Shitty weekend for us as we lost top spot. We only have ourselves to blame for not being able to take care of a shite team like Everton, but life isn’t exactly being made easier by the way other teams approach games with City is it?
I’ve had a soft spot for Bournemouth and Eddie Howe for a number of years. I root for them to do well and quite enjoy watching them play. I may need to rethink all that though after what they did this weekend. Or more specifically, what they didn’t do.
Not a single shot on or off target and no corners. At home. Honestly, I’m not being melodramatic here, but that is genuinely the most cowardly thing I can ever remember from a top flight team. Had City been playing a League Two side they’d have been given more trouble than this.
The frustrating thing is City were bang average again, just as they had been when needing a phantom penalty to beat West Ham last week. They aren’t playing well but when opponents are doing this, what does it matter anyway?
Part of the problem is that (other than us) nobody really hates City. They have no rivals because they were lovable losers for decades. Even United don’t really hate them. The rest of the top clubs are happy for City to win the title because it gives them a ready made excuse for not doing so. Look at how Chelsea and (to a lesser extent) Arsenal approached their games at the Etihad. The white flag was raised at the first sign of adversity. It's like "It's City, they're loaded. What can we do?"
The year Leicester won it blew everybody else’s bullshit excuses out of the water and it would be similar this year if we won it. I'm not comparing us to Leicester, what they did was miraculous, but fans of Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs and United would rightly be able to ask the powers that be at their clubs “if Liverpool can win it then what's your excuse?” When City are winning it though there’s a ready made excuse for everyone, because how can you compete with oil money?
That’s why no-one hates City, but they should do, because the cheating fucks are breaking all the rules that everyone else is playing by, yet somehow hardly anybody seems to have an issue with that.
Why? In most cases it’s because the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and so many of these fuckers want to see us come up short that City are seen as the lesser evil. They're fighting the good fight against the evil scouse empire.
In fairness that wasn’t Bournemouth’s motivation (I doubt their fans give a fuck who wins it, this show of cowardice is 100% on Howe), but it’s a fact that a lot of opponents we face (specifically the crowd) are more up for it when they play us than they are when they play City.
It’s almost like manager's think “as long as we don’t get embarrassed a defeat is fine” and the crowds around the country are generally fine with it too. When they play us though they’re bang up for it.
Old Trafford was rocking the other week even though they barely left their own half. The United fans were more up for that than they have been for any game in years. Will they be the same when City go there? No chance.
The players might be up for it and give it a right good go, but will they have the same determination to not concede as they when they played us? Nope. The crowd will definitely lack the frothing at the mouth intensity they had when we went there. That’s just a stone cold fact.
I’m not lumping Bournemouth in with the ‘anyone but Liverpool’ brigade though. They don’t have a horse in this race and I imagine that, in general, their fans don’t give a shit if we win it or City do.
They probably expected their side to have a go at City, as what did they have to lose? They’re mid table, safe, and they’d been hammered by Arsenal so if the same happened against City, so what?
They kept the score down to 1-0 and on paper that seems like a good effort, but it’s a phoney ‘victory’. Like Everton the other week. They made it look good, but the result was never, ever in any doubt because they had no interest in doing anything other than not get thumped.
Bournemouth were even worse than Everton, as statistically it was the most inept effort since nerds began keeping records on this stuff.
I know exactly what happened here though. They’ve had some real beatings away from home and were coming off a spanking at the Emirates a few days before. So they got gun shy. Normally Bournemouth at home are a handful for anybody, but instead of taking the game to City like they’d normally do, Howe had them curl up into the faetal position and begged City to go easy on them.
And how shit must be Begovic be if he’s lost his place to Boruc? That turd was beaten at his near post by a weak as piss shot from Mahrez.
Howe said the only blemish was they gave up an ugly goal but otherwise they did very well. 18% possession and not a single shot. Oh yeah, you did fantastic, you bad shithouse.
Defending with everyone behind the ball is fine. Palace and Newcastle both beat City playing like that. You know what else they did though? They attacked when they had the opportunity to do it.
So fuck Eddie Howe and fuck Bournemouth. The days of me wanting them to do well are over now. Thanks for nothing, losers. I just hope the likes of Palace and Burnley will have a go at City, as I’m not relying on United or Spurs for any favours, that’s for damn sure. And anyone thinking Brendan is going to do something against them with Leicester has read too many fairy tales.
Speaking of Spurs, they’ve taken one point from the last nine and are now finally out of the title race. They’re now in a race to stay in the top four, which seemed inconceivable a little over a week ago.
The Burnley defeat really hurt them and it’s also cost Pochettino a place on the touchline for their next couple of games after he rose to the bait dangled in front of him by Mike Dean. The Spurs boss is usually quite controlled and cool, but Dean can have that effect on anyone. He could cause Ghandi to lose his shit.
Spurs ended their mini losing streak this weekend but only just. Ramsay signed off from North London derbies in some style with a superbly taken opener to put Arsenal ahead. Spurs equalised from the penalty spot when a clearly offside Kane was shoved in the back by the train wreck that is Mustafi.
Arsenal had the better of the game and had a chance to win it at the death, but Aubamayeng’s penalty was dreadful and he looked terrified prior to taking it.
Arsenal’s frustration was compounded when Torreira was sent off in stoppage time for winning the ball and having Rose step into his follow through. Absolute joke that.
Spurs have their keeper to thank for escaping with a point, but no-one does a camera save quite like Hugo Lloris do they? He makes the simple look difficult and the difficult look difficult. There was one camera save from Iwobi in this game that was hilarious.
Even the penalty save right at the end initially looked like a great save, then you see the replay and it’s about two yards away from him yet somehow he’s at full stretch making it look like a worldy.
Anthony Taylor was fucking shocking though. Neither penalty should have been given, Vertonghen was three yards inside the box when it was taken and was therefore able to make a key block on the rebound, Torreira shouldn’t have been sent off and he somehow gave nothing when Xhaka launched himself from behind at Kane, got nowhere near the ball and caught him on the back of the knee with studs raised.
Can’t stand that baldy manc bastard.
I saw at least half a dozen clips of Arsenal fans filming themselves watching the game and they all posted up the clip of them watching the penalty miss. What’s this shit about? I don’t get it. Is this an age thing, am I just too old to understand this, or are they just self absorbed helmets who want to show everyone how “passionate” they are? Maybe both, but mostly the latter.
Moving on and Burnley were beaten at home by Wilfried Palace. Good game this though, surprisingly.
A swift counter saw Bardsley put into his own net after good work from Zaha. Batshuayi lashed in the second after being picked out by Wan-Bissaka. Great goal that. Not as good as the third though. Zaha beat two defenders and he beat them about three times apiece before lashing a low shot past Heaton.
Said it before and I’ll say it again, Zaha is fucking brilliant. One of my favourite players to watch, massively talented.
Barnes grabbed a late consolation and Crouchy was inches away from his first Burnley goal. Burnley actually played well and dominated the game, but Palace on the break are a real handful and their gameplan worked to perfection.
Brighton came through a must win home fixture with Huddersfield, but only just. Substitute Andone won it for them late on with a good header from a lovely cross by Knockaert. Mouniet almost equalised immediately but Matt Ryan saved.
Typical Huddersfield really. Played well, kept it close, couldn’t score and lost. Massive win for Brighton though as they were sinking fast. They were level with Southampton and only two ahead of Cardiff going into this. They’ve got a little breathing room now but they’re form has been so bad they still need to be careful
With Huddersfield and Fulham pretty much cooked, Cardiff have picked the worst possible time to completely lose their form and right now they look doomed. Two heavy defeats to Watford and Everton and now a loss at Wolves has put them right back in the shit after a decent little run had given them hope of escape.
Jimenez and Jota did the damage with two goals in two minutes. Cardiff then lost Sol Bamba to a serious, self inflicted knee injury. He hurt himself booting Adam Traore to stop a Wolves counter attack. No Bamba, no chance. I'm pretty sure now that Cardiff will fill that third relegation spot now and it looks as though they know it too.
Warnock looked a beaten man afterwards, he was half heartedly complaining about a red card that wasn’t given but you could tell he knew it wouldn’t have made any difference. He’s probably relieved, soon he’ll be back in the land where he is king. No, not Yorkshire, I mean the Championship.
Warnock reminds me of Michael Jordan. Now hold on, hear me out. What I mean, is Warnock in the Premier League is like when MJ quit the NBA to play baseball. He was a fish out of water but went back to basketball and reeled off three titles on the spin. Warnock in the lower leagues is basketball Jordan. In the Premier League he's baseball Jordan. The moral of the story is he should stay in the lower leagues.
United won again. Haven’t seen any of it and don’t want to talk about it. Bet they win every game up until they play City and then they’ll turn in their worst performance since the Goblin took charge. Pricks.
Elsewhere, Declan Rice headed West Ham in front at home to Newcastle and then ruined all his good work with a terrible celebration. The Hammers were then awarded a penalty when Hernandez fooled the ref with a top class dive. No blame to the official there, it looked a pen all day until you see the replay and realise there’s no contact whatsoever. Noble buried the pen in some style and that’s how it finished.
Onto Sunday and Chelsea just about edged out Fulham at Craven Cottage. That prick was back in goal after the leanest of punishments. One weeks wages and dropped for one game. Sarri has no balls. I had him down as this no nonsense, don’t fuck with me Italian wisely type, but that incident with the keeper and how he dealt with it afterwards just made him look like a bad pussy.
That dressing room didn’t respect him before, so he’s got no chance now. He’ll be gone at the end of the season. Still, he’s lasted a lot longer than poor Claudio, who was sacked last week.
What was the point in even bringing him in? Presumably they thought he was a short term shot of adrenaline who might be able to save them, and when it became clear that wasn’t going to happen they fucked him off.
My question is if that’s all they wanted, why didn’t they just give it to Fat Sam? Ranieri deserved better than that.
Higuain gave Chelsea the lead with a sharp finish. Scoring against Fulham is just about his level, the big fucking fraud. Fulham levelled when an unmarked Chambers converted a Ryan Babel cross. Jorginho side footed in from 18 yards to restore Chelsea’s lead just three minutes later, and that’s how it finished.
Finally, my boy Troy set Watford on their way to a 2-1 win over Leicester. He looked offside but the goal was given anyway, much to the displeasure of new Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers.
Vardy equalised with a trademark Vardy goal, running onto a through ball and finishing with aplomb. He looked razor sharp all day and no-one will be happier about Puel getting the bullet than Vardy. He can enjoy his football again now, as Rodgers will at least play to his strengths and not keep benching him for no reason.
Leicester played well and had plenty of chances, but Andre Gray won it for Watford right at the death when Maguire played him onside and he ran clear to score. Leicester piled on the pressure in the dying seconds and had three good chances, but Watford held on.
A bad start for Brendan then, but he’ll do alright there I think. He’s got loads of talent to work with and next season they should be comfortably in the top half and ready to pounce on the top six if anyone of them has a bad season (Chelsea are looking most likely given the likelihood of Hazard getting off and their impending transfer ban).
I don’t bear him any ill will at all, but equally I don’t think I can be arsed listening to all the insincere bullshit that just pours out of his mouth any time there’s a microphone put in front of him.
He’s just annoying as fuck, still coming out with the same cringe soundbites he did when he was here. In his opening press conference he gave it the old “I’ll give my life for this club.” Yeah, until another stepping stone comes along.
Still, I’m glad Puel has gone as he seemed to have Klopp’s number for some inexplicable reason. Leicester will be good to watch now, but there’s as much chance of me tuning in for United games as there is of me sitting through any more of Brendan’s interviews. Unless he beats City in May of course, in which case he can spout all the shite he likes.
Hell, I'd even let him have a medal if we won it. Rafa too. Not Roy though, not unless he beats them again in a few weeks. God this is depressing, having to rely on Brendan and Roy to do us favours. Stranger things have happened I suppose. I can't think of any, but there must be something.
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