Only three more games to go. Good job too, I’m not sure how much more of this my heart can take. It’s not just our games either, I was a lot more nervous watching the closing stages of the Chelsea game the night before than I was the end of this one, but even so this was still pretty stressful. In fairness we closed it out quite well in the end, but it shouldn’t have come to that considering we were 2-0 up after ten minutes. It should have been a stroll, it ended up a dogfight.
This is the kind of thing that happens at the back end of the season when the pressure is on and teams are fighting for titles or to stay in the league. Who’d have thought that Sunderland could go so close to beating City and then a few days later rock up to Stamford Bridge and take Mourinho’s unbeaten Chelsea home record (as well as what was left of his dignity)? Strange things happen this time of year, and there’ll probably be another twist or two before this thing is over.
Thankfully we managed to ensure we weren’t the victims of an upset at Carrow Road, but we certainly made it harder than it needed to be. It was all going according to plan as we flew out of the traps and into an early lead thanks to the electrifying Raheem Sterling. In the absence of Sturridge, there was extra responsibility on the teenager to help Luis Suarez shoulder the goalscoring burden, and he responded big time with a stunning goal and a brilliant assist inside the opening ten minutes.
I’m not even sure what his exact position was; Rodgers said beforehand that he was playing a midfield diamond with an extra man in there to give us a numerical advantage over Norwich (who were playing a diamond of their own). Not really sure how that works - it’s more of a Christmas tree than a diamond - but it did. At least it did until Norwich changed their system and suddenly we didn’t look so good anymore.
For that first half though… we were class weren’t we? The two goals were brilliant, but it was the way we passed the ball around and moved Norwich all over the pitch that really impressed. There was a real swagger and confidence in our play and if we’d made it 3-0 we might have gone on to get six or seven. Sterling’s first was a beauty; there was a very slight deflection, but even so, I’ve never seen him hit a ball like that before. Shooting isn’t his strong point, but this was a corker and gave us just the start we needed.
Joe Allen had started as well as anyone, he was very bright and busy early on and he almost made it 2-0 with a goal that would have epitomised everything that is good about ‘Rodgeball’. Lucas won the ball on the touchline, it was quickly shifted to Coutinho and he played an inch perfect pass into the path of Allen who had made a clever run in behind the defence. His first touch was brilliant, allowing him to fire a shot away with his second, but Ruddy made a save at his near post to deny the Welshman.
We didn’t have to wait long for the second goal though, and again it was just typical of how we were playing. The ball was shifted around the park, Sakho rolled one up the line to Flanagan who feigned to go inside before taking off down the touchline and knocking it into space for Sterling. What followed was a work of art. Suarez went to go near post then broke off behind Turner’s back, and Sterling delivered an exquisite ball across with his left foot that Suarez expertly steered into the corner. Absolutely brilliant goal, and there were less than 11 minutes gone.
This was the start we’d dreamed of and everything was ‘coming up Millhouse’, but then Norwich started to get into it a bit as our intensity dropped off. Still, we defended superbly in that first half, whenever it looked like there was danger one of our players would be on the scene to snuff it out before it reached Mignolet. I don’t think he even had to make a save in the first half did he? Actually yeah he did, he kept out an effort by Redmond after Johnson had given it away. It wouldn’t be the first time Johnson’s sloppiness put us in trouble either. He had ‘one of those days’ of his.
Our defensive tenacity in that first half was typified by one almighty scramble following a free-kick that seemed certain to result in a Norwich goal. Hooper looked like he would get a shot away but Allen nipped in to block him not once, but twice. Gerrard then blocked the next follow up and when Norwich tried to work it back into the box Allen won a great tackle to snuff that out too.
There were many similarities with last week’s game against City as the same thing happened in that first half too. Fast start, a couple of goals, then the opposition have a little spell where it looked like they could score only to be denied by a ‘thou shalt not pass’ mentality from our players. “We go Norwich. Exactly the same” indeed, eh Stevie? Hopefully his post match rallying cry this time was more along the lines of, “We go Chelsea. Exactly the same…. as we did to Arsenal”
Sterling had an early chance to make it 3-0 just after the break when Suarez dribbled around an opponent inside his own half and pinged a glorious 60 yd ball to Coutinho, who held it up until support arrived and cut it back for Sterling who shot just over with his left foot. Good strike, he just couldn’t keep it down. Would have been some goal, it might have even made our top ten for the season if it had gone in. A bold statement, I know.
That was as good as it got for a while, Norwich grew into the game the longer the second half went on and although we were generally dealing with whatever they threw at us, it’s fair to say they were throwing more at us than we’d like to see. I was impressed with how well Skrtel was playing but at the same wasn’t pleased with how much he was having to do, if that makes sense? I’d rather have not seen him at all, but it seemed as though the camera was on him more than anybody as he made clearance after clearance.
The goal that got Norwich back into the game was really cheap though, we do ourselves no favours letting goals like this in as they’re just so unnecessary. It was little more than a hopeful cross floated in from our left and Skrtel would have dealt with it had Mignolet just left him to it. Instead he came out to try and punch the ball clear, so Skrtel ducked out of the way to make it easier for his keeper. Unfortunately Mignolet was beaten to it by Bradley Johnson and that left a tap in for Hooper. Skrtel was furious with the keeper and rightly so; that was a real howler. He didn’t even need to come for it, but having decided to that’s fine, just make sure you fucking get it.
The goal may have been just what we needed to wake us from our slumber, we’d been mostly crap in the second half but suddenly the urgency was back in our play at last. Suarez curled one inches wide before Sterling restored our two goal lead with a somewhat fortuitous goal. Still, I’d say Sterling earned that bit of luck due to how positive and direct he was. He intercepted a pass from Bradley Johnson, ran 60 yards past two challenges and his shot deflected in off the unfortunate Johnson. He who dares, Rodders, he who dares.
Norwich wouldn’t lie down though and, worryingly, they looked more likely to score the next goal than we did. Mignolet made a decent save from a Snodgrass 30 yarder, and then Martin headed over from a corner as the keeper hesitated as to whether to come for it or not. That earlier howler from Mignolet certainly affected how he approached the rest of the game, he was completely rooted to his line after that.
Norwich eventually found the net again as once more we failed to deal with a bread and butter cross. It was a great leap and header by Snodgrass, although Flanagan never really made a challenge for it and instead tried to lean on the Scot hoping to put him off. I’d also look at the keeper again though, it’s the kind of cross he could have dealt with had he not been scared to come out.
We were looking extremely vulnerable now whenever the ball was slung into the box and we had a huge let off when Mignolet made a good save from Van Wolfswinkel’s header. It seemed a certain goal but the keeper was able to save it on the goal-line and keep hold of it. That was Norwich’s moment, it was their big chance and when it didn’t go in I was sure then we’d hold on for the win, and in fairness we did without any further incident.
Brendan had to make some changes though to swing the balance back in our favour. First, Moses was introduced to replace the fading Coutinho, and then Agger came on for Allen to boost the defence against the aerial bombardment from the flanks. Both changes had the desired impact and we should have made the game safe given the numerous counter attacking opportunities we were presented with.
The closest we came was when Moses (who made a difference) won the ball on the left and eventually fed Suarez in the box. He did brilliantly to wriggle free and tee up Lucas, but he couldn’t score from two attempts. Thankfully it didn’t matter as we saw it out to record the win, our 11th on the spin. A remarkable achievement really.
It wasn’t a great performance, although for a while it looked like it might be. The first half was great to watch but we lost our way a little and ended up having to dig in and show real character. Once again though we were able to do that and ensure we got the win. That’s the beauty of this run we’ve been on, we’ve won games by showing all kinds of different qualities, playing all kinds of different formations and utilising all kinds of different tactical ploys. The only constant has been goals, and tons of them. Rodgeball!
The funniest moment of the game was obviously Suarez getting clobbered and writhing around in pain, until Joe Allen nicked the ball and he realised we had a counter attack and leapt to his feet before sprinting into space looking for a pass. The ball didn’t come to him, and he immediately began grimacing and hobbling again. Of course it looked ridiculous and Suarez will be roundly mocked for it, but the replay showed what a bad challenge it was and I’d bet that must have hurt like hell. Leroy Fer can consider himself fortunate not have been red carded for that, as it was a naughty one. Luis though, ‘kinell.
We can all pick holes in the performance and call out certain individuals *cough* Johnson *cough* for being below par or whatever, but I just feel like it’s well harsh to be criticising anybody. I mean, this team has exceeded all of our expectations and are on the brink of the title, are we really going to be concerning ourselves with talk like “yeah but he’s not good enough” and “so and so needs replacing”? Bollocks to all that - there’s plenty of time for that in the summer - right now let’s just enjoy what’s happening as we’re on the verge of doing something that we’ll cherish for the rest of our lives.
This team is on the brink of making history, if they can see this through it will be seriously fucking monumental, way bigger even than Istanbul. These lads have won 11 Premier League games on the bounce and have only dropped four points in 2014. So what if individually they haven’t always played ‘lights out’ every week, it’s impossible to do that and despite whatever flaws we may have individually or even collectively, it’s not caused us to lose a league game so far this calendar year, so clearly it can’t be THAT big a flaw.
Whilst as fans we may have been shitting ourselves watching the closing stages of this, the players kept their cool again, none more so than Sterling who was the one his team-mates looked for at every opportunity to relieve the pressure. He was just brilliant in everything he did. He scored twice, he created the other, he did his job helping out defensively, he carried the fight to Norwich when we were under pressure and the maturity in his play was staggering.
Late on it was just a case of ‘give it to Raheem’. He’d either carry it forward and allow us to get up the field, or he’d put his foot on it and slow things down by winning a free-kick or just playing keep ball. Best player on the pitch by a mile, and not for the first time in this run in either. He’s fearless, but then to be fair the same can be said of most of his team-mates.
We keep winning despite the incredible burden of pressure that has suddenly been heaped on the players when it became clear that the title was not just a pipe dream, but was in fact an attainable goal if we kept our heads. They could have buckled under that pressure but so far they’ve handled it admirably.
That’s all that matters right now so well done to each and every one of them. Keep it going for three more games, lads, just three more games. That’s all. And for God’s sake, don’t let those classless, snide, chav twats come into our house and win next week. Let’s fucking bury them. Do that, and as the supremely talented songstress Lady Gaga famously crooned, we’re ‘on the Edge of Glory’.
Team: Mignolet; Johnson, Skrtel, Sakho, Flanagan; Gerrard, Lucas, Allen (Agger), Coutinho (Moses), Sterling; Suarez:
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