Ok so NOW it feels real. We may have won it weeks ago but I wasn’t really completely feeling it until now. I knew we were Champions and I saw how ecstatic people were, but I wasn’t quite there. Not sure why. A few things I suppose.
Partly because this thing had essentially been sewn up since December. Partly because of the enforced break that halted the procession. Partly because we couldn’t be there in person to see it. But on reflection, I think it’s mostly because I’ve forgotten what winning the league is like and how it’s supposed to feel.
I was a teenager when we last won it and I don’t really remember much about it other than it was business as usual. It’s completely different to winning other trophies though. Unless of course it goes down to the last day and it all hinges on a one off game, in which case it’s basically the same as any other trophy success.
Over the last 30 years we’ve had plenty of trophies to celebrate but every one of those either involved being at a final in person or watching it in the City Centre with mates. When you win those, celebrating is easy. You know how to feel as you’re swept up in the moment.
This was different. We didn’t even win it on the pitch. It was clinched when City lost at Chelsea and could therefore no longer catch us. That turned out great for the lads because they were able to watch that game together and go nuts afterwards. For us fans though, it was strange.
We didn’t have that focal point. That one game where it happened and we could all celebrate afterwards. Even without Covid it wouldn’t have been the same as when you actually win a final, but to have this in the middle of a pandemic just killed the party mood. At least for me anyway.
I just wasn’t as ecstatic as I always imagined I would be when it finally happened. Now I feel it though. This is what it needed to become real for me. Seeing them lift the trophy brought it all to life. Obviously I feel robbed of the opportunity to see it happen live but that’s something beyond everybody’s control. For now at least.
In fairness to everyone involved, I thought this went as well as it possibly could without any fans inside the stadium. I’m not even arsed about Coldplay because to tell you the truth I didn’t even notice it. Did they even play it? I suppose that’s the thing with Coldplay, they’re not very noticeable as they’re so fucking bland (apart from Viva La Vida which is the exception that proves the rule).
It felt great seeing the lads with their medals and the trophy and now it’s finally hit home that we are Champions. Champions of England. Champions of Europe (for a few more weeks at least). Champions of the World. We’re currently the Champions of everything and we should savour this because we’ve never done it before and might never do it again. Then again, we might. Who knows?
As for the game itself, it was a cracker. Chelsea are not too dissimilar to what we were a few years ago. Great going forward, some very talented players but defensively vulnerable and with big questions marks over the goalkeeper. The biggest difference is we had Klopp to put that right whereas they have Lampard, who is still very much an unknown quantity.
Chelsea started the game well and had a couple of good situations they could have made more of. They wasted them and within the blink of an eye they were 3-0 down. It all seemed to happen very quickly but in that spell we played some great stuff.
We went ahead when Keita won the ball and then lashed one in off the bar from 18 yards. He’s good at that. Not so much the lashing one in from 18 yards, but generally just being a fucking pest and nicking the ball off people. He just seems very good at getting himself in the way, which must be due to good anticipation.
So anyway, he wins the ball, advances to the edge of the box and lets fly. They always look better when they go in off the bar and it’s a great goal. If that goes in against us though I’m looking at my keeper. Maybe that’s harsh, but look at Kepa’s pitiful attempt to stop it. Why is he going for it with his right hand and not his left? Because he’s shite, that’s why.
It’s funny really. Alisson was once the most expensive keeper and Van Dijk was the most expensive defender. Now it’s Kepa and Harry fucking Maguire! Crazy.
I thought Kepa should have done better on the second goal too. I’m not saying he should definitely have saved it but he should be getting a lot closer than that. It’s basically the exact same goal Trent scored against Palace. It’s identical. Same spot on the pitch, exact same strike and it hits the net in the very same spot.
The Palace keeper at least got close to it and he didn’t have the benefit of having seen it before. Kepa should have known where that was going, yet there he was stood there, flat footed, nowhere near it. Shite that.
Chelsea had felt aggrieved at the decision to award us that free-kick and Lampard ended up in a big row with Klopp and the rest of our bench. Because there are no fans in the stadium one of the journalists in the press area was able to film the entire exchange and picked up everything that was said.
Lots of ‘facking this’ and ‘facking that’ from Lampard while Klopp kept telling him to ‘calm down’. When you’re riled up is there anything more fucking infuriating than some patronising cunt telling you to calm down? Hilarious, Klopp was driving him mad.
Lampard is a cheeky fat cunt though. Seemingly telling Klopp “first title you’ve ever won and you’re giving it the big ‘un”. I’d like to think he was directing that at someone else because it isn’t Klopp’s first title and one thing you’ll never see Klopp doing is getting above his station. Not his style at all.
It seems Lampard’s real beef was with Ljinders and that’s almost certainly who he was referring to afterwards when he said some people are getting arrogant after winning the title. It also explains why Ljinders ran on the pitch to celebrate when the free-kick went in!
It’s obvious what started it. Our bench will have gone mad at the challenge because it looked dangerous. I can also see why Lampard didn’t think it was a foul though. Klopp and his staff wouldn’t have liked it because it was an aggressive looking challenge and he went right through the back of Sadio. Lampard will say he got the ball first. Both are correct.
The general consensus seems to be that it wasn’t a foul. Not sure I agree with that. Look, to me that’s a good tackle but all I’m saying is that in the modern game there will be more refs who give a foul for that than there will be ones who let it go. You can’t really tackle that anymore, whether you or I agree or not. So Lampard can stick his anger up his fat arse (yeah yeah I know he’s not fat, that’s what has always made the ‘Fat Frank’ thing so funny).
It was another great strike by Trent though, who hasn’t looked back since the kick up the arse I gave him after the derby when I said he wasn’t all that at free-kicks. Sometimes you need that. Naby’s form has also improved since I questioned him.
And then it was 3-0. Robbo’s corner wasn’t dealt with by Chelsea and while everyone else seemed to be appealing for handball Gini just smashed the ball in.
At this stage it was looking like we’d completely humiliate Chelsea but they pulled one back just before half time and that stopped our momentum. Good goal to be fair. It’s hard to defend that simply because that one unexpected flick by Alonso completely takes everyone out of the game. Brilliant by him.
Alisson’s save was stunning but it won’t be remembered because sadly the long (and no doubt extremely well groomed and waxed) leg of Giroud got to the rebound first to prod the ball over the line.
That goal gave Chelsea a lifeline but then guess what, Bobby actually scored at Anfield in the league! Made up for him as nobody wanted him to go through the season with that record. He saw a perfectly good goal disallowed against United so it’s only right that he managed to avoid going goalless at home.
Lovely goal it was too. Stunning delivery from Trent and a good header from Bobby. You could see how much it meant to him and I’m sure all the lads knew about the unwanted record too.
We had chances to extend the lead but then the substitutions started coming and the game suddenly became ridiculously open. We took off Gini and Naby and sent on Milner and Jones. Chelsea brought on Abraham, Hudson-Adoi and Pulisic and all of a sudden they looked like they were going to score with every attack
We should have been well out of sight by then anyway, but wasteful Mo showed up for this one, which was a real shame because finishing aside he was boss and gave Rudiger the run around all night. Maybe if he’d brought his right foot with him he’d have had at least a couple. Even Virg was taking the piss out of him afterwards, saying “Didn’t you want to score tonight, Mo?”
It frustrates me so much when he runs around away from the ball to get on his left foot because his right foot is fine when he actually trusts himself to use it. It should also be pointed out that he seems to have become the victim of a new rule that says it's ok to grab, pull or bodycheck him any time he advances into the penalty area.
I seem to remember similar happening at Stamford Bridge, where Chelsea decided the best way to stop Mo playing one twos around the box is to let him play the pass and then just flatten him. Rudiger did it twice in this game yet somehow it's being described on commentary as 'standing his ground'.
Last time I checked, standing your ground wasn't taking a step to the left, into the path of another player, and bodychecking him. Opponents know now that they can do this without being called on it, as it's happening all the time. Chelsea just happen to be the most blatant exponents of it.
Still, that just makes it all the more important that he makes the most of the clear chances he does get, and he failed to do that once again. I understand he's not going to score with every chance he gets, but his strike rate does seem to be really poor this season, especially since lockdown when he could easily have scored seven or eight.
His profligacy looked like it might prove costly when ‘Eden Pulisic’ started running us ragged. I thought we’d seen the last of that shit when the tricky little Belgian fucker left but this brought back some unpleasant memories. He’d have been a good signing for us wouldn’t he, Pulisic?
We made him look good though. The defending just went to pieces for a spell. Too much space appeared between the midfield and defence (possibly a result of Gini going off) while Trent and Gomez couldn’t cope with Pulisic.
Chelsea got back to 4-2 when Pulisic skipped past three challenges and crossed for an Abraham tap in. He then missed a good chance when he got in behind Gomez but dragged a shot wide. The next chance he got he made no mistake. Gomez and Van Dijk went for the same ball and collided (defo Joe’s fault) which had us scrambling back.
Trent tried to get across to cover Pulisic but sold himself too much and allowed him to turn and lash one in the top corner. Something that doesn’t seem to have been mentioned though is that Azpilacueta stole 20 yards on that throw in. Honestly, watch it back and it’s easily 20 yards, maybe more. The ball goes on level with the edge of the box and he takes the throw close to halfway. The goal comes directly from that.
At this point I thought we’d concede another as we were all over the place, but the lads regrouped and defended pretty well after that.
I wasn’t thinking this at 4-3 but now, knowing that it all ended well, I have to say that I did enjoy seeing the old roller coaster Reds again. I don’t want this every week but I have frequently bemoaned the fact that we were no longer quite as thrilling as we were a couple of years ago.
Obviously I wouldn’t swap that for the stability and machine-like ability to win we have now, but there are times I get a little nostalgic for the thrill a minute, four or five goals a game Reds of the 17/18 season. So I did enjoy seeing this throwback performance, even though at 4-3 it wasn’t much fun.
When Ox finally killed the game it just felt great and capped a memorable night. Grinding out a 1-0 and then lifting the trophy would have been sound, but this was better.
And we wrapped it up with one of those goals I fucking love. Nothing compares to those fast break goals. There’s just nothing better. You rip the soul out of the opponent when you do that. They have an attacking set-piece and the hope that they might do something from it, then seconds later they’re picking it out of their own net wondering what hit them.
Andy Robbo. What a man. He heads away the free-kick and then ten seconds later he’s putting in the cross for Ox to score. How does that even happen? He’s amazing. He isn’t talked about anywhere near enough for me. I mean yeah, he does get recognition and it seems like MOTD highlight him and Trent every other week. It’s not enough though. He’s so fucking good he should be everywhere. His face should be on a postage stamp and five pound notes.
That goal was as important as a goal could be under the current circumstances. Technically there’s nothing to play for but these patchy results we’ve had lately have still been irritating and had we not beaten Chelsea it would have cast a slight shadow on the celebrations that followed. Not much of a shadow, as it doesn’t REALLY matter, but the lads lifting the trophy after a thrilling win will have given them a little bit more oomph in their celebrations.
So that goal from Ox was a big one and it’s definitely top five for me this season. We’ve scored some great goals but I suspect this one will live longer in the memory than most because it came on the night we got the trophy. Plus it was a fucking phenomenal goal and summed up what this team is all about.
Robbo running like that so late in the game when we’re in front and the title has been won weeks ago. He is the beating heart of this side and represents everything that you want your team to be. He has every single quality you would want, on and off the pitch. Most of the lads do though to be fair, but especially Robbo. He’s the most relatable in the entire squad.
So now we have one more game. Away at Newcastle. I have no idea what to expect there as a lot will depend on how last night’s celebrations went. It’s easy enough to motivate players when there are seven games left and they haven’t had the trophy or their medals yet, but this one is much more tricky. I doubt anyone really gives a shit about it now.
I’d prefer to win, that goes without saying, and even a draw would do because it would match last season’s points tally. That won’t matter to a lot of people but it does to me. I think I might be a little OCD about this because picking up less points than last year would bother me far more than it should. I know it doesn’t matter one jot, yet the thought of finishing one point less than a year ago would weigh on my mind.
I wouldn’t be shocked if the lads went out there and just had nothing left though. Who could blame them if that’s the case? They’ve worked so hard to reach their goal and now having got there it might be a case of them just not being able to switch back on for one more, ultimately meaningless game.
If that happens I’m fine with it. There’ll be no histrionics from me like there was after the Arsenal game for example. Whatever happens on Sunday happens. I really hope Mo manages to get his goal to reach 20 for the season third season in a row though. That’s also irrationally important to me, probably that OCD again.
Star man is Robbo but had Naby played ninety minutes then he’d have ran him close.
Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson; Fabinho, Wijnaldum (Jones), Keita (Milner); Salah (Oxlade-Chamberlain), Firmino (Minamino), Mané (Origi):
Recommended Comments