Five games, five wins and a five point lead. Winning all of our games isn’t surprising, but the five point lead is definitely an unexpected bonus. I don’t think anyone saw that coming.
Apparently this is the biggest lead any team has ever had after five games, so if we don’t win it we can expect to have that little nugget thrown back at us by random little nuggets all over the country.
Being top after five games doesn’t mean much but you’d rather be there than not. It’s funny seeing fans of other clubs declaring the title race over. I haven’t seen any Reds even remotely suggesting that we’ve got anything in the bag but I’ve seen numerous other fans crying it in and trying to reverse jinx us.
We are good though, aren’t we? I don’t blame anyone who thinks we’ll run away with it, as if I supported someone else I might feel the same way. We’re not like that because we’ve been burned so many times and tempting fate is never wise, but we’re European Champions for a reason.
Here’s something else to consider too. I saw a tweet from Carra where he said City are the best team in Europe and we’re really close behind. It’s not an unreasonable statement. They beat us to the title last season and they were miles ahead of us the season before.
There’s another way of looking at it though. It depends on how far back you want to go. I mean, I could make the point that over the last 43 Premier League games we’ve collected four more points than them as well as becoming Champions of Europe. We don’t have to take a back seat to anyone right now.
One of the main benefits to being this good is the Mike Tyson effect. A lot of opponents are beaten before they even start. City have benefitted from that massively and only have around 15 ‘competitive’ games a season. The rest are just glorified training exercises against opponents who just want to avoid too bad a beating.
We might be getting that kind of aura about us now. The european Cup helps, obviously, but it’s more than that. It’s the 97 points, the only losing one game last season (and even that was to City) and the incredible form at Anfield. The other contributing factor is the media narrative. If you’re constantly hearing about how special a team is, it has an impact.
In the build up this game Steve Bruce was virtually calling us the greatest side in the history of the world. He didn’t say that in so many words, but it was more or less implied. “As good as side as you’re likely to face” and similar platitudes. It’s not just him either, it’s becoming a common theme. Uni Emery half joked that he wished he never had to play against us.
All of this influences how opponents see you. City have had loads of games where it was over before it started and it feels that way with us a lot of the time. Newcastle scored first but it will have shocked them as much as us and I doubt they felt that they might be able to hold onto it.
I’d say Newcastle did as well as they could have realistically been expected to do. They gave us a minor fright and they actually made Virgil sprint on two occasions (impudent bastards) but in the end they were probably relieved to have kept the score as close as they did.
This wasn’t a 3-1 game as the Newcastle penalty area was like the Alamo for much of the second half. It was an easy win in the end, but it didn’t start out like that and we were sloppy and disjointed in the opening stages.
You get that sometimes after international breaks though, and you get that sometimes with early kick offs. Put them both together and there’s a good chance you won’t see a fast start. Then there were the changes made to the usual starting line up. The midfield was different and the forward line switched around too.
Klopp’s team selections are always going to come under scrutiny any time he makes changes to the forwards, but he can’t send the big three out to start every game so some degree of rotation is going to be necessary. When he does it, there’s no point second guessing it. It’s a necessary evil.
Origi is going to be needed and so is Shaqiri. We just need them to deliver when they are called upon. Divock got his chance against Newcastle but didn’t take it. It wasn’t his fault in fairness. The team didn’t start particularly well and then looked much better after he went off injured. As with the first half of the Super Cup against Chelsea, it’s too simplistic to put that on him alone though.
Of course we looked better with Firmino on the field. It would be staggering if we didn’t, as he’s one of the best players in the world and he’s flying at the moment. We had also started to look better before he came on though. The improvement didn’t begin when Firmino came on, it began when Origi was moved into the middle and Sadio went back out wide.
I felt for Origi. I’m not sure why he started on the left with Sadio through the middle. In one sense it helps him as he’s not directly having to replace Bobby, but by playing him there it means two thirds of the frontline is changing.
Sadio can play centrally to a good level but he’s sensational out wide. We missed him out there, especially as he links up so well with Robbo.
Divock came up big for us on so many occasions last season and he’s a good option. The problem is, the regular front three are not only all great players, but they work so well as a unit. You take one out and it’s not the same, and that’s completely understandable. There are maybe a handful of players in the world who could come in and play without there being any significant drop off.
I still think we’d have gone on to win the game had Origi not been forced off with injury but it was clear from the second Bobby came on that we went up several levels. It was the same in the Super Cup. He’s irreplaceable because there is nobody who does what he does.
How can you replace a player who is completely unique in world football? There are some great number nine’s out there but there are none who do all the things Firmino does. Some will do certain things better than him but no-one can do everything he does.
We’d drawn level before he came on so like I say I’m pretty confident we’d have gone on to win anyway. We might have even won by a bigger margin, but we wouldn’t have played to the level we did.
The difference was obvious. With Bobby up there, players were able to pop the ball into him and then run into box to collect the return pass. Didn’t matter whether the pass looked on or not, Bobby got the ball there anyway.
Origi can’t do that, but neither can Mané or Salah when they play centrally. A lot of the time you don’t need to anyway as there are other ways to score a goal. Against an opponent playing the way Newcastle did though, it’s a huge weapon to have. Remember when we used to struggle against packed defences? Now that’s virtually all we ever face but we just slice through opponents at will.
As I say, I thought Newcastle did alright overall. They looked much more assured and comfortable before Bobby came on, and they did give us one or two problems at the back. They even missed a great chance to equalise when it was 2-1. They did better than a lot of teams will at Anfield, but they also rode their luck at times and could easily have conceded six in that second half.
I thought Joelinton battled well and had some (although not much) joy against Van Dijk and Matip, but he’s basically a B&M Bargains Rondon isn’t he? Maybe if they’d given half of that £40m to Rondon he’d have stayed? He looked like he might have given us problems if he’d had better players around him. Sadly for him, he didn’t.
If you’ve been reading the PL Round Ups on here, you’ll have already known that Almiron, the worm with eyebrows, is SHITE. I’ve been banging that drum so hard that I was half expecting he’d finally break his duck against us just to make me look a tit. He didn’t though, so I’ll say something nice about him as a thank you. He’s shite, but at least he’s not that Ayoze Perez loser. Fuck that guy.
On the opposite flank, Atsu always looks better than he actually is. By that I mean he always looks like he should be good, but somehow he just isn’t. He couldn’t even hack it at Everton.
All that being said, early on they had some dangerous moments because we were half asleep at the back. The goal was a case in point. I assumed Atsu must have been offside as the ease with which he found space behind our defence is not something we’re used to seeing.
What followed was great from Newcastle’s point of view and I don’t have any real criticism of our lads after that. Trent showed the left wing back inside, which normally wouldn’t be a problem, but he unleashed a fucking rocket that was past Adrian before he could even move his hands.
Would Alisson have saved it? Yeah he might have, but I’m not going to point the finger at a keeper for not stopping a shot like that. Brilliant finish, fair play to the lad. Great goal.
It should never have reached that stage though because Atsu should never have found that kind of space behind Matip. Not that it was Matip’s fault specifically. It just looked to me like a lack of communication. Van Dijk was too far over, meaning Matip has to go over as well so as not to leave a massive gap. That meant Atsu had space to run into. A bit of talking and virgil moving inside a bit would have prevented that.
Going a goal down was a shock to the system but these days there’s no cause for alarm. Did any of you doubt that we’d come back to win? I didn’t, although it did take longer than I expected for us to equalise.
It just wasn’t really clicking in the final third, and it didn’t help that Origi picked up an early knock. We eventually began to settle and should have been awarded a penalty when Matip was manhandled to the floor as he attacked a corner.
All the focus since has been on VAR and why that blatantly wrong decision wasn’t overturned. It’s a valid question, but the real crime here is that neither Andre Marriner nor the Main Stand side linesman spotted it with their own eyes.
The whole thing is a fucking joke. Obviously they saw it, they couldn’t not have seen it. They didn’t give it because they’ve got the VAR safety net now and the officials are thinking “I’ll just leave that to the fella watching the video”, while the fella watching the video is too fucking scared to over rule the ref on the pitch. And this is what we’re left with.
VAR was supposed to stop this shit. Instead it’s just made it worse. Honestly, it’s a fucking scandal that Marriner didn’t give that penalty but it’s even worse that his fuck up wasn’t corrected.
Thankfully it didn’t matter because we equalised soon after anyway, but what if this fucking crap happens in a tight game, maybe against City? It’s not good enough and it needs sorting out. Either use it or don’t use it, but this half arsed shit we have now helps no-one.
I’m not reacting only to that one incident either, as it’s happening four or five times every single weekend across various games.
Robbo reckons he asked the ref about it and was told “they’ve looked at the video and it’s not a pen”. Nah, that’s not what happened at all is it? You’d even struggle to find a Newcastle fan who could watch a replay of that and say “not a foul”. The video ref knew it was a foul but he didn’t want to undermine the ref on the field.
Marriner was just shit all day though. He’s one of the better ones but he’s fucking garbage. He just seems to want to cruise through the game and not give anything. The Main Stand linesman was a twat as well. I completely lost my shit with him when he watched Dummett just take a swan dive to get out of trouble. It was right under his nose but he took the shithouse way out and flagged for a foul.
I’m still angry about that as it caused me great physical pain. I’ve had a dodgy back for a couple of weeks and it had been really bad in the days leading up to the game. Up until Thursday I didn’t even think I’d make it to the game, but fortunately it improved enough that I was able to go.
Walking around is ok, it’s the sitting down that gives me problems as when I have to stand up it hurts like fuck. So I was taking it easy and I’d even decided I wouldn’t jump up when we scored.
Then he gives that free-kick (shortly after falling for a similar thing from Shelvey) and I momentarily forgot about my back pain and jumped up to yell a stream of obscenities at him. Then the pain hit me. Fucks sake.
Anyway, to get back on track, we didn’t get the pen on Matip and the crowd were steaming bout it. It had taken a little while for everyone (players and crowd) to get going and after only 15 minutes or so Klopp was bouncing around yelling at the Main Stand to get into the game.
I’m sat there thinking “the fuck are you shouting at us for, have a go at the Kop as they’re supposed to be leading the way on this. And I’ve got a bad back”. What was weird is he was reacting the way he normally does when the crowd are getting impatient or if there’s a big groan when a player makes a mistake. That never happened though, no-one was being a dick and it just seems to me like Klopp has decided that every game needs to be like a cup final now and he wants the crowd bang at it each time.
I said recently that I suspect he probably told the lads in pre-season that 97 points wasn’t enough, so this year let’s just win every game and not have any of those draws. This sort of plays into what I’m saying. There was loads of time left, we’d have almost certainly come back to win anyway but Jurgen was leaving nothing to chance. Every game is big, so he wants us all to act like it.
Weirdly, Jurgen’s rallying wasn’t the thing that got everyone going. That was Andy Robbo winning a tackle, shrugging off an opponent who was just trying to drag him back, and charging down the line. The roof came off then, and after that the place was rocking until it quietened down after it was clear the game was won.
The key to getting back into it was Klopp switching Origi and Mané over. It paid dividends fairly quickly as Robbo linked with Sadio and he pinged one into the top corner. Just an exquisite finish but that’s what we’re getting all the time from him now.
He might even go on to have the kind of season that Mo had two years ago, because it feels like he scores in every game now. Seriously, Mané might score forty plus the way he’s going. Tell you what I loved about this one though; he didn’t even celebrate, he just went and got the ball and told everyone to get the fuck back and restart the game. Nothin’ but business. Love it.
His second goal wasn’t as spectacular but in it’s own way it was just as impressive. Very little will be made of this but the truth is that pass from Bobby wasn’t very good. It was overhit by quite a bit but Mané made it look better than it was by his blistering speed over a few yards.
The keeper should still do better but the reason he fucked up was because Sadio was on him so quickly and he was distracted. Against anyone else that’s an easy gather for the keeper. I’ve said it before, but the only player I’ve seen as quick as Mané over a few yards was teenage Michael Owen. He’s just lightning.
Bobby’s introduction was the catalyst for that goal though, as he had dropped deep and came from behind to pick the pocket of Atsu. You’ve lost got to feel sorry for Atsu because the last thing you expect in that position is that the oppositions centre forward is coming from behind you. That’s Bobby though, a massive pain in the arse.
The second half was just a Firmino masterclass. Just a joy to watch. We had so many chances and almost all of them came though him. He played in Robbo, Trent and Salah and he also unselfishly squared for Mané to claim what he thought was a hat-trick, only for the linesman to rule it out.
That’s the beauty of Bobby though, he doesn’t give a fuck if he scores or not. He’s the most selfless number nine you’ll find and it’s great that he’s now finally getting the recognition he deserves. It seems like everyone is talking about him after this game and it’s really nice to hear.
For so long it’s been Salah and Mané getting all the plaudits, but now Bobby is being recognised by the wider football world. This weekend Troy Deeney called him the best in the league and some big name former Brazilian internationals have been singing his praises too. Steve Bruce even compared him to Cantona. Klopp said he was tempted to join in with the song. At some point this season he probably will.
I’m just buzzing at the moment. Generally if we score less than four at home I’m disappointed, but I’m fine with this for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the way we played it should have been six or seven really and I’m not sure how it wasn’t. Secondly, we went five points clear this weekend so I’m not going to quibble about us ‘only’ winning 3-1.
I’d like us to tighten up at the back though as I loved all those clean sheets this time last year. I miss those clean sheets but as long as we keep winning it’s not a big deal. For now.
Five wins from five and I’ve lost count of how many we’ve won in succession now. 14 or 15 I think. If we can keep this going for another month or two we might actually grind City into the dust. It’s hard chasing when the other team just keeps relentlessly winning. We know that as it’s fucking horrible when that happens.
It’s to the eternal credit of our players that they kept winning last season and managed to pull some results out of the fire when things were getting hairy. Every game was must win because City were so relentless. It’s hard work chasing a team that you know is highly unlikely to drop points, but now it’s up to us to put City in that position.
Five points is nothing, especially in September. At least, it never used to be. Now? It kind of is something. Not a big deal, but it is a little deal. The standards set by us and City mean that every game that isn’t won can have dire consequences. Nobody else is playing under that pressure, only us and them.
If Spurs lose so what? Same with Arsenal, Chelsea and United. They can lose eight or nine games and still achieve their season objective. For us and City, every dropped point feels massive and the ramifications are potentially season defining.
Five points can be hauled back in the blink of an eye though. We know that because it happened to us last season. Hopefully we learn from that. A five point lead isn’t enough to feel comfortable and it’s not something that will have City in too much of a flap. What if it gets to ten though?
That’s what we’ve got to be looking at. Make hay while the sun shine and that. City are having some issues at the back and might be vulnerable over the next few weeks if other teams have the same balls that Norwich showed. They’ve got two easy games coming up but if we keep winning and turning the screw then who knows what will happen.
Chelsea away is a tough one but there isn’t a venue in the world now that we shouldn’t expect to go to and win. Even at this early stage that could be a really big one because the longer we can keep that five point lead (or extend it) the more pressure it puts on City. If it goes from five to three or two within one week, it almost lets them off the hook after their loss at Norwich.
Let’s just keep churning out the wins and applying the pressure to them. We’ve got Napoli next though of course, but that’s not particularly important. It would be nice to win just to keep the momentum going but realistically there is nothing riding on that game because we could lose twice to Napoli and should still qualify from the group anyway.
We do owe them one after the shitshow we served up in that fixture last season, so hopefully we give a much better account of ourselves this time. They’ll be bang up for it as we’re such a big scalp for anybody now. Everyone wants a shot at the Kings of Europe.
Star man is Bobby. He was on the field less than an hour but his impact was huge. Robbo ran him very close though, he was great and it’s just a shame he didn’t get the goal he deserved. It’s coming though, he seems to have an effort on goal every game these days. It’s like when Virg wasn’t scoring but you knew they were coming. Since then he’s been regularly chipping in. Imagine if the full backs start banging them in.
Speaking of Virg though, the last word has to be on him. He took a ball full in the face, shook his head as though there was a wasp buzzing around him and then just carried on. Everyone laughed. What a man. The last time I saw that happen it was another Big Dutchman. Mad Erik. They breed them tough over there.
Team: Adrian; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson; Fabinho, Oxlade-Chamberlain (Milner), Wijnaldum (Shaqiri); Salah, Mané, Origi (Firmino):
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