Top at Xmas.

Liverpool Top at Xmas.

Sundays game at Arsenal was never gonna be an easy one but it was another opportunity to stamp our authority, and again we didn’t quite do it.

With Rafa not present due to his operation (Get well soon) & Torres not reaching full fitness it was gonna take a special performance, which I felt we were capable of, to take all 3 points.

Having watched Arsenal many times this season, the one thing they lack is a little steel in the middle of the park, so to hear Masherano would not be playing due to illness was very disappointing and I have to be honest and say I wasn’t sure Lucas’s inclusion in the starting 11would be the right answer, as I do find him a little slow to react in some situations and he often gets caught in possession as a result, having said that I would have to say he acquitted himself quite well, as did Insua who was fantastic.

After going 1 down to a well taken Van Persie strike I knew we would get one back such has been the steel like determination not to lose this season, and we did, and I am glad it was Robbie as he’s been getting a lot of stick from the media in another attempt to try and unsettle him and the team.

So 1 each at half time and what you’re hoping for is Liverpool to come out firing and put Arsenal to the test, the job was made easier when Howard Webb rightfully sent off Adebayor having issued him 2 yellow cards for identical challenges on 60 mins or so. I think the tackles weren’t done with any malicious intent but if you try to shield the ball with your elbow or arm up in the way he did, your gonna get a yellow card, so to get 2 for the same challenge is a little careless . So advantage Liverpool 11 v 10 and now you’re waiting for Liverpool to go for the win, instead I had to sit and watch Arsenal take control of the game almost completely denying us any opportunity of winning, even the substitutions weren’t what I was expecting and the game ended in a disappointing stalemate.

I guess you would have taken a draw at the Emirates before the game and with Chelsea unable to beat Everton Liverpool are top at Christmas and it feels good. Yeah Baby Yeah...............

More home points dropped but Liverpool escape punishment

Hull have been in good form this season so a win on sat was never gonna be easy, but going 2 down inside 20 mins wasn’t part of the plan.

We started brightly and despite going 2 down we continued to move the ball around, there were a few unnecessary losses of possession as there have been in the last few games but we pressed well especially high up the pitch and almost completely over ran Hull in the middle of the park, as well as this Stevie G was fantastic, his overall game was superb especially his movement & vision and fully deserved his 2 goals and the man of the match in my book.

Once we were back on terms I started to feel like a winner was possible, Alonso I thought had a good game finding the flanks with menacing accuracy, but despite all this and virtually 1 way traffic from the 20 min onward, again we couldn’t find the winner, Hyypia hit the post from a Second half corner, which ended up being the only real chance we had to win it.

At the end of the game you couldn’t help feeling that we might lose our top spot, but with Man U, Arsenal, & Chelsea all drawing the 2 points lost aren’t as bad despite Aston Villa managing a victory.

So next week is Arsenal, another big game, a game we need to win to confirm that this year’s challenge is a serious one.