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Hey look, the Red Arrows are back! It’s been a while but their return couldn’t have been more timely. It was a must win game but we also needed a performance to lift flagging morale and to blow up the tiresome “they’re bottling it” narrative. If one defeat all season is classed as “bottling it”, I’ll have that every year. That being said, we all know that our form hasn’t been good for a little while now and even when we were winning every game it wasn’t always dazzling. This, however, was dazzling. This was the football I remember from last season when we were blowing teams away. Speed, skill, speed, intensity, speed. Did I mention speed? How satisfying was it seeing those lightning quick counter attacks from opposing corner kicks? That’s one of my favourite things in football; seeing us clear a corner and then everyone going “chaaaaaaarrrggge!” Even Virgil was right up there in the box for one of them late on. Exhilerrating. I don’t care that it was ‘only Bournemouth’ and that their style of play suits us. That helped, obviously, but it wasn’t the reason we looked so good. To me it feels as though Klopp did some soul searching after Leicester and West Ham, and at the end of it he went back to the tried and trusted. Back to what he knows works; 4-3-3 with Bobby in the middle and Mo on the right. I don’t know why he has veered away from it for so much of this season, particularly as the 4-2-3-1 has never really looked that convincing. In flashes it’s been good and it helped get us to the top of the table so there is that, but we’ve never looked as fluent playing that way as we did when we were running roughshod on all of Europe last season. I guess despite the results there’s been a part of me this season that has kept thinking about the blistering football we saw for much of the previous campaign. Don’t get me wrong, I like how we’re winning more games than last year, but the performances have rarely been as thrilling as much of what we were treated to a year ago. This felt like a return to that. It’s only one game though, so we’ll see. The change back to 4-3-3 was the key to it for me, and specifically how Salah and Bobby were deployed. No doubt you’re as tired of reading me complaining about the lack of width as I am about writing it, but look at the difference it made having Mo starting wide, hugging the touchline and then coming inside to open space for Milner. By stretching the pitch like that it opened up room for others to play in. Specifically Bobby, who looked so much happier in his number nine role. It hasn’t worked as a ten. He’s had flashes here and there, but much of the time he’s looked lost and ended up coming far too deep just to get on the ball. This is his role. The role in which I wouldn’t take anybody else in world football over him. Keep him there now please, Jurgen. The other big difference in this game was the forward running from midfield. This is something I don’t get at all. Gini can do this all day - he’s fucking brilliant at it - but we hardly ever see it. Fair enough when he’s playing as the six, but why don’t we see it when he plays in one of the two box to box roles? I’m 100% sure it’s not because he doesn’t want to do it, so it must be that he’s playing to instructions. When he makes those runs though he causes havoc. Remember when he replaced Ox against Roma last year and absolutely destroyed them with those runs in behind? I love seeing this, but it doesn’t happen enough. The front three were great in this game but it was Gini’s runs beyond them that was the main catalyst for how good we looked in the first half. It emerged afterwards that he’d been battling the wildies in the build up to the game, and Gini himself admitted that he had to run off as quick as he could at half time because he needed to go. I had this a couple of weeks ago and I wouldn’t even leave the house. As I mentioned in the ‘week that was’ I still somehow managed to shit myself anyway. So fair play to Gini for taking that risk in front of 60 odd thousand people and millions watching around the world on TV. What a man. Bournemouth were ideal opponents because they have a go, they always do. That approach tends to work much better for them at home than on their travels though, and that made it easier for us than if we’d been playing Cardiff or Newcastle. The flip side to that is they have players who can really cause problems if you’re not on your game. Thankfully two of their best ones were missing (Callum Wilson and David Brooks), but they still had the first real chance of the game when my boy Ryan Fraser cut inside and forced a save out of Alisson. They were throwing men forward when they had the chance and Jordon Ibe looked like a lad out to prove a point. He played well I thought. At least as well as it’s possible to play when you’re up against the mighty Robbo. Maybe Bournemouth would have caused us more problems had Brooks and Wilson been available, but with the Reds in this form I don’t think they had a chance regardless of who was playing. I like Eddie Howe but he’s becoming a bit of a cry baby every time he loses to us now isn’t he? He had a point about the offside goal we scored at their place a few months ago, but bitching over our opening goal in this game was just clutching at straws. Apparently his coaching staff told him it was clearly offside. They must have been looking at the doctored screenshots on Twitter rather than the actual video replays then, because Sadio is level. And even if he was off by an inch or two that’s hardly cause for complaint. Mané is on a roll at the moment and is scoring every week. He should have had more than one in this game but missed a great headed chance in the second half after a delicious little chip from Gini had picked him out. One thing I’ve noticed about him recently is that he’s fucking brilliant at finding space in the box to win headers. He’s only little but his movement is fantastic and it’s making him difficult to pick up. Against Leicester he won two headers from corners just because of his movement. If Van Dijk and Matip had that kind of movement they’d be hitting double figures easily. Of course Matip would have to learn how to head the ball on target first (head like a 50p piece that lad), but you know what I mean. It just looked much more like us in that first half I thought. There was a vibrancy and a confidence about everything we did. Both of those things have been lacking of late. Mo was picking the ball up on the right and then looking to play one twos, usually with Bobby, and the full backs were continually getting down the sides. The corner that led to the opener came from Milner being played in behind, while Robbo was having a lot of joy on the other side too. The thing that really got my juices flowing again though was the return of the old fast break. I remember writing last season that we’d undergone a complete 180 when it comes to opposition corners. We went from “oh shit, we’re in trouble here” to “YES! We’ve got you now!”. Virgil heads them out and if we collect that loose ball on the edge of the box, then look out, it’s the charge of the light brigade. We had one in the first half and I think three in the second. None ended up with the ball in the net, but at least three of them should have done. The first one saw Keita find Mané, who played a perfect ball down the line to a sprinting Firmino. He collected the ball and saw Gini flying through the middle. The ball was perfect and it was set up nicely for Wijnaldum to get his shot away, but he unselfishly squared it to Salah instead. It wasn’t a great ball and Mo didn’t look like he was expecting it anyway. His shot was woeful. Next time Gini got in behind he didn’t pass the buck, and instead produced a nonchalant little lob over Boruc to make it 2-0. Just a lovely goal that. Nice assist by Robbo and a gorgeous finish by Gini. It was the run in behind that made the goal though. As I said, I don’t know why we don’t see more of that. It’s really hard to defend because a lot of midfielders don’t like tracking those runs or simply don’t see them in time. Steve McMahon would score double figures every year based on that type of run, and although the game has changed since then, it hasn’t changed to the point where runners from midfield don’t cause absolute chaos in a defence. This was brilliant from Gini, now let’s see him encouraged to do it every week. Salah was within a whisker of making it 3-0 when he picked up a loose ball on the edge of the box and unleashed a stunning volley that Boruc just about tipped over the bar. Great technique that. We had other chances too, but it was in the second half when we really started to hit our stride and tear them apart. It’s hard to believe we only scored one goal in that second half, because some of the football was sublime and Bournemouth just couldn’t cope. Few teams would be able to, so let’s hope this is what we’re going to see for the rest of the way now. The third goal was sexy as fuck. It might be my favourite goal of the season, at least aesthetically. Origi’s derby winner will take some beating in terms of ‘favourite’ goal, but this was glorious. It all started with a throw in. Mané did well to collect the ball and turn out of trouble to find Keita. He saw Firmino making a run and delivered an inch perfect ball with the outside of his foot. There was a shooting opportunity for Bobby but the angle wasn’t favourable and he was being rapidly closed down by Ake. Somehow he managed to see Mo making a run behind him and he just rolled the ball backwards into his path without even looking. Salah did the rest. It was a special goal that. Mo hit the bar after a similar move a little later. Again, the reverse pass from Firmino was glorious. Keita blasted over the bar when he should have scored and Bobby hit a tame shot at Boruc after another breathtaking counter following a Bournemouth corner. That attack summed up everything that is great about this team. It was Virgil’s header that had cleared the initial corner but when Firmino took the final shot, who was there right next to him wanting a pass? Yeah, big Virg. I’m still annoyed at Bobby for not taking another touch and then teeing up the big man. That would have been one of the all time great goals if he’d done that. We had another one too when once again the corner was cleared and Mo went haring off down the left. He played the ball into the box for Origi (who had come on to replace Bobby) but it was a little bit behind him and he had to slow down to collect, and ended up falling over. I’m good with us not finishing off any of those counters though because I’d rather we saved a couple for Old Trafford. Imagine scoring one of those types of breakaway goals there. Great to see Trent back in action too and he almost marked his return with a goal after another brilliant move. The only criticism would be that we didn’t score more and boost our goal difference. We were miles behind on that front, then remarkably we pulled it back and had an edge over City, but now we’re a long way back again. Hopefully it doesn’t come down to that, as we’ve been on the wrong end of that once before and it’s the worst way to lose. The win put us top again, albeit only for 24 hours thanks for that Chelsea, the fucking tool downing, toxic bunch of cunts. City have played a game more, thanks to the Premier League allowing them to bring forward their easiest game of the season to get extra points on the board, so we’re level on points with a game in hand, which on the surface is a great position to be in. The problem is who the game in hand is against, and where it’s going to played. I’ve said for weeks that we’re only going to know exactly where we stand once that game is out of the way. If we’re still top after playing at Old Trafford then we’re in great shape. If we aren’t, it’s going to be tough. I mean it’s tough either way, but that game really is massive. I’m not going to worry about any of that now though. I had a moment this week that put things in perspective and made me realise how daft I’ve been in allowing the stress of this title challenge to ruin my enjoyment of what is statistically the best season we’ve ever had to this point. You may have read about ‘the moment’ in the week that was, but if not I’ll give you a brief explanation here. To cut a long story short I found myself unloading all of my ‘problems’ on a poor unsuspecting Blue, and at one point I actually uttered the words “being top isn’t all it’s cracked up to be”. Fucking hell, I actually said that. To a Blue! That was the moment I knew I had to try and find some perspective and stop letting the pressure of it all ruin the enjoyment. Judging by the atmosphere in this game, I don’t think I’m alone in this (although I’m pretty sure no-one else inside Anfield will have tried to explain to an Evertonian how it’s not all champagne and roses being top of the table!) as we’ve all realised that the jitters that have engulfed a lot of the fanbase isn’t helpful, especially inside Anfield. The crowd were great, but it’s easy to be great when the game is under control from an early stage and the result was never really in doubt. My gut feeling is the fans would have still done their job even if the game had been close, but until we’re in that position again we won’t know. I just know I feel much better about the whole thing having hit rock bottom last week. It helps massively that the team responded the way they did and I feel much more relaxed about the whole thing now that the Red Arrows are back. If we keep playing as we can, then we won’t go far wrong. If we somehow come up short then it will be heartbreaking, but worrying about that now is pointless. I’m not going to allow myself to dream about winning it, so why should I make myself miserable worrying about losing it? What will be, will be. Star man is Gini, but there were strong performances all over the park. Virgil was imperious, Robbo was brilliant as usual, Milner was Milner, Matip had a solid enough game, Fabinho is just a really good player, the front three were on fire and this was the best game Keita has had. He didn’t do anything mind blowing, but he was confident, assured, inventive, busy and was involved in pretty much everything. Made up for him, let’s hope he’s turned that corner now because if he can be the player we thought he was going to be then he could give us the little extra push we need to get over the line. Team: Alisson; Milner, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson; Fabinho, Wijnaldum (Alexander-Arnold), Keita; Salah, Firmino (Origi), Mané:

Saturday Feb 2: Gomez is having an op. There’s no timescale on his return but he is expected to play again this season. Yeah, heard that before so I’ll take it with a pinch of salt. What the fuck has gone on here? History repeating itself, that’s what. Last season he got injured, it was mis-diagnosed and it caused him to miss the run to the Champions League Final and also robbed him of a place at the World Cup. Same thing has happened here. He was meant to be back already, but someone got it wrong and now he’s having a fucking operation and we’re stuck with Big Bird from Sesame Street playing alongside Van Dijk because of course Lovren is injured again too. We’ll be playing against Bayern Munich with Big Bird and Fabinho in the middle of the back four. Can’t wait. Sunday Feb 3: City cruise to a 3-1 win against Arsenal. Can’t say I’m shocked by the scoreline but I didn’t expect Arsenal to be as bad as they were. I thought they’d have a go but that their awful defending would prove their undoing. I was half right. Their defending was staggeringly shit but they didn’t even have a go. No shots in the second half. Fucking shitbags. Don’t expect Chelsea to do anything next week either, or Spurs when they go there. If City drop points it will be to someone you least expect it to be. They’ll be zoned in against Chelsea and Spurs. Chelsea got beat 4-0 at Bournemouth last week and the players have quit on Sarri. On paper Spurs could give City a game, but on grass they never do. Bad day all around really as United won as well. Nine wins from ten for the Goblin now, but one man isn’t impressed as Paul Ince says “I could have done what Solskjaer has done”. Yeah, course you could. Fucking hell. Solskjaer might’t be the greatest tactical manager in the world and what he’s done there might just be as straightforward as simply playing the best players in their best positions and allowing them to express themselves, but you know what Solskjaer is not doing? He’s not stood on the touchline with a little notepad, writing the word “SHOOT!” on it. So pipe down, guv’nor. Over the pond tonight we saw the worst Superbowl in living memory as the hated Patriots won again. Their opponents were the Stan Kroenke owned LA Rams, who thoroughly embarrassed themselves with a pitiful showing. Kroenke should be used to such gutless displays though as he also owns Arsenal. Worse than the Patriots winning was having to see Harry Kane’s slobbering gob on TV. He was over there watching the game, and of course he’s a Patriots fan. I’d have been staggered if he wasn’t, the front running, glory hunting twat. The only surprise is he din’t somehow end up on the field claiming the MVP award. Southgate was there too, as was… wait for it…. David Moyes. Ok, time out here. The Superbowl is always referred to as ‘the greatest show on earth’ and tickets for it are like gold dust. You generally have to be a somebody to go to a Superbowl. At least that’s how it used to be. Letting that deadbeat Moyes in there changes everything. It’s lost all credibility. Monday Feb 4: West Ham 1 L 1. That was so demoralising. I can live with the two dropped points but how we look right now is really terrifying me. The thought of not winning this title fills me with dread, and performances like this are making the possibility seem all too real. I hate that I’m being such a shithouse, but I can’t help it. I had no confidence about tonight at all. I’ve been dreading the game all day. Against a fucking West Ham team who’ve just been spanked by Wimbledon and Wolves. How am I not confident about playing them? We’re top of the league and have lost one game all season. And I’m shitting myself about playing these losers? The worst part is I was right to be worried. We should have lost. They had better chances than we did and the one goal we scored was a mile offside. What’s happened to our form? Can we not just go back to what worked, with Mo on the right and Bobby at number nine? Mo has been hit and miss at centre forward but Bobby has been mostly shite in that number ten role. Half the time he doesn’t look like he knows what he’s supposed to be doing and he was shambolic tonight. Get back to basics. 4-3-3, counter pressing, running all over teams. I know sometimes that’s not possible depending on how the opposition play, but it’s all but disappeared since the Arsenal game. This season we’re doing great, so how come I enjoyed last year more? I dunno, it’s weird. I should be loving this as it’s what we’ve always wanted, but instead I’m just stressed out and miserable. Could have done without Jurgen kicking off about the ref on a night when the two linesmen did their best to hand us three points too. There have been times when he'd have been justified in letting the ref have it with both barrels, but tonight wasn't one of them and this just plays up to the shitty "they're bottling it" narrative. Tuesday Feb 5: Carra is stirring things up ahead of tomorrow night’s game at Goodison and is doing his best to light a fire under the Blues by suggesting they always roll over for the Manc teams whenever one of them is going for the title. He’s right, but it’s not going to make a scrap of difference. At least half the crowd will be wanting to lose, and if history tells us anything then half the players will look disinterested too. Some of them will give it a go but it won’t matter because they’re shite anyway and have zero chance of beating City. That might sound a little OTT given that Newcastle beat City last week and Everton are better than Newcastle, but there are some key differences. The Geordie crowd were bang up for it and gave their team everything to help them over the line. Everton won’t have that. The biggest difference though is Newcastle have Rafa and Everton have Silva. One knows how to an organise a defence, and one has conceded six goals in a game with all three PL clubs he’s managed. Rafa could get eleven lads from the crowd, spend a week training them up and still not concede six goals. Meanwhile, Fabinho had this to say about our tactical approach: “Often, we want to go through the middle and it is difficult against physically strong and defensive teams. We need to find solutions and in these past few games we haven’t.” Yeah no shit Sherlock, I’ve been writing that week in week out all season. John Barnes is in the news today after his defence of Liam Neeson and attack on Winston Churchill. Wise words from Digger, as always, but he’s never issued a truer statement than when he rapped “there’s only one way to beat them, get round the back”. Wednesday Feb 6: Jesse Lingard is asked who he’d rather win the title, us or City. He replied “My voice is a bit sore, I can’t answer that”. How can your voice be sore you thick manc twat? We all know he’d rather City win it and that’s fine, I get it. At least he didn’t say it though (and in doing so pledge support for City), so I’ll give him credit for that. If the situation was reversed and it was United and Everton (don’t laugh) going for the league, I’d probably want United to win. My reasoning is purely because Everton haven’t won anything for so long whereas United have won plenty. I wouldn’t want the Blues ending that drought. If both had won something in recent years then I’d want Everton to win. So I get why United fans want City to win, but what I don’t get is how they can revel in it like they did after 2014. It's the least shitty outcome, but it's still a shitty outcome. Them singing about Gerrard slipping is glorifying their neighbours winning the title. Sad, thick cunts probably don’t see that though. Not sure where I’m going with this other than pointing out United fans are thick knobheads and I hate Lingard. On the field tonight, City had a stroll to three points against an Everton side without it’s three best players, who Marco Silva rested because he’s so desperate to beat Watford at the weekend. Imagine being a Blue. What an utterly horrific, joyless existence it is. Meanwhile, Tim Sherwood knows where we are going wrong. “Allowing Coutinho to leave” and the “incredible” decision to loan out Clyne, which was “a massive error”. It’s not just Sherwood either. That other oracle of knowledge Chris Sutton is in agreement. “Letting Clyne leave on loan – with no ability to recall him – is the biggest mistake Klopp has made at Liverpool. It could cost them the title.” I’m also of the opinion we shouldn’t have loaned out Clyne but it’s being overstated there. We didn’t draw with Leicester and West Ham because of who we had playing at right back and that wasn’t the reason Salah and Firmino did fuck all at West Ham. There are a number of things I’m worried about right now, and the right back position is not at the top of that list. Thursday Feb 7: Ox is in the CL squad. He won’t play against Bayern but should be available for the semis if we get through. If the football Gods didn’t hate us so much I’d be tipping him to score the goal that either wins the title or lands us the European Cup. Given how things usually go for us he’ll probably put through his own net or miss a pen in a shoot out. Glen Johnson was on Talksport today and the Suarez / Evra stuff was all brought up again. I’d forgotten how great Johnson was through all of that. He was one of the few who had the balls to call out Evra over the whole handshake fiasco. Jeez, those were some stressful times weren’t they? The amount of time and energy I spent on all that stuff was ridiculous looking back. It was the injustice of it all though. I hate injustice and there was so much shit went on there to stitch Suarez up. It still bothers me even now, even after he fucked us off and then acted as an estate agent for Coutinho to get him over there too. As horrible a time as it was, there is one incident from that period that cracks me up every time I think of it. After Evra stitched him up over the handshake, United’s players were fucking steaming at Luis and Ferdinand had completely lost his head. In the first minute he went charging over with bad intentions, but Suarez ducked out of the way and Ferdinand took Evra out instead. If we’d have won that game it would have been one of the all time great moments. But we lost, because it’s United at Old Trafford and that’s what always seems to happen. As rabid as they were that day, it will be nothing to how worked up they’ll be in a couple of weeks. Twats. Speaking of United, they gave a new contract to Phil Jones today. Great stuff. Hopefully Smalling gets one too. Friday Feb 8: Ok I’m drawing a line in the sand now over this rampant shithousery I’ve been displaying in recent weeks. It stops here. Now. It’s completely understandable that I and others have been stressing out about the possibility of not winning the title after getting ourselves into such a strong position, but I had an epiphany tonight and from this moment forward I’m going to focus on the positive and just try to enjoy the race we’re in. What happened? I’ll tell you. Tonight I was at my daughter’s footy training and I was talking to one of the other dads. Lovely fella, possibly the nicest Evertonian I’ve ever met. So the conversation starts with me saying how shite the Blues are and it can’t be much fun for him going to the games. He was quite philosophical about it, and the subject comes around to us and the title race. He didn’t really say anything other than “it’s interesting” and “we’ll see what happens”. As for me? I was crying it in like a good ‘un. Telling him how I’m not handling it very well, I’m shitting myself about going to Old Trafford and then, finally, the coup de grace. I said to him “I know this is where we all want to be, but honestly, being top of the league isn’t all it’s cracked up to be”. Yes, I actually said that. To an EVERTONIAN! He’s too nice a fella to say to me “cry me a river you ungrateful, spoiled redshite twat” but that’s surely what he was thinking. Hell, a few minutes afterwards when I got back to the car that’s what I was thinking. I told my daughter what I’d said and she was pissing herself. I may as well have gone up to a homeless person and complained about my bedroom being too warm at night time. What an absolute fucking weapon I am. It took that low point for me to realise the ludicrousness of the entire situation. It means too much to us and that is bringing a pressure that wouldn’t be there if we had a recent title or two under our belts, but we’re in mid February, top of the table (technically we’re second but that’s merely a result of the PL bringing forward City’s easiest game of the season) and have only lost one game. Statistically this is the best season in the club’s entire history, and I’m crying to an Evertonian about how “being top isn’t all it’s cracked up to be”. Fucking hell. What an absolute shithouse. That stops now. We have to enjoy these times and what will be will be. If there's heartbreak at the end of it then I'll worry about it then, not now. Up the Reds! and that was the week that was