Is this actually happening? Everything is coming up Millhouse. I'm not used to this and I'm waiting for the inevitable kick in the bollocks. So far it hasn't come. Maybe this time it won't?
A few weeks ago we were having to win just to cling onto the coat tails of the runaway train that was City. They were doing exactly what they did last year when they left everyone eating dust after a record breaking start. This time though they hadn't shaken everyone off. We were right there with them, somehow.
Yet we were on the brink of dropping two points at home in the Derby that would have left us four adrift and in trouble. It would have been tough to recover from that because City are relentless front runners, but then Jordan Pickford came to the rescue and we haven’t looked back.
Moments like that can often be the catalyst for something big, and maybe in May we’ll look at that as a key turning point. Since then City have fallen apart and we’ve been unstoppable. We’re seven clear of them now and, incredibly, the goal difference advantage they had has now been wiped out too. Weren’t we 16 behind them not so long ago? I clearly remember saying that I’d written that off completely and it no longer mattered if we won 5-0 or 1-0, we just had to keep winning.
Well it matters again, but more to City than us. Unless they can restore their advantage in goal difference that seven point deficit is effectively an eight point one. It’s unbelievable how quickly things have changed, and that should serve as a warning to any of us who might be getting carried away. Not that I see much of that. We've been burned too many times to take anything for granted.
I think most of us are now confident and have belief, but we all know how quickly things can go wrong as we've experienced it. It does feel different, but then it felt different in 2014 too. It felt different going into the final in Kiev last May. You just never know what's around the corner, but this team has gone through some heartbreak and it didn't break them. They've kept coming back stronger..
There’s no sign of complacency from them either, which is great because it might be the biggest danger to us right now. They’re just going out and taking care of business. Newcastle came to defend and make it difficult but they were swept aside with the minimum of fuss. It was a third gear performance and there should therefore be plenty left in the tank for the next game.
The way we started the game I thought we might score seven or eight. The front lads were on fire and some of the one touch interplay between them was as good as anything we’ve seen all season. It just wouldn’t fall right for them to get their shots away, but the build up was sublime and the movement was dragging Newcastle all over the place.
It was impossible to tell what the formation was or who was playing where when we had the ball because the front four were interchanging and moving all over the place. It was only when they were stationary for things like goal kicks that you could see the 4-2-3-1 with Shaq on the right and Mo up front.
When we had the ball Mo kept pulling out to the right, Shaq and Bobby were floating around all over the place and there were spells where Mané looked like he was playing through the middle. How do you defend that?
With eight players and unsuccessfully in Newcastle’s case. They’re shite, yet they can probably consider themselves unfortunate to have gone home without scoring. They were no worse than the Mancs, despite the scoreline.
They actually had a great chance to go in front early on when Ritchie’s superb cross dropped just over Van Dijk and onto the head of Joselu. Thankfully he’s shite and made a mess of it. Had Rondon been on the end of that it might have been a different story. Joselu is stealing a living and aside from Depoitre at Huddersfield might be the worst player in the league.
They also had a great chance to score right at the end too when Alisson was stranded out of his goal and a big scramble ensued. The defenders did just enough to delay Newcastle getting the shot away until Alisson was back in position and he made a save. It was celebrated like a goal, both by players and the crowd. We’re all becoming a little obsessed with clean sheets and this defensive record, and it’s fucking boss, I love it.
As I said, we were looking sharp in the opening exchanges but surprisingly we did look a little too open on a couple of occasions. Klopp said as much afterwards. You can get away with it against Newcastle and their Championship standard attack, but we need to tighten that shit up against Arsenal and I’m sure we will.
At the other end though we looked great. At least we did for 25 minutes or so. Then it all because a little bit flat. Some of the interplay between the front four in the opening stages was tremendous but they didn’t have the goals to show for it, and after a while it fizzled out and we were giving the ball away too cheaply (especially Firmino, who combined some dazzling footwork and terrific passing with some of the sloppiest play we’ve seen all season).
The only goal we managed in the first half came from the unlikeliest of sources. Credit where it’s due though, that strike from Lovren was worthy of any of our attackers. Great technique from the big man. Not gonna lie, when he lined that up I fully expected it to end up in the back row of the Kop as we’ve seen that movie before. Sorry Dejan, I’ll have more faith next time. Maybe.
It’s funny though, because initially I was about to start moaning about them taking a quick corner before the centre backs could get in the box. We did the exact same thing against United and big Virgil went mad. I thought the same was going to happen again as both he and Lovren had to make a late sprint towards the box to try and get on the end of Robbo’s cross, but it all worked out in the end as Lovren was actually unmarked because of it.
There was a stat shown on Sky during the Wolves game that revealed we’d not only conceded the least goals from set-pieces (no surprise, considering we’ve only let in seven in total), we’ve also scored the most. That really shocked me as it feels as though our corners in particular are mostly terrible. We added two more set-piece goals in this one though. Actually it might be three if penalties are classed as set-pieces?
Because yeah, we actually got a fucking penalty. Can you believe that? It’s a joke how few penalties we get, especially at Anfield, but in fairness this one was really, really soft. Mo threw himself to the floor but from the referee’s perspective he sees Dummet grab the shoulder and then Mo goes down. You can see why he gave a pen, and technically he wasn’t wrong to do so. Morally it's a different story.
I’d have been fuming if that had been given against us, but then at the same time why is the defender grabbing his shoulder when he cuts across him? Asking for trouble that is. It’s also worth pointing out that Mo has been denied some clear pens at Anfield over the past 12 months so he’s probably of the mindset now that he’s going down any time he’s touched.
I’m not going to defend it but I won’t lose any sleep over it either. We’ve got Spurs hot on our heels and no-one loves a dive more than they do. By not doing it you could argue that we’re putting ourselves at a disadvantage. The suggestion that Salah should have been retrospectively banned was a fucking joke though. If there’s contact then you can’t ban someone, as only the player himself knows 100% if he could have stayed up or not. The only time you can ban someone if if they aren’t touched, otherwise you’re basically having a Sean Dyche dinner (opening up a massive can of worms).
Mo buried the pen and it was essentially game over. This Newcastle side might have been able to muster one goal from somewhere, but there was not a snowman's chance in hell they were getting two.
It was at that point I realised that we might be able to wipe out City’s goal difference advantage. I thought we’d probably need five to do it, as I wasn’t banking on Leicester doing anything more than hopefully holding onto the draw they had at half time.
It was also at this point that my Dad began to get edgy and started complaining. Not at the performance. I'll explain.
All day he’d been saying we’d win 4-0 but he never got around to putting a bet on it. He was on a hat-trick having had the correct score for the United and Wolves games, but this time he didn’t get his bet on and from the moment Mo made it 2-0 that’s all I heard. “This is gonna be 4-0. Told you it was gonna be 4-0. I could kick myself not putting that bet on. I’ll be sick if its 4-0”.
I could tell it was bothering him by how subdued he was when his boy Shaq fired in the third from close range after Trent got in down the side and crossed hard and low. Man City goal that, we’re beginning to become quite adept at them ourselves, which is great because this is the best way of beating these shit teams. They pack the middle and let you have it out wide, so if you can work the overload and then get those low crosses in there’s lots of joy to be had.
I love that goal though. It was just relentless pressure that paid off when a perfectly weighted ball from Hendo put Trent in and his delivery was delicious, as it was for most of the day (not withstanding one horrendously overhit first half cross). He had a fine game on his return to the side and it’s great having him back. Some of his passing was ridiculously good.
He hit a couple of cross fielders to Robbo that were Gerrard-esque, and there was one eye of a needle through ball to Mané that was fucking incredible. Sadio’s touch just let him down but if he’d taken that in his stride and scored we’d have been watching replays of that pass for years.
We were cruising at 3-0 and the atmosphere was understandably a little subdued as the job was done. Then news filtered through on the Kop that Leicester had taken the lead and all hell broke loose. The noise level went through the roof and all four sides of the ground were on their feet singing.
Klopp said that initially he thought it was for our own performance, but I reckon he knew. I reckon the players knew too. They will have been as excited as we were about City losing, but they can't say it. They'll say they are focussed only on what they are doing and it doesn't matter what happens with City, but privately they must be thinking "fucking hell!!!"
Aside from Spurs winning both games big, this week couldn't have gone any better. Klopp even had the luxury of resting Wijnaldum, Firmino and later Robbo as he cleared the bench. Fabinho, Sturridge and Clyne all came on and when you look at the players who weren’t involved it shows we’re in pretty good shape squad wise. We’re going to need most of them at some stage and to be honest I was surprised Klopp went as strong as he did for this one.
With Arsenal and City to come I wondered if Bobby might sit this one out and I thought there was a good chance Robertson would too. Apparently Moreno isn’t fit, and with Milner out as well there wasn’t really much option but to play Robbo. Still, he got ten minutes rest at the end so I’m sure that will make all the difference.
Fabinho finally put my Dad out of his misery by heading in the fourth after Lovren had just missed Salah’s corner. Good concentration by Fabinho as he must have thought Lovren was going to reach it. He’s going to be an important player in the next two games I think. I’ve also got a gut feeling that Keita is going to do something big pretty soon. He couldn’t even get on the field in this one, but he’s going to come up huge for us soon, I can feel it.
We’re getting contributions from everyone at the moment. It’s great. We’re actually two goals up on last year’s tally at this stage, which surprised me as it felt like we scoring way more last season. Probably my perception of it is skewed because we scored so many in the Champions League. Domestically, we’re scoring more this time, and it’s encouraging that the goals are being spread around.
Big Shaq is chipping in, the centre backs are now on the goal trail too and we’ve had vital contributions off the bench from the likes of Origi and Sturridge. Every little helps, and it’s making up for the shortfall we’ve had from Bobby this year. He just hasn’t got going yet. He’s had flashes of form here and there but he’s not hit top gear yet. He hasn’t needed to. How mad is that?
We’re in dreamland right now. Top of the league and unbeaten at the halfway point. It’s officially the best start we’ve had in our history, which is incredible when you think of the great teams that have gone before. There are all sorts of impressive numbers, and I can’t decide which statistic is most impressive. I think its probably the seven goals conceded in 19 games (which has tied a top flight record apparently), but then there’s the 100% record against everyone outside the top five. That’s incredible.
We’ve won every single game that we’re supposed to win. No slip ups. Keep doing that and the title is in the bag. Easier said than done of course, but that’s the key to it, especially if City continually fail to do it. Spurs are doing a good job of that too and trail us only because of defeats to Arsenal, City and of course ourselves. Are they now the biggest threat to us? I’m not prepared to go there yet, but it would be pretty satisfying if City dropped out of it completely, wouldn’t it?
We’re in a great position and over the first half of the season we’ve clearly been the best team. It doesn’t mean we’ll be the best team in the second half of the season, but we’ve got a seven point lead (the goal difference over Spurs is as good as another point currently) and most of our most difficult fixtures are out of the way.
The next two games will go a long way towards showing just where we are though. I’ve thought for a week or so now that the Arsenal game is a more difficult one than the trip to City. I’m not scared of City at all in a head to head game. The worry I had with City was whether we’d be able to match their results against everyone else, but they’ve cracked under the pressure we put on them.
I’ve got a very strong feeling we’ll win at the Etihad but Arsenal worry me because they remind me of us before we signed Van Dijk. They’ve bought into Emery’s philosophy, they work hard and they’ve got talented players. Their games are always entertaining and they are capable of beating anybody, but they’re vulnerable in defence. As I say, they’re us pre-Virgil. We should beat them, but it’s not something I’m taking for granted.
I think we’ll stuff City though because they’re scared of us and all of the pressure is now on them for that game. We don’t need to win that game and a draw is fine. They have to win and they certainly can’t afford to lose, especially if we’ve managed to beat Arsenal.
There’s a confidence and swagger about our lads at the moment. You can tell they believe they can beat anybody and if we continue on like this there’ll be plenty of opponents who will be beaten before the game even starts. City have benefitted massively from that over the last year or so but their mask of invincibility has slipped of late.
Hopefully more opponents will get stuck into them and have a go now, and hopefully Spurs will see this hot streak they’re on cool off a little.
It’s hard not to get carried away after the week or so we’ve had but I’m trying to keep a lid on it until we see where we are after the next two huge games. What a Christmas it’s been though. Bloody hell.
Star man is Hendo. He’s been in good form since that second half against Napoli. Honourable mentions to Big Shaq, Van Dijk and Trent too, as well as big Dejan for a stunning goal and a glorious ball over the top for Mané that would have been one hell of a goal if his shot had been a few inches lower.
Final word. I can't stand Newcastle. Absolute fucking dickheads always smelling themselves and telling anyone who'll listen what great fans they are. "Feed the scousers". Gobshites.
Fuck them. I hope they go down again and that Mike Ashley holds onto them forever.
Where's your "USA" chants now, you thick stripey cunts?
Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Lovren, Van Dijk, Robertson (Clyne); Henderson, Wijnaldum (Fabinho); Shaqiri, Firmino (Sturridge), Mané:
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