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I’d be happy if we played on Friday night every week. There’s nothing better than laying down a marker and then watching your rivals try to respond…. and fail miserably. City have really not responded well to being behind have they? The once invincible juggernaut that was being lauded by many as the greatest team in English football history has been brutally exposed over this Christmas period. Exposed by Roy Hodgson of all people. Palace had drawn four and lost 19 of their last 23 combined visits to City and United. Incredible statistic that. A Manchester based record that bad usually has Mick Hucknall on vocals. As far as shock results go this is up there with anything we’ve seen in recent years. City then following it up by losing at Leicester was an added bonus, but I’ll get to that in due course. The strangest aspect of it all is they had the lead in both games and blew it. You don’t see that often. Usually they go ahead and then that’s all she wrote. Gundogan headed them in front against Palace and they looked to be on their way to a typically easy home win, but Palace pegged them back immediately as Schlupp made room for a shot and then drilled it across Ederson into the far corner. Dreadful from Kyle Walker though who had himself a proper Jon Walters of a day. A minute later Walker conceded a foul after being skinned by Zaha and when City didn’t clear their lines properly, Andros Townsend leathered in a volley from 30 yards. I’ll be amazed if it’s not goal of the season. The technique to do something like that is off the fucking charts. Best volley I’ve seen since Mendieta lashed one in at the Nou Camp for Valencia. That’s Townsend though. He’s good for three or four worldies every season. Made up he picked this fixture for one of them, especially after the one he hit against us earlier in the season was kept out by the crossbar. It’s little details like that which make me wonder if… well I’ll not say it, but you know. 2-1 to Palace at half time was great, mainly because it increased the chances of City being held to a draw. I wasn’t even considering the possibility of Palace actually winning it. Not until the second half started and they immediately went 3-1 up. That man Kyle Walker again. Conceding a pen this time. Milivojevic buried the pen, which shouldn’t surprise anyone as let’s face it, he gets enough practice. Now it was very much a case of “can they actually hold on here?”. Yes. Yes they could. City did pull one back but it was a total fluke from De Bruyne. Before the game I’d have been made up with a draw, but if they’d snatched an equaliser after being 3-1 down I’d have been gutted. Thankfully they didn’t, as Jesus put a late header over the bar and Palace held on. What a time to be alive. The Palace right back is boss, I really like him. Part ex for Clyne at the end of the season maybe? As for City, they’ve got two players for every position yet they’re utterly reliant on a 33 year old Brazilian in the middle of the park. Without Fernandinho they just can’t cope. Along with Zaha he might be the single most important player to any team in the league. If you have that many attacking midfielders on the pitch then somebody has to do the dirty work, and Fernandinho is quite literally the only City midfield player who can do it. If he’s not playing when we go there we’ll fucking ruin them on the counter attack. While City were losing at home to Palace, Chelsea were suffering the same fate at home against Leicester, who had quite the festive period didn’t they? Wins over Chelsea and City that not even the most optimistic of their fans could have expected. Vardy got the only goal of the game at Chelsea when he ran onto a Maddison pass and lashed it home. Chelsea had chances to equalise but it wasn’t their day. Hazard hit the bar, Alonso hit the post and Rudiger headed inches wide. That Leicester right back Ricardo looks a good player, he was involved in everything they did. The Mancs had a good Christmas after they got rid of the Grinch and replaced him with the Goblin. Having gotten poor old Jose the sack, United’s players decided they’d finally put a shift in. For the first time all season they ran more than the opposition and Pogba looked like he was playing actual football and not just fucking about with his mates in the park. Two deflected goals put them up against Cardiff, and although Cardiff pulled one back from the spot United ran away with it in the end. Seeing Solksjaer celebrating all those goals reminded me just how much I hated his fucking face when he played. Twat. I hate Jesse Lingard’s face more though. I hate that face more than any other face I’ve ever seen. It’s quite literally the worst face in the world. I’m making a solemn vow here and now that I’m not going to watch any more United games this season unless they’re playing us. Elsewhere, Redmond put Southampton ahead at Huddersfield and then Ingsy doubled their lead with an Aldo shuffle pen. Ings must have scored almost as many goals as Huddersfield this season. It feels like he scores every week, while Huddersfield are firing more blanks than poor old Boycey. My boy Billing did pull one back with a speculative shot from 30 yards that went right in the middle of the goal. Dunno what the hell Alex McCarthy was doing there, but like most keepers he leapt to his feet and yelled at the man nearest to the goalscorer. Do they teach that at goalkeeper school? 18 year old Obafemi made it 3-1 after a gaffe by Schindler let Redmond in. There’s no way Huddersfield are getting out of this mess but Southampton are back in business now that they aren’t having the life sucked out of them by that miserable sour faced fuck Mark Hughes. To the Emirates now, where Ozil returned for Arsenal and was given the captain’s armband. The stick didn’t get the lazy cunt to actually pull his finger out, so maybe the carrot will? Aubameyang scored twice to put them in a commanding position, but Barnes pulled one back to make it interesting, and Iwobi wrapped it in stoppage time. Dyche went off on one big time about Arsenal players diving and about a penalty decision Burnley didn’t get. He was talking shite on the pen. “We didn’t get it because Kevin Long went down naturally”. Yer wha?? He went down like a sack of shite after feeling hands on his back. It wasn’t even a shove. Kolasinic put two hands on Long’s back but not enough to justify the way he went down. I don’t blame Long in the slightest. The last penalty they had was about six years ago. They’ve had clear pens not given so if any of their players want to milk some contact I’m good with that, as everyone else does it so why not. Dyche generally has a point when it comes to diving and their lack of pens, but there was nothing ‘natural’ about the way his big centre half collapsed in a heap. My boy Troy scored from the spot and then fucked up his knee slide celebration as he tried to goad the West Ham crowd. Loved that whole passage of play. West Ham had loads of chances to equalise but didn’t take any of them, and Deulefeu’s classy little finish wrapped up a good away win for the Hornets. A nice solo goal from Brooks set Bournemouth on their way to a 2-0 win against Brighton. He also scored their second with a terrific header. Good little player him, although he only looks about 12. Takes after his manager. By far and away the best bit in this game though was Mike Dean issuing a red card to Lewis Dunk and casually telling him “off you pop”. I think we reached peak Mike Dean there. The only way that could have been any better is if it was an Arsenal player he did it to. I’m highly amused by Dean and I’m almost certain it’s because he isn’t allowed to referee our games, so we’ve never been on the receiving end of his eccentricity. “Off you pop” hahahaha. Mitrovic returned to St James’ Park as Fulham picked up a useful point. They probably should have won as they had the best chances, although Newcastle were denied a clear penalty when that useless American centre half tugged Kenedy’s arm as he went for a header. That Kamara lad came off the bench and looked like he was shot out of a canon. Fucking hell he’s fast. Onto Sunday, and what a fucking joke Everton are. Embarrassing twats. Conceding six at home is just not acceptable, especially when you led 1-0. I know Spurs are good, but even so, that’s pitiful. Then again, having bent over for City a couple of weeks earlier only to see Guardiola’s side then fall behind us, they’re probably just hedging their bets aren’t they? Spurs might be the biggest challengers to us, so of course they can expect an easy ride from Everton. Pickford dropped his weekly bollock for the first goal and could easily have been sent off for a terrible lunge on Alli. The Spurs man was offside, so that might have saved Pickford, but it was a shocker and it was highly dangerous. He’s a reckless cunt him though when he comes charging out. Can’t stand him and his little scrunched up tourette’s face. I can’t even remember who scored for Spurs. I think they all did. I don’t like Pochettino, he seems like a bit of a knob, but fair play, his interview on MOTD2 when he was talking about not buying his wife an anniversary present was very funny. Still a prick though. Marco Silva has a bad stink of the Emperor’s New Clothes about him. He’s the only manager to concede six goals in a game with three different teams. So to summarise, Everton are shit. Fortunately for them Burnley are even worse so on Boxing Day the Blues finally won their first game since they lost at Anfield. It was a rout too. They were 3-0 up after 20 minutes and ended up winning 5-1. Mina put his seven foot frame to good use and headed them in front after a minute. Shame he didn’t use it as effectively when he allowed Sterling to score a fucking header against him two weeks ago. Digne scored twice and sucked his thumb in celebration. Presumably he’s paying homage to Luis Garcia. He’ll never admit it of course, they’d string him up, but we know. Your secret’s safe with us lad. Good footballer him actually. He might even be Everton’s best player, although I’m basing that solely on what he does with the ball. I have no idea if he can defend or not as I’ve not watched him closely enough. I’m assuming he can’t, as if he was as good defending as he is going forward then he wouldn’t be at Everton. Burnley though. Fucking hell. Grim. Joe Hart has been brilliant this season but his attempt at keeping out that Digne free-kick was embarrassing. His positioning was almost as bad as the dive. As for Spurs, they followed up their rout at Everton by battering Bournemouth at Wembley to go second. They played some lovely stuff and Bournemouth fell apart after conceding a couple. They’d actually started really well and had two great chances to go ahead. They didn’t take them and Spurs punished them. Bournemouth’s recent run has been terrible but it’s mostly because they’ve played all of the top six more or less consecutively. They’ve done ok against everyone else but the top sides have taken them to the cleaners this year and they’ve been unlucky with how the fixtures have given them so many difficult games in a short space of time. The question now is whether the bad run will affect the confidence they had earlier in the season when they were 7th. Spurs are flying now though and Son is great. If I could have any player from Spurs he’d be the only one I’d actually take I think. Actually no I’d have Eriksen as well, but Son would be my first choice. Interesting that they’re second now. Does that make them more of a threat to us than City? Not for me, but it all depends on how City react. They didn’t cope too well with being overtaken by us and now they’ve dropped below Spurs too. They might collapse completely for all any of us know. Unlikely, but then who’d have thought they’d lose three of their last four? After they lost to Palace I looked at their next two fixtures and thought both had the potential for them to drop points. I mean, the chances were they’d still win both, but I did feel that Leicester and Southampton are both capable of giving them a game if City were below their best. Palace beating them was fucking massive because it removed that aura of invincibility they had. I know they’d already lost to Chelsea this season and United last, and of course we beat them three times this year too, but that means nothing to sides lower down the table. When they see Palace doing it though, that’s a whole different kettle of fish. Leicester’s mindset will have changed massively after that, especially as they were coming off their own great win at Stamford Bridge. City went in front early doors through Bernardo Silva but Albrighton’s superb header from a Vardy cross levelled things up. City had a few of those typical moves where Sane got to the byline and tried to pick out Sterling, but Leicester just about managed to smuggle them clear. City had their moments but really didn’t threaten too much and Leicester won it with a screamer by Ricardo, who followed up his terrific performance at Chelsea with another barnstormer. Delph was then sent off late for the kind of tackle that was seen as textbook not so long ago. Get the ball then hit the man. Can’t do it anymore, and although more often than not it probably wouldn’t be a red, the ref was more than entitled to send him off. Hopefully Southampton were watching this and have something similar planned for Sunday. They’ll need to do better than they did on Thursday night when they lost at home to West Ham. They led in that game, but Felipe Anderson hit them with two boss goals and they never recovered. The Mancs made it two wins from two under the Baby Faced Gobshite. They’ve played Cardiff and Huddersfield though, so big fucking deal. I didn’t watch any of their win over Huddersfield and I’ve got nothing else to say about it. Brighton had lost three on the bounce so a home game with Arsenal wasn’t exactly the kind of fixture they’d have wanted. They fell behind early to a smart finish by Aubameyang, who we’re really going to have to keep a close eye on this weekend. Credit to Brighton though, they didn’t let their heads drop and they thought they’d levelled through Murray, but Anthony Taylor had other ideas and ruled it out. Matt Ryan made a couple of great saves to keep them in it and they got their reward when Locadia ran onto a long ball over the top and went around the keeper to score easily. Arsenal all over that. Long straight ball over the middle and they couldn’t deal with it. For all the improvements they’ve made they’re still absolutely shite at centre half. They got done again in exactly the same way later on but Solly March put it over the bar. Good point for Brighton to stop the rot, but the draw was of little use to Arsenal. Remember when they beat Spurs and thought the balance of power in North London was shifting? They’re now seven points behind them. They’re the London equivalent of the Blueshite, although at least they were making silly boasts after WINNING a derby and not losing it. Wolves v Fulham was pretty entertaining. Plenty of chances and some nice football played. Sessegnon came off the bench to open the scoring with 15 minutes left but Says levelled soon after. Mitrovic almost won it right at the death but Coady got back to clear off the line. It was the Dinosaur Derby as 71 year old Hodgson took on 70 year old Warnock. It ended 0-0 but Palace completely dominated the game. Connor Wickham played for Palace. Now there’s a blast from the past. Reminds me of last season when Stoke wheeled out Stephen Ireland after about a six year absence. Where the fuck is Benteke though? Wilfried Zaha is so fucking good though. Absolutely fantastic player. Brilliant skill and balance (except when he’s in the box!) and he runs like a fucking gazelle. Finally, Chelsea bounced back from their loss to Leicester by recording a hard fought 2-1 win at Watford. Hazard put them in front with his 100th goal for Chelsea. He’s brilliant, one of the best players we’ve seen in recent years, but is it just me or has it taken him an awfully long time to reach his century? That’s a little over two years work for Mo that. Pereyra equalised with a terrific volley from distance but Hazard won it from the spot after he’d been taken out by Foster. I didn’t mind Chelsea winning that, because the thought occurred to me; what if City keep losing? Wouldn’t it be funny if they were overtaken by someone else, as well as us and Spurs? I think I’d shit a lung if they didn’t even finish in the top three, but I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself. Not yet.

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:

Great comedy is all about timing. That explains why this was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. In fact, can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard. I'm laughing now as I type. We’ve had more than our fair share of last gasp derby winners to leave the Blues devastated and heart broken and usually my reaction to them is just to celebrate and go nuts. This was different. For a couple of seconds I went mad, euphorically jumping around in jubilation as you do. Then I just stood there laughing. Uncontrollably. To the point that my stomach began to hurt. I’m still laughing now and will be for a good while yet. It doesn’t get much better than that, and I doubt we’ll ever see an ending that funny ever again. This was an all timer, make no mistake. It's all about the timing, you see. A chant of “Murderers” echoed out from the away end. Purple smoke billowed out too, from flares that had been let off by Evertonians to celebrate what they thought was a famous draw. Trent played a hopeful ball into the box, Everton cleared it and the game looked to be over when Van Dijk tried a ridiculously ambitious volley that ballooned straight up into the air towards the Kop. Virgil turned away in disgust and my frustration spilled over as I yelled “what the fuck was that!”. And then it happened. Perhaps the best moment in Merseyside Derby history. If not the best, certainly the funniest. The ball began dropping down out of orbit and it became apparent that maybe it might just stay in play. Yep, it’s going to drop on the bar so we could get a corner out of this. Wait, what the fuck? It’s bouncing on the bar! There’s Divock, could he…. YEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!! Un-fuckin-believable. No wonder they hate us. Imagine having to deal with what they’ve had to deal with. No wins at Anfield since 1999 and so many last gasp goals home and away to leave them broken hearted. I almost feel sorry for them. Almost. I heard that “Murderers” chant and saw them throwing stuff at Trent. That Richarlison cunt (I was first on that bandwagon, I hated him even when he was at Watford) had tried to start a scuffle with Gomez to waste more time, and it gave the rabid Blue hordes the opportunity to spew their bile. “Come on Reds, one last chance here. Fucking shut these pricks up” I held out little hope, but that was the thought I had when Trent prepared to take the free-kick. Little could I have imagined what was to follow. A freak winning goal in the time added on after added time because of all the time they had wasted. Poetic that. Something that has maybe gotten a little lost in all this was the presence of mind Alisson had to run out of his goal and play the free-kick into the path of Trent to allow him to get up the pitch and deliver the ball from a more favourable angle. A little thing, but it mattered. The big keeper was boss all day. He needed to be in the first half because Everton caused us problems. It’s probably the best they’ve played at Anfield in 20 years, but people have gone overboard about it I think. They didn’t deserve to win so let’s throw that bullshit hot take out of the window here and now. A draw would have been fair, but despite this ‘fantastic’ Everton performance we had more of the ball and twice as many chances as they did, despite not playing anywhere near our best. Just because they’ve set themselves such a low bar with their hideous Anfield performances, people have gotten carried away with how good they were. I’ll give credit where it’s due. They played well and look a much better side than they’ve been in a long time. That being said, they barely troubled us at all in the second half and the chances they had were all in the first half. One of them was offside too. I’d have been fuming if that had gone in, but thankfully Mina fluffed his lines and headed wide. The other two chances they had would probably have ended up in the net had we not spent the cash on upgrading the keeper position last summer. Alisson made a great save to deny Andre Gomes from point blank range, but he also needed a brilliant goal-line clearance from Joey G to prevent the follow up going in. Alisson was called into action again when he was out quickly at the feet of Walcott and just did enough to put him off by getting a hand on the ball and knocking Walcott out of his stride. Apart from that, what did Everton do? I remember an awful shot from Bernard in the second half when it briefly opened up for him, but that’s about it. As for us, we were never fluent but we created several gilt edged chances that we didn’t take. At times we put together some really nice moves, we were just not able to sustain it and build up any kind of momentum. Mané fired over after a nice interchange of passes and Shaqiri wasted a glorious chance after a good bit of pressing by Fabinho. He has to score there though, it was a bad, bad miss. Sadio wasted another chance after the break and was then unlucky with a curling effort that flew just wide. Salah also rolled one wide and Origi hit the bar. We also had a decent penalty shout when Sigurdsson blocked a shot with his elbow. So this 'great Everton performance' is a bit of a myth. We were the better side even though we were well below par. The result is all important and the manner in which it was achieved almost makes up for how we played. It’s very satisfying when we batter them but there’s a lot to be said for wins like this too. These are the ones we’ll remember with the greatest fondness I think. This has eclipsed the Gary Mac derby for me. I wouldn’t change it for the world but that doesn’t mean I’m not concerned with how we’re playing. This is not sustainable. We can’t keep pulling results out of the fire like this, but the more it happens the more you start to think that maybe this means something. Teams who win things usually need games like this along the way. City last year are a notable exception and they've carried on into this season. They are winning at a canter every week while we’re scrapping for everything and riding our luck at times. We needed a worldy from Studge to snatch a point at Chelsea. We needed Mahrez to miss a late pen to get a draw with City. We needed the ref to miss a clear foul in the box by Mané to hold onto a win at Spurs, and now we had this, one of the flukiest Derby goals ever, six minutes into injury time. We can’t keep relying on things going our way like this, but if we click into gear then maybe at the end of the season we’ll look back on all of these things as being huge. Maybe. We'll see. I don’t see how any Red can not be concerned about how we’re playing though. It just isn’t clicking, but we don’t concede anything so we’ve always got a chance. Five goals in 14 games. Brilliant. It just doesn't look right though. Klopp went with 4-2-3-1 again and once more I’m left thinking this is solely about Shaqiri. It’s the only way he feels can get him into the side without leaving out one of the front three. Maybe the time has come to leave out one of the front three though? Both Mo and Bobby were well below par in this one, although I thought Sadio was good other than his wasteful finishing. He was heavily involved and positive in everything he did. He was easily the pick of the forwards, but that wasn’t hard. Firmino as a number ten just isn’t working and I don’t care how many German coaches are in the stands creaming themselves about him. Klopp can pull that on us as much as he likes, the implication being “well people who know football know how effective he is”. Well I don’t really care if he’s dragging people around with his movement. That’s great and all, but when he’s passing the ball straight to the opposition and offering virtually no goal threat at all, then sorry, it’s not really enough is it? I love Bobby. He makes us tick and other than Van Dijk he might be the most important player we have. He’s struggling at the moment though. Big time. Yet Klopp left him on and brought Salah off first. I couldn’t believe that. Nor could Mo by the looks of it. He wasn’t happy, which is fair enough. He walked off the pitch slowly though, which isn’t fair enough. I’d bollock him for that. It’s 0-0. You get subbed, you fucking run off like Bobby did later when he got hooked. You don’t waste valuable time because you’ve got a titty lip on. It was a strange substitution though and Everton will have been made up to see him go off and Sturridge come on. Defenders hate forwards who can run in behind them, and Mo is always a threat to do that. Studge has his attributes, but pace isn’t one of them. The obvious move was to put him on for Firmino, but it all worked out well in the end. Better to be lucky than good as they say. The late winner was a punch in the face for Evertonians, but it was also a clip around the ear for City. “Oh you thought you had a four point cushion? Think again, knobheads". We’re still here, like the fucking T-1000 holding onto the back of their car as they try to speed away. Bet City were cursing Pickford and his little arms when that goal went in. It was just an inexplicable lapse in judgement from him. He obviously didn’t want to give a corner away, which is funny because our set-pieces were a disgrace all day. By trying to avoid conceding a corner he’s handed us three points in the most comical circumstances ever. Couldn't happen to a more deserving little scrote. He's got the most Everton face ever him. What a moment though. No wonder Klopp couldn’t contain himself. He ought to find himself in hot water over his pitch invasion. I’ve seen some of our fans trying to defend it, but to me it was massively disrespectful and completely out of order. I don’t know how anyone can even dispute that. You just can’t do shit like that and I’m struggling to remember any other manager doing anything like it. We’ve seen Mourinho pull some shit, but not even he has gone that far. Klopp went charging onto the pitch celebrating like a loon, hugged the first player he reached and then ran off while continuing to celebrate like a loon. You just can’t defend that, sorry. If an opposing manager did that against us I’d be fucking fuming. There’s no defence for what Klopp did and if he were to be given a touchline ban I don’t think he could have any complaints at all. All that being said…. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Without doubt, it’s one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen. Yeah it was wrong, it was completely out of order and disrespectful, but fuck me it was almost as funny as the goal itself. Not quite, but almost. I’m not going to defend it or try to make out it’s ok because "passion got the better of him". It’s no excuse, it was massively out of order. However, unless you’re a Blue (or a Manc of either persuasion) then how can you not watch that and just laugh your head off? It was great. Whatever punishment he gets will be deserved, but it will also have been worth it. It’s an iconic Derby moment that we’ll tell our grandkids about. I’m made up for Origi too. That’s a bit hypocritical of me given some of the things I’ve written about him over the past year or two, but I’m genuinely pleased for him as he’s had a tough time. At one stage I really thought he was going to be something special, but he was never the same after that Funes Mori assault and I’d completely written him off. It reached a point where just seeing him on the pitch put me on a massive downer. He usually made us worse when he was on the pitch and I’d written him off. Full disclosure, I watched him warming up at half time with the other subs (all except Sturridge, who I assumed was back in the dressing room with a hot water bottle) and I was thinking “how the fuck is he on the bench, are we that desperate?” Yet despite all that, when I saw that Klopp was about to bring him on, I turned to my Dad and said “can’t believe I’m saying this, but about fucking time. He can’t do any worse can he?”. I was all in on Origi being brought on just because Bobby had been so ineffective and at least Div would bring something completely different for Everton to worry about. And he did. The first thing he did was a positive run down the right that left a defender in his wake. He put a good ball into the box too and it needed a timely intervention from Coleman to deny Mané. He then hit the bar from a yard out, but as critical as I’ve been of him, I honestly didn’t blame him for that as it was a difficult chance and he was unlucky. The ball just wouldn’t sit down for him. That’s easy to say now that we’ve won and he scored the winner, but honestly, I wasn’t mad at him over that missed chance at all. I was mad at Keita though for that pitiful shot he had when he took the ball of Sturridge’s toes and sliced it miles wide. That was shite. He needs to step up as other than that boss turn and ball over the top at Palace, he’s done fuck all so far. Here’s where I am with Origi now though. I’d start him against Burnley. No question about it. He might stink it up and if he did it wouldn’t surprise me, but it’s a risk well worth taking. I mean, he must be on cloud nine now, so why not take advantage of it. Ride the wave, tell him today that he’s starting and build him up, encourage him and tell him to go out there and tear Burnley a new arsehole. Bobby has been shite for weeks and a rest won’t do him any harm. Sturridge had his chance at Red Star and didn’t take it, so go with the hot hand and play Origi. Now is the time to do it. He’s come out of nowhere to be the hero in a derby, give him the chance to build on that. I’m not changing my opinion on him after one freak goal, but confidence plays just a big part in football and we saw what he could do when he had it. Maybe he’ll have another purple patch and we can take advantage of that for a few weeks until Firmino remembers how to play football? Keeping pace with City is going to be incredibly tough and we have to try and match them result for result. They’ve already got six points in the bag against Everton without even kicking a ball yet, so this was huge for us. We’ve now got two tricky away games and we need six points from them. Anything less just isn’t good enough because the standard required to win the title now is higher than it’s ever been. There’s no margin for error at all, and with City playing Chelsea next week there’s a chance they might actually drop some points. We have to be there in position to take advantage if that happens. Star man is tough. Nobody was exceptional although I thought Fabinho played well and Gini had a really good second half. Robbo was his usual self, Alisson was boss and Gomez was good. Van Dijk was probably our best player though. He’s just so dominant and also provided the assist for the winner. What? He did! Doesn’t matter if he meant it, or that he didn't even see it as he was turning back to get back into position thinking it had gone into the Kop. He’s not the star man though. I can’t look past Origi because he’s written himself into derby folklore after this and gained some nice revenge after what happened a couple of years ago. Payback’s a bitch sometimes. Football eh? Fucking hell. Merry Christmas, Everton. Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson; Fabinho, Wijnaldum; Shaqiri (Keita), Firmino (Origi), Mané; Salah (Sturridge):