Liverpool 1 Chelsea 1 - Prem (Aug 19 2007)

[TLW]

LIVERPOOL 1 Chelsea 1

Report by Dave Usher at Anfield

Scorer(s) - Fernando Torres Half Time - 1-0 Venue - Anfield Date - Sun 19 August 2007 Star Man - Steve Finnan

 

 

 

New season, same old same old. Chelsea are still horrible snidey cheating twats, Rob Styles is still utterly incompetant and out of his depth, and we are still not converting enough chances. To criticise our players for wastefulness in front of goal would be unfair after this though, as we did enough to win and it is down to one man and one man only that we didn’t.

There are many reds out there convinced that Styles was paid off. I’m not one of them, I just think he’s fucking useless and always has been. Had this been a good referee making such unfathomable decisions, I’d be suspicious. Rob Styles is known for his incompetence though. We should have seen that penalty coming, as even in the first half he made so many staggeringly bad decisions. As for the Essien ‘second yellow’, I don’t think he was booking Essien, he’d just forgotten that he’d already showed the card to Mongo a minute earlier and so he showed it again. He’s a fucking moron who should not be refereeing any big games as they are simply too much for him.

But bollocks to Rob Styles, I’m not going to harp on about his performance as I’d prefer to focus on the positives to come out of this game, and there were plenty. One the one hand we’ve been screwed out of two points here, but it’s not the end of the world as we haven’t lost any ground on Chelsea or Arsenal, and we’ve gained another point over the mancs. So although things could and should be better, we’re not in bad shape.

As for other positives, well Torres getting his first goal is a big one, especially given the manner of it. It was a goal of stunning quality, and it looked so effortless. His all round performance wasn’t anything to write home about (he was good, but not exceptionally so), but that goal was brilliant. His pace, directness and ability to go past people gives us something we’ve been lacking since Baros left.

Pennant was another big positive. He’s well and truly won me over now, in fact he did that several months ago. I don’t care what he’s like off the pitch, or that every time he opens his mouth in interviews he seems to be crying about not getting an England call up. The bottom line is I really enjoy watching him play, he’s a damn good player and he’s getting better.

I thought he was excellent today, and once again he had the beating of his pal Ashley. The big concern is his petulance and frustrating habit of picking up silly bookings. He’s been subbed a few times because Rafa was worried about him getting sent off, and maybe that’s why he was brought off in this game, I don’t know. I wouldn’t have taken him off though, as he seemed to have regained his cool and he was giving Chelsea loads of problems.

The major plus for me though is the way we reacted to being pegged back. And perhaps even more significantly, the way Chelsea reacted. A year ago, if they’d got an equaliser against us they’d have put us right under the cosh and we’d have been hanging on. This time, we pegged them back, threw on an extra striker and they introduced an extra defender. Whatsmore, they were time wasting and doing everything they could to break the play up and stop us building up a head of steam.

They were delighted with a point, we were desperately disappointed. That is significant, as they know we’re a threat. As frustrating as it is not to pick up the three points, ultimately it won’t be an issue if we just go out and beat all the sides we should be beating. Dropping two points to Chelsea is not especially damaging. Dropping two against the likes of Derby or Sunderland who we face in the next couple of weeks would be a very big deal.

We were better than Chelsea and deserved to win, but there is definitely room for improvement. We missed some chances we should have put away, especially Riise but also Gerrard and Alonso. They weren’t sitters by any means, but you have to at least hit the target and we didn’t do it. We’ve got to become more clinical, because if we do then we’re capable of winning any competition we enter, including the Premiership.

There were a few contenders for the star man. In the first half Gerrard was colossal. There was an aggressive intent in everything he did. He snapped into tackles and he chased and harried. He faded a bit in the second half, but I put that down to him picking up a booking and having to tone his game down slightly. He was still very good though.

Arbeloa was good too. He defended well and got forward when he could. Wright-Phillips managed to get away from him a couple of times and got dangerous crosses in, but the little fella is in really good form at the moment and would give any full back problems. Overall Alvaro stuck to his task well.

I’ve mentioned Pennant, and Carra and Agger played well too, but I’m going for Finnan as star man. Malouda has looked very good since joining Chelsea, but he got nothing out of Finnan who was his customary excellent self.

It was interesting that Rafa opted for the same team that had faced Villa last week. We know he’s going to rotate, but a lot of people would like to see him play the same team for the first half a dozen or so league games so we can try and amass as many points as possible early on. Is that happening? We’ll know next week I suppose, but it does seem like this might be what Rafa feels is his strongest eleven.


Team: Reina; Finnan, Carragher, Agger, Arbeloa; Pennant (Babel), Gerrard, Alonso, Riise (Crouch); Kuyt, Torres:


You didn’t really think I was going to leave it at that did you? Like I could possibly write about this game without resorting to personal abuse to the likes of Mongo, Cashley and Drogba. The only difficulty is where to start. I’ll start at the top, with the Translator. Apparently the referee had a ‘positive game’. Depends on what you’re wanting from a referee I suppose. Then we have this little gem: "we are naive, because we don't dive into a swimming pool, we don't have violent people, we don't have nasty tacklers." What the fuck does that even mean? Half the time when he speaks I don’t even know what he’s talking about. Swimming Pool? What the fuck? As for not diving, well I’ve seen Mongo, Carvalho, both Coles, Robben, Drogba, Makalele and Ballack all take regular dives, and you can add Malouda to that list as well. There’s probably others who I have forgotten to mention.

He also brought up Garcia’s goal in the press conference afterwards, the boring predictable strunz. He claims that he’s a changed man this season, but the only thing different I’ve noticed is that he’s got a different shit coat. Can’t wait til semi final time rolls round again.


Then we have the captain. If there’s a more despicable horrible cunt in this league than Mongo then I’ve not seen him. I hate his face, his huge forehead, his stupid fucking thin spikey hair, his stumpy legs and his gay pulled up socks. He’s a dirty snide bastard, he’s a diver and he’s a mouthy twat who’s always in the refs face. He’s also a shithouse who doesn’t have the bottle to take a penalty and cries like a baby when he loses. I really, really hate him with a passion, and it was great seeing Torres taking no shit from him. They did their best to kick Torres out of the game, and definitely singled him out for special treatment. Nothing ‘naïve’ about that.

As much as I hate Mongo though, the song about his ma made me a little uncomfortable. I don’t care whether his feelings were hurt or not, but his mum has done nothing to deserve being mocked and how can we have a go at Evertonians singing about Gerrard’s baby when we do this to John Terry? I can’t blame anyone for singing it as he is such a horrible specimen that it’s understandable, but personally I don’t think it does us any favours. Maybe I’m being a wet blanket, but it’s how I feel. There are plenty of other things we could mock him for without bringing his mother into it.

But anyway, who’s next? Drogba. Now here is an absolutely awesome footballer, who if he didn’t act like such a fanny I would actually have a lot of time for. The way he can hold off a defender and bring down a ball under pressure has me in awe sometimes. He’s a phenomenal player, yet he’s also the second biggest cunt in English football behind his captain.

He dives, he complains, and he’s just an all round fucking busy body. Whenever anything is happening on the field, you’ll see this catpiss haired twat with his arm around the referee bitching about something. He got away with murder yesterday. Pennant was booked for complaining about a shocking decision, yet Drogba was allowed to sarcastically applaud the referee and Carragher after he was penalised for a foul. He later kicked the ball away to waste time after he’d committed another foul, yet still no card from Stiles. I guess hanging around with the ref all game touching him up has it’s benefits.

Next we have Tal Ben Haim, an ideal signing for Chelsea having served his apprenticeship at Bolton. Bolton under Allardyce were basically Chelsea without money. Similar formation, similar tactics, similar level of cuntiness. Bolton were the diet version to Chelsea’s full fat one. He’s a cry baby just like his captain, and did nothing but complain to the referee about Torres. He couldn’t stop Fernando by fair means, so he just resorted to obstructing him and then accusing our boy of diving. Another horrible twat who has found his spiritual home.

Just like Ashley Cole in fact. Here is a player who was brilliant at Arsenal, a real swashbuckling attacking full back. But he got greedy and put money ahead of his football. Now he’s stuck in a team that doesn’t let him cross the half way line, and in which his limited defensive abilities are exposed. Pennant has got the better of him three times in a row now. Ashley Cole epitomises everything I hate about modern footballers.

As does Lampard. Once again he was more or less anonymous against us. But for Styles gifting him the equaliser, the only contribution this turd made to the game was once again taking a cheapshot at Alonso. Have to laugh when I see him celebrating in front of the Chelsea fans as though he actually cares. He cares about money, and food. Nothing else. Twat.

And what about that Obi Mikel piece of shit. Is it just me, or does anyone else think he’s absolutely fucking useless? A big clumsy lumbering grock who kicks people and wastes time by pretending to be injured. How in God’s name is he getting a game ahead of Makalele? Maybe he gives better sexual favours to Jose.

Who else do we have? Essien is a little thug, Joe Cole licks windows and I’m really going to grow to hate Malouda, I can tell even at this early stage. Cech I don’t mind, except he looks like a tit in that crash helmet. At least he isn’t a twat like the rest of his team (actually I’ve nothing against Kalou or SWP either).

I just hate Chelsea, they really are a despicable bunch of reprehensible human beings. No doubt this will end up being posted on a Chelsea forum, but I honestly couldn’t care less what anyone connected with Chelsea thinks. I’ve got no respect for their opinions. So don’t bother registering on the forum, or emailing me because I’m not interested in anything you have to say.

I will talk football with fans of any club, even Evertonians and mancs. You can have decent conversations with them, but when it comes to Chelsea I just have no interest in anything they have to say. I have nothing in common with any of them. Their mentality is the complete opposite to mine, and can be summed up by them chanting ‘you let your country down’ to Carra. He’s scouse first, English second, but they could never possibly understand that. SOME OF US DON’T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT ENGLAND, AND IT’S PARTLY BECAUSE OF GOBSHITES LIKE YOU.

They laughably taunted us about our ‘atmosphere’, yet here is a club who’s fans sit there in silence at the Bridge when they’re playing Barcelona or Liverpool in massive CL games. They had a cheesy little banner claiming Liverpool is a trophyless zone. No sense of irony whatsoever these wankers. Five European Cups and Eighteen Leagues. . . . .

I’m just really disappointed they didn’t bring those pretty little flags they all had for the semi last year at the Bridge. It would have really brightened up Anfield that would. Sad bastards.