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The more this kind of thing happens, the more you have to wonder if maybe this time it really is meant to be. I’m not at that point yet, but you only need to take a little look at what Evertonians and Man City fans are posting on their forums to know that there are plenty out there who think our name is on this trophy now. If the shoe was on the other foot and the team we didn’t want to see win the league kept winning games due to inexplicable goalkeeping mistakes, I’d probably feel the same. Because it’s our team benefitting from those goalkeeping brainfarts, all I can think of is that perhaps this is just some cruel hoax to allow us to start believing, and when that happens Alisson will throw one into his own net in the last minute of the Wolves game to cost us the league on the final day. Ridiculous I know, but the scars from Stevie’s slip in 2014 run deep. This is beginning to feel like earlier in the season when City had a narrow lead and we were desperately hanging on, by hook or by crook. We never let them get away from us and it was doing their head in, seeing us somehow grind out results while they were casually just blowing everybody away. We stuck with them and eventually when they finally fucked up, we overtook them. Whether that happens again time will tell, but that freak late own goal from Spurs will have seriously rocked City. It’s human nature. Imagine if the roles were reversed and we saw City winning like that? It definitely has an impact. Then there’s the effect it will have on our lads. They’ll be buzzing all week now and probably can’t wait to get out there against Southampton on Friday night. Momentum is huge. We lost it with those draws with West Ham and Leicester and never really got it back. We had more draws with Everton and United, and so nearly had another here. Dropping two points to Spurs wouldn’t have ended our title hopes but does anyone really think we’d have been able to come back from it? I don’t. That’s not to say that City won’t drop points. They might. But if we’d let them go three points clear (essentially four points in reality) I don’t think we’d have recovered from it. Now it’s different. Maybe we can afford to draw one or even two somewhere down the line, but it will all depend on how City cope with the hectic schedule they have this month. If we’d given them some breathing room it would have been easier for them. The way I see it, we’ve got to win the next two to really crank up the pressure on them and maybe eventually the volume of fixtures they have will take it’s toll. If that happens, maybe we won’t have to win every game, but as it stands right now you have to assume that we will need to be pretty much perfect. The way we’re playing makes that seem unlikely, but the mark of a great team is winning on those days when it looks like you won’t. We didn’t deserve to beat Spurs on the balance of play, but contrary to some of the crap I’ve heard, we didn’t deserve to lose either. It was a close game between two evenly matched sides. It’s been like that virtually every time we’ve played each other under these two managers. We had the better of the first half and deservedly led, they had the better of the second and deservedly equalised. After that, it could have gone either way but by the end it was us pushing hardest for the winner. Any team that wins a title has games like this they look back on. Unfortunately for us City have had some too. Not as many as us, and certainly not as many late ones as us. But it’s a bit rich listening to their fans complaining about our “luck” when they’ve had some of the most egregious decisions in the history of football go their way this season. It’s great seeing how the lads are able to dig deep and just force the result they need, but you can’t rely on keepers doing the kind of mad shit we’ve seen from Pickford, Speroni, Rico and Lloris. We need to get back to winning games comfortably, because eventually it’s going to catch up with us if we keep putting ourselves in this type of situation. What I would say about this one though, is that Spurs were by far the toughest opponent we had left to play. Beating them in a close one is a lot easier to feel good about than beating Fulham in a close one. I was pissed off about a lot of things we saw at Craven Cottage. It was great to win the game but it should never have been as close as it was. This one is different. You can’t expect to just trample over a team as good as Tottenham. I know they’ve been on a bad run of late, but to me they’re comfortably the third best team in the league. Their recent woes have generally been down to a smallish squad and heavy fixture load. They’re a good side though and we saw that in the second half. If they play like that against City, they might just get something from that game. Who knows, maybe they’ll knock them out of Europe, but the main thing for us is they show up for that league game at the Etihad. They were distinctly second best in the opening 45 minutes though, and I thought Pochettino’s team selection helped us. I’m always happier when teams play three at the back against us as it feels as though we have far more success against that set up. I don’t have any stats to back that up, but that’s how it seems to me. In the first half they had no answer to Andy Robbo marauding forward. Trippier couldn’t cope as he had Mane, Milner and Robbo all on that side of the field whenever we attacked. I don’t know who was supposed to be playing in front of Trippier (Lucas Moura I think) but the full back was getting no help and Robbo just did whatever he wanted in that first half. I thought we started very well and knocked the ball around nicely, and we were getting in down that left hand side almost at will. No surprise the opening goal came via that route, and it was a cracker. You can see Firmino point to the area where he wants the ball, and Robbo looks up and then just puts it right on the money. Bobby’s header gave Lloris no chance and we were off and running. I expected we’d hit them again quickly with another quick couple of goals, as that’s how I’d seen this game playing out beforehand. I thought we’d win relatively comfortably and in my head I saw it going much like the Arsenal game had. Only one problem though, unlike Arsenal, the Spurs backline doesn’t have the resilience of wet bog roll. The second goal didn’t come (although Sadio had a couple of decent attempts and Trent hit the post direct from a corner) and as half time approached Spurs were getting on top. Not through anything they were doing themselves, mind. Virtually every problem we had in that first half was of our own making. We kept giving the ball away cheaply and Alisson was doing mad shit that was making everyone nervous. Henderson was prominent in the early exchanges but his influenced waned massively the longer the game went on. He and Alisson played a part in Spurs getting a foothold in the game in the run up to half time. Sloppiness crept into our play and those two were the main (but not the only) culprits. Moura may not have been helping out defensively, but he looked lively going the other way and was comfortably the biggest threat to us. Kane was well shackled while All and Eriksen seemed to be taking turns to play centre midfield and neither spent much time around the box. Moura though, he got himself into a few good positions but usually his shooting let him down. I once dubbed him the Brazilian Andros Townsend. Bit harsh that though. Sorry Andros. Kane found himself clean through when a poor Alisson kick allowed Trippier to loft ball over over our defence. I thought Kane might have been offside but the flag stayed down and it needed Van Dijk to appear from nowhere and make a great block. Ridiculously good. I’m not sure there’s another defender out there who would have been able to do that. Half time came at a good time for us as we’d lost our rhythm and needed to regroup. Unfortunately it also allowed Spurs to make some changes to their set up, and it’s fair to say that it took us a good while to adapt to that. They scrapped the three at the back, moved Vertonghen to left back and pushed Rose much further forward, and it completely changed the flow of the game. We weren’t getting the space out wide that we had in the first half, and we seemed to lose control of the midfield too. Spurs played well and nobody can say that that equaliser hadn’t been coming. They’d had a few dangerous moments, the clearest of which saw Alisson deny Kane and then Robbo made a fantastic block to stop Eriksen slotting the rebound. The warning wasn’t heeded though. Klopp should have made a change long before he eventually did. Fabinho needed to be on after about an hour really, as it was clear how the game was going. He did call Hendo over and gave him extensive instructions, which Hendo then went around and passed on to about half a dozen team-mates. It was hilarious actually, as we had a corner but Hendo shouted at Trent to wait while he went around passing on Klopp’s instructions. Sissoko understandably took exception to it and tried to break up the little meeting between Hendo and Milner, but that only earned the Frenchman a talking to from the ref, and Hendo took advantage of that time out to continue spread Klopp’s word. Not that it did any good, as within a minute we’d conceded. Presumably Klopp’s instructions did not include “don’t get too tight to Kane because he’ll go down quicker than Huddersfield”. I don’t think Hendo did too much wrong and I’m not convinced it was even a foul, but it’s a case of knowing your opponent. Hendo knows that cunt well enough to understand that if you go near him, he’s hitting the deck. He spent the whole game trying to buy free-kicks, usually by backing in to Matip and then just dropping to the floor. Poor Ashley Barnes must have been sat at home shaking his head, saying to his missus “where’s my fucking MBE? I’m way better at this shit than this slobbering bastard”. Martin Atkinson bought the dive, which was understandable as the call could have gone either way. I don’t blame him for that, but there’s no excuse for him not seeing that the ball was still moving when Kane took a quick free-kick. He was looking right at it, the fucking bum. We were in trouble from the moment that free-kick found it’s way to Trippier. Spurs players flooded the box and although Eriksen missed his kick, Moura was on hand to fire past Alisson from close range. Good goal from Spurs’ point of view (moving ball notwithstanding) but a massive kick in the balls for us. The game had been crying out for Fabinho and eventually we got him. Henderson’s last contribution was a truly woeful pass that was so overhit it ended up in the Kop. Within no time both he and Milner were off and Origi and Fabino were on. It’s fair to question whether the changes should have been made sooner, but the changes themselves were both spot on I think. Origi has a part to play in the run in. He’s playing with confidence and he brings something to the team when he’s out there. It was his direct running and positivity that won the corner from which the winning goal came. We obviously don’t have the same quality coming off the bench that City do, but Big Div has contributed and I love his attitude. Rather than sulk at the way his career has seemingly stalled, he just seems like a lad who is embracing every second he gets on the pitch. Of course an awful lot still had to happen after he won the corner so I’m not going to overstate the part he played in the goal, but I thought it was worth pointing out that without him running at Trippier and winning that corner, we probably don’t win this game. Mind you, we also wouldn’t have won it without Virgil and his split second ability to analyse the opposition and read the danger. While it’s fair to say that the response after conceding was great and that we immediately seized the initiative once again, our desperation to regain the lead did leave us vulnerable to counter attacks, none more so than when Son and Sissoko burst through with only Van Dijk to beat. Virgil took a massive risk in doing what he did, but it paid off for him and spoke volumes about his knowledge of the players he’s up against. He knows that Son is class, he knows Sissoko is shite and he also knew Sissoko wouldn’t want to shoot with his left foot. He had a split second to process all of that information and decide the best course of action. He was like the fucking Terminator, scanning them and assessing the threat levels. Son was the danger, so he took that away completely. The least likely outcome was Sissoko running through and beating Alisson with his left foot, so that’s how Van Dijk played it. Sissoko basically shit himself. The path to goal was wide open for him but he didn’t want to take it. He slowed down, hesitated, absolutely desperate to be able to lay it off to Son. When that door was closed he reluctantly went alone and only then did Virgil close him down, at which point he blazed his shot over the bar. He would have looked foolish had Sissoko gone through and scored, but it was all about the percentages. By completely taking away the option of Son, he put all the pressure onto Sissoko and the Frenchman buckled under it. That shot was pathetic, weak foot or not. At that point the game was really slipping away from us. It wasn’t just two points that were being dropped, there was a real possibility we might lose all three because we were leaving gaps and Spurs had their tails up. It was a ropey few minutes but we got through it and took control of the game again. We were the most likely winners in the last ten minutes and it’s to the great credit of the lads that they can pick themselves up like this when they suffer setbacks. They did it at Fulham in the last game too, although that was a much easier task than doing it against this Spurs team. The winner was massively fortunate but they forced it by putting pressure on. When you put an opponent under the cosh, sometimes they crack, like Spurs did. Or more specifically, like Hugo Lloris did. He’s shite him. I know he makes some incredible saves and everyone thinks he’s boss because he’s captain for club and country and he’s won the World Cup, but he drops so many clangers it’s only a matter of time before people wake up and realise that he’s a bit of a clown. I’m just gonna call him Hugo Pickford from now on I think. It really was a howler from him. It was an easy catch but thankfully he fumbled it onto the shins of Alderweireld and although it seemed to take an eternity, the ball eventually squirmed over the line and Anfield went nuts. The atmosphere was great all day, but the noise when that goal went in was something else. I think it maybe even exceeded the Origi winner against the Blues. Moments like this really do give a team belief and momentum, and there’s a real steely determination about these lads. You can see it in every interview, they’re just focused and taking care of business. They aren’t at their fluent best but they’ve got balls of steel. What’s really fucking annoying is that if and when they next fail to win a game, they’ll have that “bottlers” shite thrown at them, when the truth is they’re the complete polar opposite of bottlers. We know they can dig deep and win games when the situation looks dire, but it would be nice if they didn’t have to. How about a few easy wins just to relieve some of the pressure on us fans, eh lads? Is that really too much to ask? Jurgen has some decisions to make over the next few weeks. Most of his players are available again now, but despite the return of Lovren and Gomez I don’t think there’s any need to change things at the back. Matip is doing fine, he deserves to keep his place. Maybe we’ll see a little bit of rotation when we’re playing twice a week, but generally I think the back four and front three pick themselves at the moment. The midfield is a different story. Klopp’s team selection for this one was a big talking point before and after the game. I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve seen fans on the forum saying “I never want to see that three together again”. It’s been going on all season, yet Klopp frequently rolls them out together, especially in big games. I don’t have as big a problem with it as many do, but I do feel as though we’ve reached a point where not starting Fabinho seems a bit, I dunno, batshit mental. He can’t start every game and there will be busy periods when he needs to be rotated. Generally though, he should be starting because we’re a better team with him in it. That isn’t meant to be a shot at Hendo, who I really like. I don’t even mind them starting together, but you could see the immediate difference from the moment Fabinho stepped foot on the field. He won three tackles in the first couple of minutes he was on. He’s just got a knack of getting his foot in and being around the ball. Henderson is an important player, as are Milner and Wijnaldum. They’re all good players who have served us well and will continue to do so. Playing all three together though can make us a bit too one dimensional. That’s why Lallana had started the last two games, and it’s a little surprising that he was left on the bench for this one. Not as surprising as Fabinho being left out, but surprising nonetheless. The quality of the opponent was surely the reason for that. I said after the Burnley game that I’d start Lallana in every league game against everyone outside of the top six. I understand why he didn’t play against Spurs, but I’m going to revise my initial statement to exclude Chelsea. I’d start Lallana in that game because Chelsea right now aren’t playing at a level that warrants “top six” status. The front three need help. Last season they didn’t, so a midfield three of Hendo, Milner and Gini was fine. This season they aren’t at the same level (well, two of them aren’t), so having a midfielder breaking the lines and helping to create space for them really helps. That player should have been Keita but it hasn’t happened and probably won’t now, not this season anyway. Shaqiri is completely out in the cold too, so that leaves Lallana. He has to start at Southampton on Friday, and so does Fabinho. You know what really needs to happen though? Mo has to score. So far his recent barren spell hasn’t cost us too much because we’ve still been winning more often than not, but that can’t go on indefinitely and we need him back among the goals pretty sharpish. I thought he was poor against Spurs. Hardly anything he tried came off, and even the header at the end wasn’t the greatest (although it was a difficult angle to be fair). He never hid though and that is what convinces me that sooner or later his luck will change. Maybe it just did with this own goal? Star man is Robbo, with honourable mentions to Bobby (great first half), Sadio (terrific work rate), Trent (class on the ball) and Virgil (the Terminator). Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson; Henderson (Fabinho), Wijnaldum, Milner (Origi); Salah (Lovren), Firmino, Mané:

Saturday Mar 23: The legends game at Anfield went down a storm. A full house and a 3-2 win, with Gerrard scoring the decisive goal in front of the Kop. Gerrard could still play top flight football with his eyes closed. Not as the force he was, but he’s still better than three quarters of the midfielders currently in the Premier League. Fowler’s still got it too. Not fitness, obviously, but the finishing is still in a league of its own. I didn’t go and didn't watch it live either, but I’ve seen the goals. My Dad watched it on LFCTV and the first thing he said was “some of those could still play now. Glen Johnson looked just like he did back when he was playing”. Yeah Dad, that’s because he only retired about three fucking weeks ago. Meanwhile, Jose Mourinho (remember him?) continues with his Allardycian strategy of doing the rounds with various news outlets and rewriting history, while taking shots at those he sees as his competition (specifically Klopp and Pochettino). He’s even been on Keys and Gray doing this shit. It doesn't get any more Fat Sam than that.. Anyway, here’s his latest broadcast of behalf of the Little Portuguese Despot party. “I won titles everywhere I have been and I cannot run away from my mentality. Some coaches like to sell the idea of a philosophy, but you have to sell the philosophy after you win. If you win nothing what is the point? If your team plays very well, your team wins, so I don’t like these contradictions we have in football nowadays.” Ok, firstly his use of the word ‘titles’ is massively disingenuous. When most normal people think titles, they think league winners. He uses it to describe little trinkets like the league cup and charity shield. Secondly, even after winning he never showed any hint of any philosophy other than “give me money to buy players in their late 20s so I can win NOW, and to hell with what happens after I’m done”. Actually that is his philosophy, so I stand corrected. What’s he going to say if Klopp wins something this year though? Hell, it’s almost enough for me to want Spurs to win something next year just so he can’t keep taking shots at Pochettino, who is a much superior manager than he is these days. Sunday Mar 24: Hilarious Instagram post from the Mig today taking the piss out of his rival Courtois, who got caught trying to play the ball with his feet and gifted Russia a goal last night. Mig posted a pic of himself passing a ball in training (with Courtois stood behind watching him) and captioned it with “Footwork”. Well played, Si. Well played. The real genius of this is he's regarded as being just about dopey enough to get away with saying it wasn't intentional. Also on social media today, Mo posts a pic of himself on a beach, with “You will Never Walk Alone” carved into the sand in front of him. Is it weird that my first thought was “ah shit, this is gonna be thrown in our faces by everyone when he decides he wants out”. It’s hard to trust players these days when they’ll sign a new contract declaring their love for the club and then within weeks they’re either on strike and demanding a move to fucking Arsenal, or they’ve put their back out through the stress of the transfer window being open. I don’t think Mo would pull any of that shit but I’m not certain that he wouldn’t. Same with Sadio, I couldn’t see him doing anything like that either but you just never know. I mean fucking hell, Virgil seems like a great fella and a stand up guy, but he went on strike at Southampton in an attempt to force through his move here. It’s the nature of the modern football beast. I don’t take it as personally as I used to though. I mean, I’ve got far more before with Torres than I have with Suarez and Coutinho, when really there are a lot of similarities between how all three behaved. I justify it to myself by saying it’s ok for me to resent Torres because he downed tools for the last 12 months he was here, but those tools he downed, he never actually picked them up again did he, even when he was back at Atletico? So maybe it was just a case of him being a shadow of the player he once was. I don’t like that he went to Chelsea either, so that plays a part in it. Suarez has gone on to even greater heights since leaving, but he’s in a minority and the grass isn’t always greener. Look at Coutinho. There’s still talk that Barca want rid and he’s being linked with PSG (seems unrealistic given the sanctions likely to be imposed on them) and the Mancs (who will no doubt want to make a splash and spend a shit ton of money this summer). Ordinarily you’d expect most ex Reds to have enough about them to say “I’m not playing for United” but Coutinho may not have many other suitors. He'd join United in a heartbeat I reckon. I’d happily take him back, but not at the price it will cost to get him. I think if you injected Phil with truth serum and asked him if he wanted to come back here or stay where he is, his answer would be that he wants to come to back to Klopp, Bobby, Sadio and Mo. He probably won’t have that option available to him though. It’s a lot like when Owen wanted to come back from Madrid. We were interested but Newcastle were willing to pay a lot more than we were. It’ll be the same with the Mancs this summer I reckon. Maybe Barcelona haven’t given up on him yet though. I mean how else can you explain today’s reports coming out of Spain that they want to sign Albert the Moron? A last ditch attempt to get Coutinho happy and enjoying his footy again? Maybe they should sign Lucas too. Monday Mar 25: Another big win for England. I didn’t watch this one but I heard about the Montenegro crowd giving it the ol’ monkey noises that they’re known for in that part of the world. Sterling scored and gave them some back, and then posted a pic of his celebration on twitter, saying “best way to silence the haters (and yeah I mean racists)”. Good for him. Montenegro will be shitting themselves now though, awaiting that €40k fine from UEFA. Twats. Saw this quote from Zidane today. “I slept well. I wasn’t an idiot going around bars. I only drank water and did stretches. I put everything into becoming the best player possible. I had to do it at all costs”. And after all that he still wasn’t fit to lace the boots of the chain smoking Johan Cruyff, the alcoholic George Best, the all night party king Ronaldinho or the coke and booze fuelled Maradona. And that healthy lifestyle didn’t help him keep his hair either. Meanwhile, there was a fan prediction thing in the Guardian where a fan from every team had to say where their team would finish, and they also had to give their prediction on the top four and bottom three. The Evertonian had us not even in the top four, which would mean Chelsea making up 19 points on us in their final eight games. Even more ridiculous than that, he had Everton finishing 8th! Tuesday Mar 26: Kinell, this Gary Mac story is a bit grim like isn’t it? Some twat in Leeds knocked out three of his teeth and left him in a bad way. Unprovoked attack, and they reckon the prick also smacked a couple of women about too. Obviously it wasn’t a local as they love Gary Mac up there. Hell, apart from Evertonians and Mancs, who doesn’t love Gary Mac? The suggestion is it some random American fell with knuckledusters. Fucking hell, this world eh? Absolute cesspit. Also today, John Welsh is given a suspended sentence after kicking a woman and breaking her leg. He was pissed, having drank 11 pints of… err… shandy, apparently. He was giving it the “don’t you know who I am?” shit too, the court was told. So much wrong with this story I don’t even know where to begin. As I say, the world is just full of cunts isn’t it? Here’s another example. Cardiff are claiming the Emiliano Sala deal was not legally binding and are refusing to pay what they owe. Hmmm. I have no idea of the legal issues involved here, but the moral ones are pretty fucking clear. Cardiff had him posing with a scarf, they announced the deal on their website and made a big splash about him being their record signing. When he went missing, they mourned him as one of their own, with players wearing t-shirts with his face on and fans giving it the ‘once a bluebird always a bluebird’. The club even retired his shirt number! Then when it comes to handing over the cash they’re like “he wasn’t our player”. Fuck off you morally bankrupt cunts. Wednesday Mar 27: Bobby Adekanye is off to Lazio and he’s had a few parting shots on his way out. “Being left out of the pre-season tour in the United States was disappointing and contributed to the fact that I don’t want to renew my contract. If they promise things like that and they don’t deliver, I don’t know what will happen if I sign for three years.” On Klopp, he added: “That trust is no longer there, even if I still respect the club. I expected to have a chance in Liverpool. I don’t think I’m in Klopp’s plans, if it’s so, I have to look for something else. Lazio is one of the interested clubs, but it is not yet 100% decided. I also heard about Barcelona, in the Netherlands Willem II made itself heard. I can’t name the entire list of clubs now, because I could continue until tomorrow.” I’ve watched him a fair bit and he’s had some good moments, but he’s not as good as Rafa Camacho (who I don’t think is any good either) and if he wasn’t taken on the pre-season tour there will have been a good reason for that, and it’s probably due to his attitude and th efact his game is massively one dimensional. He sounds like a massive helmet with his “I can’t list all the clubs who want me as there’s so many of them” doesn’t he? He’s got a great left foot and blistering speed but his end product is usually garbage. Better players than him have failed to make the grade here, so he won’t be missed. In terms of wingers alone I can reel off Ibe, Kacaniklic, Ince, Hammill, Buchtmann and Silva just off the top of my head who did more than him at youth / reserve level and that's without even thinking about it. I bet there are plenty of others. Ryan Kent too. He’s said to be on his way this summer but the £12m asking price rules out Rangers. Good player, a million miles off making it here though. He might be another Conor Coady who needs a few years to get to Premier League level. I reckon he'll get there in the end as he does have talent. Meanwhile, the Mig says he doesn’t know what the future will hold but that it’s been easy to accept not playing this year. Not the first time he’s said this either. Earlier in the season he said he has no complaints about not playing because Alisson is better than him. Last year he felt differently. He didn’t say why but he didn’t need to. He knew he was better than Karius and he knows he’s not as good as Alisson. The reason he knows is because he trains with them every day. This got me thinking. Imagine how pissed off Mignolet must have been in Kiev. I mean, he will have felt bad for Karius on a personal level, but he must have been thinking “we’d have fucking this if you hadn’t dropped me for that turd”. Thursday Mar 28: Solksjaer has the United job permanently, which is good and bad for us. Good in the sense that it’ll all end in tears when he gets found out next season. Bad news because it would have been better if he was still trying to prove himself when they play City. Not that I was holding out much hope for that game anyway, but this doesn’t help us. Not great for Virg either, as he’s renting the Goblin’s house. Initial reports are that he won’t have to move, which is probably smart from Ole’s point of view. Don’t want to lose a good tenant when you’re likely to be back at Molde in six months. I mean fucking hell, United are still paying their last three managers, none of whom saw out a contract. Wouldn’t it be dead funny if Virg just refused to move out though. Solskjaer seems like the type of soft bastard who wouldn’t know what to do. OGS: "So I need you to move out. No rush, just when your tenancy agreement is up in a couple of months." Virg: "Yeah that's not happening. I like it here, can't be arsed with the upheaval of moving." OGS: “Oh, right. Ok. Well is ok if me and my family move into the guesthouse at the bottom of the garden then? We’ll be quiet, you won’t even know we’re there”. Virg: “Weeeeelllll not really. You see the thing is, I sometimes use that when mates are over from Holland. They’re a bit mad and I don’t want the living room smelling of weed and vomit, so I usually let them sit off in the guest house. You’re best checking into a hotel”. OGS: “Ok, sure, we can do that, sorry to bother you.” Moving swiftly on, and I was out having something to eat tonight with my wife and daughter. There were two couples on the next table, but the only whose voice anyone could hear was this one fella in their group. When they left, my missus says “wasn’t he loud and obnoxious?”. “Yeah, he was an Evertonian” I replied. My daughter says “How do you know that, just because he was loud and annoying?”. “Yeah that, and because he spent five minutes ranting about a penalty they didn’t get against us in 1984”. Adrianna thought I was joking, but I wasn’t. Honestly, he was getting all worked up about Hansen’s ‘handball’ on the line from Adrian Heath. He was also raging about something Mark Lawrenson said about it. Utterly fucking mental they are, aren’t they? Let it go man, it was 35 years ago!!!! Fucking hell. Friday Mar 29: Price freeze on tickets for next year. Cue loads of talk about how FSG are in touch with the feelings of the fans and are doing the right thing. Bollocks. Ticket prices are still extortionately high, but at least they aren’t making a bad situation worse, I’ll give them that at least. Also today, Rhian Brewster makes his first appearance for the u23s in around 18 months, and it took him just seven minutes to score a fucking belter of a goal. He added another one later, before being subbed at half time. Made up for the kid. Looking forward to reading all about it in one of the half dozen interviews he’ll be doing during the next few days. I saw this and thought it was amusing. There’s been a lot of talk about how it’s proving to be impossible for strikers to get the better of Big Virg. One man thinks he knows how to do it though. Who is it, you’re wondering. Well I’ll tell you. It’s Jon fucking Walters. I know, I could hardly believe the balls on him either, but for the record this is what he said the secret is to enjoy success against Van Dijk: “You come across a player like Van Dijk; you’re not really going to outrun him, he’s so comfortable on the ball, he’s good in the air,” he told Football Focus. “I think you’ve got to get into his head a little bit – the dark arts come into force a little bit. When he’s coming up for corners, just giving him a little bit and blocking him. Just getting into his head a little bit. I’d give him a little bit off the ball, get into his head. And that will just take his mind off it a little bit.” And if that fails, you could always score a couple of own goals, miss a pen and overhead kick the ball into your own face. Maybe all that laughing might ‘take his mind off it a little bit’, eh? Didn’t work against Chelsea though, did it, Jon? https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=11&v=JEvL0hILOso