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Showing content with the highest reputation on 07/04/19 in Articles

  1. It seems like every week these lads are knocked to the canvas, and every week they just Tyson Fury the fuck out of the opposition and pick themselves up. We weren’t exactly down and out against Southampton but we were in real trouble. The lads are used to this now though, they know how to handle it. With ten minutes to go we were staring down the barrel of two dropped points. Yet again, these lads found a way to win. They’ve got balls of steel and if they win this title no team will ever have deserved it more. “Mentality monsters” Klopp called them. Imagine that. They’ve come a long way from the side that buckled in the 2016 Europa League Final, that’s for sure. They’re putting us through the shredder every week though aren’t they? They started this game terribly. Southampton were all over us and we struggled to cope with it. Part of it was how we approached the game, but it’s also about how teams seem to be super-motivated when they face us. Klopp had said prior to the game that teams wave the white flag against City and then produce the performance of their lives against us. He’s dead right, and I’m fucking sick of it. Southampton haven’t played like this all season, but we seem to get everybody’s best effort and that makes what these lads have done even more remarkable. At least the Southampton goal came early enough that we had plenty of time to recover. It was a bad goal from our point of view but they worked it well. Some goals you concede really stick in the throat as they’re so avoidable, but this was good play from Southampton. Shane Long was up front on his own but they were getting midfield runners up there with him and flooded the box whenever they could. They were pressing us high too, and we didn’t look comfortable. The goal came mostly because of the run from Hojbjerg which caused Van Dijk to come out of the middle to challenge. When Hojbjerg flicked it on there was nobody marking Long and not even he could miss from there. Thankfully he did miss from a similar spot soon after, because if that had gone in we would have been in real trouble. They had us on the ropes in that opening twenty minutes. They were finding gaps all over the place and the midfield clearly wasn’t functioning as it needed to. Keita had been given a surprise start and he was sloppy early on, giving the ball away cheaply on a couple of occasions. Wijnaldum was invisible and Fabinho was being given the runaround. Klopp’s explanation for it was the centre backs were too deep which meant Fabinho had to cover too big a gap. It’s not something I’d have picked up on as I’m not a coach, but thinking about how the game went it makes perfect sense. Long was able to drop deep and pop the ball off to spring counter attacks, but that didn’t happen in the second half. I think the problems we had were more than just tactical though. The performance of individuals played a part too. Wijnaldum’s form has dipped of late, and he probably needs a rest. Keita just isn’t at the level he needs to be but maybe he’ll take confidence from this game. His goal was jammy, but who cares. He did well to get in there and win the header, but without the deflection off the defender it might not have gone in. He deserves a bit of luck though, and the relief on his little face as he celebrated was heart warming. So pleased for the lad. Prior to that goal we’d done virtually nothing. A Mané header that was too close to the keeper was all we’d offered. It was flat, disjointed and worrying, but at least Naby’s goal meant we got to half time level and the second half had to be better, as it would have been difficult to get any worse. I felt sick watching it. The stress of these games is killing me. It’s not so bad when I’m in the stadium, but watching on telly is really hard. I spent most of the second half just watching the clock tick down. It felt like it was ticking down on our title challenge, as any dropped points are likely to be fatal now. The clock got to 80 minutes before we finally got in front. We’d been on top since half time but hadn’t threatened much. Mo was having a frustrating night, which was in keeping with most of what we’ve seen from him in the previous nine games. Constantly trying to dribble in tight spaces and constantly running into defenders. Bobby wasn’t faring much better. His passing was off and his biggest contribution to the game was some fucking heroic heading away of corners in his own six yard box. The longer the game went though, the better Bobby got. He plugged away and eventually got his reward. So did Mo. Not gonna lie, when he was racing through I may have said “Mo’s gonna fuck this up”. The pass to Firmino was on but he said afterwards that it didn’t even enter his head to pass it and he was determined to score. Thankfully he did. Hell of a finish too. The whole move was great though. Sadio winning a crunching tackle on the edge of the box, Hendo seeing Mo in space and then heading a perfect pass into his path to send him clear, Bobby’s lung busting run to drag defenders away, and then Mo’s pinpoint shot into the corner. Great goal, Klopp’s lads at their best. Nothing gets my footy juices flowing like a Liverpool counter attack from an opposing corner. I fucking love it. We score more goals from opposition set-pieces than we concede these days. Remember how we all used to shit ourselves when the other team got a corner? When they get one now I’m hoping they throw the kitchen sink at us because that means when Big Virg heads it away we’re off to the races. That goal was fucking huge. One of the biggest moments of the season. Then came Hendo’s, which wasn’t quite as important but was just as satisfying. What a moment that was. What a celebration. I can’t speak highly enough about what Hendo did in this game. It’s been a bad couple of weeks for him. He isn’t an automatic selection now and often when he does get the start he ends up being subbed. Fabinho has edged in front of him but there’s been no sulking from the skipper, he knows there’s a title to be won and it’s all hands on deck. His attitude when he came on was fucking great and it turned the game. Just little things can make all the difference. Sprinting to go and get the ball and take a quick throw in might not seem like much, but it injected some much needed urgency into the team. He was the catalyst for what happened in the closing stages of the game. Milner too, albeit to a lesser extent. Those two dragged everyone else up a level. I love a fired up Hendo. He was running around booting people and picking arguments all over the gaff. I loved it. After one foul Hojbjerg said something to him and Hendo gave him that look. You know the one - the sticking his chin out, “you got a problem, son?” glare that he infamously gave Diego Costa. I don’t know what Hojbjerg said, but Hendo just replied with a deadpan “No”. My guess is his he told him to cool it or something. Aggressive Hendo is the best Hendo. He’s a great lad and he wants it as much as anyone. He could have sulked about his own situation but instead he comes on and shows the exact type of attitude you’d want. Proper captain’s example that. Just look how much it meant to him. I can’t stop watching this clip, it’s spine tingling. That celebration is one of the highlights of the season to me. Not too sure about the ear cupping and what that meant. Maybe it was a shot at his critics but that wasn’t really how I saw it. Who knows though, maybe it was. I don’t care either way, as some of the stick he gets on social media is a fucking embarrassment. I’m just buzzing for him, seeing how much it means to him and him letting all that emotion out. It was just great. It was funny watching Bobby doing his karate kick and then Virg double chest bumping him too. These lads. They’re sound aren’t they? The third goal made it safe but in truth Southampton didn’t lay a glove on us in the second half. They had a few corners but Alisson had nothing to do. Their race was run after 20 minutes when they punched themselves out. It was interesting listening to Hendo’s comments afterwards about how he’s spoken to Klopp about playing further forward. That was his position but he dropped deeper on the manager’s orders and now he’s in danger of losing his spot because we signed someone who is more of a natural in that role than he is. So now he’s thrown his hat in the ring for one of the two other midfield spots. There’s competition there too but he can nail down one of those box to box roles between now and the end of the season because Keita is still not really up to it, Wijanldum has dipped recently and Lallana is made of fucking quavers. Injured again. Of course, oui. I can’t think of anything more satisfying than if Hendo helped drive us on to the title and then got to lift the trophy. His suspension during the 2014 run in was one of the main reasons we didn’t get over the line, so there’d be something poetic about him dragging us over it this time. I’m giving him the star man even though he only played half an hour. Basically he turned the game. The headed pass to spring Mo on the counter was fucking ace, and then he wrapped it up himself with the third. Not just that though, it was the energy, the drive, the sheer willpower he brought. The perfect way to bounce back from his below par showing against Spurs last week. Five more wins and then let’s see where it takes us. Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold (Milner), Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson; Fabinho, Keita (Lovren), Wijnaldum (Henderson); Salah, Firmino, Mané:
    18 points
  2. Saturday Mar 30: All season I’ve listened to Klopp talking about how he takes no interest in the results of rivals and that he only worries about things we can control. And all season I’ve thought “bullshit". Just like the rest of us, he's celebrating like a fucking loon any time City lose. It's inconceivable that he wouldn't be. He goes mad when one of his players score in training, there's no way he's going be all restrained when one of his rivals is losing. So I enjoyed this from Mané today. 'When I'm watching a City game sometime I have more pressure on myself than when I play because I want them to lose and I'm sure not only me but everybody else as well, even the boss. He might say "No, no" but I am sure he wants them to lose too.” Is right Sadio lad. Hopefully they weren’t watching today though, as City had Fulham beaten inside the opening 20 minutes. So sure was I that Fulham didn’t have a hope in hell, I didn’t watch any of it and didn’t even check the score until late afternoon. There are some fixtures for City that I’ll take an interest in, but this wasn’t one of them and Wednesday night’s clash with Cardiff is another I’ll be paying zero attention to. United, Spurs, Palace, Burnley and Leicester. If just one of those can even hold them to a draw it’s back in our hands. Surely one of them can do something? Also today, the u18s won at Everton to give themselves a good chance of winning the title. Jack Bearne got the only goal of the game. Baby Duncan played but there was no Paul Glatzel, who presumably has an u23 game this week. Interesting that he’s ahead of Duncan in the pecking order at the moment. Sunday Mar 31: L 2 Spurs 1 Holy Shit! How many times can we keep pulling it out of the fire late on? We’ve had some huge luck at times this season and this one is right up there with the Origi derby winner. Keepers are just making inexplicable fuck ups against us, which until this season pretty much never happened. They’d always have the game of their lives against us, but now they’re just dropping balls at the feet of our forwards, bouncing them off the crossbar to give us tap ins or pushing them in off the shins of their own defenders. It’s causing massive fume across the country, especially in the blue thirds of Manchester and Merseyside. Imagine how City fans must have felt watching this? You’d be gutted wouldn’t you? It’s demoralising. Like in the opening months of the season when they were winning every game comfortably and were never in danger of dropping points, but they couldn’t shake us off even though we were winning games on the seat of our pants. It’s happening again now, and every time we win like this, it strikes another psychological blow and will make them a little more edgy. The character in this team is incredible, which is quite the turnaround considering the lack of mental strength was one of the biggest criticisms of them until fairly recently. Now they’ve got balls like grapefruits. It’d be nice if they didn’t have too prove it every week though. Is it too much to ask for a few routine 4-0 wins? We've certainly had more luck than we usually get, but in the rush to complain about 'spawny scousers' I feel like the rest of the country are forgetting things like the non-Maguire red card at Anfield, the blatant pen Naby didn't get in the same game and the non-red card for Kompany at the Etihad. There's probably others too, and that's before we even get into some of the scandalous help City have had from officials (and opponents). Meanwhile, north of the border there was murder at the Old Firm game. Ok, more murder than usual. No surprise that Scott Brown was at the heart of it all. The Scottish Sergio Ramos could cause a fight in an empty house. Two Rangers players saw red after taking swings at him, while a third, our boy Ryan Kent, actually knocked him on his arse with a left hook but somehow escaped punishment. I don’t care about Celtic or Rangers, I have no allegiance to either and I find a lot of Brown’s antics to be fucking hilarious. That said, I can’t blame any opposing player who tries to knock his head off, as he’s a proper nightmare. That Rangers striker has five red cards this season though, which reflects badly on him and even worse on Gerrard. Stevie doesn’t seem to be able to control his lads at all, which is something he’s going to have to sort out if he’s to have a managerial career beyond Rangers. Souness was the same when he was there too, red cards all over the gaff. Scottish footy is like the South America of Europe, just full of crazy bastards. Monday Apr 1: Heard Neil Warnock on the car radio this morning while I was doing the school run. It was absolutely epic stuff, the highlight of which was him singling out Mike Riley for being a robot who is churning out clones of himself. He said as long as Riley is in charge then refs will continue to be shite (I'm paraphrasing, but only a little). He also suggested, tongue in cheek, that what has been happening to him this season could be payback for all the years of abuse he’s given fourth officials. “Maybe they’ve got together and said “let’s get him out of here’” he said. Can’t blame them if they had to be honest. Some of those decisions that went against them in their loss to Chelsea were highly dubious. LFCTV did an April Fool’s Day prank on Brewster today, as it was also his birthday. He’s always come across well in the interviews they’ve done with him, but I thought he came across pretty badly in this. Reminded me a bit of Lucas in that wind up they did on him with the fake driver a couple of years back. Stinking attitude on him, seemed like a right miserable, self absorbed little shit. This little exchange summed it up: Fake security fella: “You’ve got loads of followers there. Did you pay for them?” Brewster (deadly serious): “I don’t need to pay for followers”. Yeah, you might need to in a few years time when you’re playing in League One mate. Ok, that’s harsh and I don't really mean it, but I’m irrationally wound up by how he carried on in that video. Based on everything I’ve been told he’s meant to be a great kid and really humble. This video did him no favours though. Made him seem like a a right spoilt, entitled twat. Meanwhile, how about that Mo Salah eh? Sneaky, clever little trolling bastard. Last night he posted a pic of himself and his daughter, and a ghost emoji. Pretty cryptic, most people wouldn’t think anything of it. But it’s defo a shot at Kane. He didn’t try to claim the winner then he posts a photo of his daughter and a ghost goal emoji. Genius. Bet his mate Big Dejan put him up to it. Tuesday Apr 2: In the build up to Friday’s game, Sky interviewed Ryan Bertrand who said he’s “looking forward to nullifying Salah”. That’s it, I’m off to whack a tenner Mo bagging the winner. I mean, he has to start scoring again at some point, and with Bertrand channeling his inner LOvren this seems the perfect time. United lost at Wolves. While it’s always funny to see the lose, especially when it involves Phil Jones pulling gurney faces, this might not be a good thing as we don’t want them falling too far off the top four pace before they play City. We need them to be right in the thick of it and for that City game to mean something. Otherwise they’ll pull an Everton on us. Speaking of Everton, Pickford is in trouble for scrapping with Newcastle fans on a night out in Sunderland. I’m surprised this doesn’t happen to him more often as the lad is clearly a little bit off. That being said, there are few things more irritating than young Geordie lads. I can only imagine the amount of provocation that went on before Pickford and his mates lashed out, but then if he walked into the club the way he walked onto the pitch for England last week I can easily see why you’d target him. Prick thinks he’s Connor McGregor. He’s almost as big an arsehole as McGregor, but he’s still got a way to go yet. Wednesday Apr 3: City strolled to a 2-0 win over Cardiff. Once again they scored inside the first ten minutes, added a second and then put their feet up. Getting boring now. Surely someone is at least going to put up a fight against them? At least Warnock played his best team and didn’t throw the game like some have done. Not that it made any difference, Spurs and Chelsea won too, which really makes that top four battle fascinating now. I’m not sure how I want that to unfold, I change from week to week. The one constant is obviously I want United to finish 6th, but choosing two out of the other three is difficult. Leaving all bias to one side I’d say Spurs deserve to be in there because they’re much better than the other two, but in terms of what is best for us then them dropping into the Europa would be most helpful as I see them as more of a threat to us than the other two, especially with Chelsea having that transfer ban looming. The u18s suffered a blow to their title hopes by blowing a 2-0 lead at West Brom and needing a last minute equaliser to force a 3-3 draw. Duncan scored to make it 28 for the season now. Thursday Apr 4: Arsene Wenger was speaking to the French media and came out with the following belter “If I die I’m going to ask God where the referees are before I choose between heaven and hell”. I love that, it’s class. I also love that even after retiring he still fucking hates refs so much. I actually miss Wenger you know. I’d like to se him have his own slot on MOTD giving his take on the major refereeing decisions of the weekend. Meanwhile, Solksjaer says United need to win all but one of their remaining games to make the top four. Oh really? Funny that isn’t it. No prizes for guessing which one they’re happy to not win. Pricks. Friday Apr 5: Southampton 1 L 3. Fucking hell. How much more of this are we going to be able to take? Every game seems to be in the balance going into the last ten. We keep finding a way to pull it out of the fire but it’s hard to watch isn’t it? These lads have got massive balls though. Mo came up trumps when we needed him most and it was fucking ace seeing Hendo flying around there like his life depended on it. If we win it there are going to be some massive moments we’ll look back on, and Hendo’s introduction as a sub in this game and the subsequent impact he had will be right up there. Fucking love it. The passion in that celebration was spine tingling, but there were so many layers to it. You had Hendo going mad, Bobby initially standing with his arms folded, white teeth sparklin under the floodlights, and then suddenly out of nowhere he’s in Hendo’s face doing a karate kick. There's Robbo with his cheesy grin and finally Big Virg comes in with the big chest bumps. Just spine tingling stuff. Five more to go, and we just need to hope that someone finally decides to stand up to City and not just curl up into a ball and beg not to be hit. Klopp even said this himself before the game. Teams wave the flag when City show up, but when it’s us they’re frothing at the mouth and giving it their most intense performance of the season. Look at Southampton tonight, they were fucking rabid for an hour until they ran out of steam. When they played City they rested some of their best players. That’s what we’re dealing with, and if we somehow manage to end this season on top then it will be the greatest achievement in the entire illustrious history of the club. That was the week that was….
    4 points
  3. Is it just me or do City seem to score in the first 5-10 minutes of every game? It’s fucking tiresome and it’s the main reason why I just avoid their games completely now and don’t even bother checking the score until it’s finished. Realistically, after such a fast start they should be putting six or seven past these shit teams but they get to 2-0 up and then just pass the ball around for the rest of the game. It’s almost like it’s a pre-arranged agreement. “Let us go a couple up and then we’ll go easy on you. Alternatively, you can make a fight of it and we’ll embarrass you and take a fucking sledgehammer to your goal difference. Your choice”. That Fulham side without Mitrovic and Schurrle was fucking brutal. Babel at centre forward, some fucker I’d never heard of on the right and Ryan Sessegnon on the left. How much has his stock fallen this season by the way? He’s barely contributed anything for months. A year ago you’d have been paying £60m for him, now I’m not sure that a) he’d cost much more than half that, and b) any top team would still want him even at that price. I’d probably still take him but only at the right price. He could still thrive under the right manager and with better players around him, but he’s not the sure thing he looked a year ago. He’s still really young though and this might just be a small bump in the road. Can’t have been easy for him this year as Fulham are a mess. We were the only club to spend more than them last summer but what did they get for their money? Nothing. Schurrle is the only one who made any kind of impact. The others have all bombed spectacularly. They’ve had three managers too. And you have to feel a little sorry for their forwards when they know they need to score three just to have a chance of winning. The attackers started the season well under Jokanovic but since he was canned Sessegnon has vanished and Mitrovic’s goals have dried up. That defence has been historically bad, but when you have the likes of Tim Ream in it then is it any wonder? He didn’t play against City, which would have been good news if his replacement wasn’t the even worse Le Marchand. Out of the frying pan into the fucking erupting volcano. Fulham’s players started the game as though they had big money on a City landslide. They just kept passing the ball to City players on the edge of their own box. Fucking losers. Both of City’s goals came from Fulham players just inexplicably giving them the ball in their own defensive third. City are good enough that they don’t need this kind of help to win games, but Fulham gave them it anyway. Pricks. Can’t believe I spent most of the season thinking (and hoping) they’d get out of it because they can play nice football. Since Jokanovic left they don't even really play nice football, but they've still leaked goals like a sieve. They’re fucking shite. All they have is Mitrovic, who needs to get the hell out of dodge now because he’s a top half of the Premier League calibre striker playing in a Championship standard team. They were officially relegated in midweek after they were destroyed by Watford. Doucoure scored for the second game in succession, but Babel found the net to make it 1-1 and give them hope. Then they got steamrollered and my boy Troy got one of the goals. Bye bye Fulham. Good result for Watford though, who bounced back well from an unfortunate defeat at Old Trafford at the weekend. They've got a legitimate shot at pipping Wolves to 7th spot, but that loss to United hurt them as they deserved so much more. It wasn't a good time to go there as the Mancs after were in jubilant mood after Solskjaer got the job permanently, and they rode that wave of emotion to scrape an undeserved, scrappy win over the Hornets, before scraping an undeserved, scrappy loss at Wolves. What’s this Ole’s at the wheel shite I keep hearing. Where did that come from? What does it mean? It’s lame as fuck. I’m sick of reading it and hearing it. Even worse is the media shoehorning it into their analysis. Just fuck off. If Ole is at the wheel, someone might want to breathalyse the little goblin fuck as the way they’ve been playing recently it looks like he’s been at Fergie’s Scotch cabinet. He’s lost three out of four now, two of them to Wolves and Connor Coady, who was fucking loving it by the way. The winning streak of United's has suddenly become a losing streak just before they are due to play City. Knobheads. As you know I never watch their games and usually don’t bother with highlights unless they’ve lost. I tried to make an exception and watched some of their highlights against Watford. I got as far as Martial pulling off a spectacularly shit dive trying to win a pen and decided “fuck this” and forwarded to the next game. I didn’t watch their game at Wolves either but I saw the Smalling own goal and the Keystone Cops defending from Phil Jones and his mad face. He’s the gift that keeps on giving that lad. Jones is such a great comedy figure that it’s inevitable he’s going to end up at Everton when United eventually tire of him. I can’t wait to see his gurning gob after doing a Sandy Brown in the Derby. That win was a good way for Wolves to bounce back after losing at Burnley on Saturday. They played quite well but didn’t take their chances. Coady scored an unfortunate own goal after two minutes and then McNeil wrapped it up for Burnley after the break. He’s not bad him, for a Burnley player. Elsewhere, Palace wasted chance after chance against Huddersfield and it looked like they’d never score until they were awarded a penalty. Of course they were. Zaha won it. Of course he did. And Milovojevic buried it. Of course he did. Twas ever thus. The BBC commentator said that was their ninth pen of the season. Presumably that season is ‘winter’. Zaha tormented Huddersfield but his finishing was terrible. He teed up Van Aanholt for the second and just like Huddersfield were relegated. In March. Three days before Fulham. Takes some doing that. They’ll probably come straight back up because I imagine they’ll keep their squad together. Let’s face it, who is going to be picking from that rotten carcass? Unlike Fulham, I do feel sympathy for Huddersfield. They’re a hard working team, they fight for everything and they’ve got a great crowd. I reckon they’re much better equipped to bounce back than Fulham are, and if they had Mitrovic they might have even survived. One striker really can make all the difference. Look at the contrasting fortunes of West Ham and Stoke last season after Arnautovic swapped clubs. He was brilliant at West Ham for a while, but he’s done fuck all since they blocked his move to China and gave him a bumper pay rise. Has he even scored since then? Has he even played? Can’t remember the last time he did anything. The Hammers lost to Everton at the weekend and they were lucky it was only 2-0 as they got their arses handed to them by the Blues. Zouma headed the opener after five minutes and then Bernard made it 2-0. It should have been more but the woodwork, Fabianski and the unwavering shitness of Calvert-Lewin ensured it stayed at two. That was Bernard’s first goal in the league and it came on the last week of March. He’s an attacking midfielder! Christ, even Stewart Downing was good for two or three a season. Funny how the Blues thought he was going be their Coutinho and that landing him was some kind of coup. Deluded fucks. He's done even less than the last Brazilian winger they had, "Rodrigol". If Bernard was any good he would never have ended up at Everton. Actually that’s not strictly true, because Digne is a very good player and he somehow ended up at Goodison. He's the exception that proves the rule I guess. Leicester won again. Wes Morgan deflected in a shot from Chilwell to set them on the way to victory over Bournemouth, who away from home are about as much use as a chocolate fireguard. Vardy wrapped it up late on with a fine header and from the highlights Leicester looked as though they played really well. A couple of moves they put together had Brendan’s stubby little fingermarks all over them. The chipped pass from keeper to full back, playing their way out of trouble and getting in behind with two or three passes. Like watching Swansea back in the day. Wonder if he’ll sign Wee Joe this summer? Leicester actually have some of the best players outside of the top six. Vardy, Ricardo, Chilwell, Maguire, Maddison, all very good players, but Brendan was positively gushing about Morgan afterwards. He’s found his new Kolo. Random thought: Whatever happened to Danny Drinkwater? He’s vanished off the face of the earth. I can’t even remember the last time I saw him. Mad the way his career path took him to the same club as his title winning partner Kante but their careers have gone in completely opposite directions. In hindsight, Drinkwater should have followed Vardy's example, not Kante's. Next up, Southampton and Brighton met in a huge relegation six pointer at the Amex, and it was the Saints who came out on top to leave Chris Hughton’s side in a spot of trouble. Cardiff’s woes will probably ensure everyone else down there survives, but if Cardiff somehow string a few wins together than Brighton are currently looking the most vulnerable of the rest. Hojbjerg got the only goal of the game and the result was a little harsh on Brighton who deserved a point. Montoya hit the bar, Duffy missed a sitter and Propper thought he should have had a pen, but Southampton held on for the win. Burnley, Brighton and Southampton are all on the same points now, although Burnley have played a game more. Ideally I’d like Cardiff to win a couple just to ensure Burnley still have something to play for when they face City. It’s not looking likely though. They got screwed against Chelsea on Sunday. Massively screwed. They led through Camarasa and were denied a clear penalty when Rudiger pulled back Morrison. Then with five minutes left Chelsea scored the most offside goal of the season to equalise, Rudiger then escaped a clear red card and Chelsea won it in stoppage time. I’m not arsed about Cardiff’s misfortune because after the way they’ve carried on regarding the unpaid transfer fee for Emiliano Sala they deserve nothing less than relegation. Fuck them. Chelsea winning was no bad thing either as it keeps the top four scramble alive, which benefits us as it means both Spurs and United won’t be able to afford to take the City game off. The other thing it did was kept Sarri from getting the sack. The last thing we needed ahead of next week was for them to ditch the manager, and it might have happened if they’d lost this as the travelling fans were calling for his head until that late turnaround. A new manager would probably come in and drop Jorginho and put Kante back where he should be. We don’t need that at all, so this comeback suits us just fine I’d say. I’m surprised Warnock didn’t kick off a lot more than he did. Considering the lengths he’s gone to when complaining about relatively minor officiating mistakes, I thought he’d have gone absolutely nuclear over this one. Instead he just stood in front of the officials on the pitch at the end, saying nothing but giving them the massive stink eye. They didn’t know what to do, they just stood there waiting for him to move out of their path but he didn’t. They wouldn't make eye contact with him, it was like the Medusa scene in Clash of the Titans. The funny thing is that for once virtually nobody is criticising him, as the decision was SO bad he had every right to be pissed off. I doubt there’s been a bigger error from a linesman all season (the sterling goal the other week was on the ref, not the lino), but as has been pointed out since (most notably by Carra and his fancy VR headset on MNF!) he simply couldn’t see it, because Willian was in his way. He has to stand right on the corner spot so he can check if the ball goes out of play, and then as he tries to get back in line with the ball, his view is blocked by the corner taker. He needed to get himself in position for a clear view but he didn’t do it in time and so couldn’t see the offside. Its not an excuse as he needs to position himself better than that, but at least he had a legitimate reason for getting that wrong. That’s more than can be said for Craig Pawson. How is he not sending off Rudiger for being the last man? Or giving the blatant penalty that he was looking right at? It’s hard to get over the injustice of something like that if you're a Cardiff fan. They need every point they can get and if they end up going down by just a couple of points they can legitimately look back on this as the biggest reason they didn’t survive. Of course all of those teams at the bottom will be able to point to shitty decisions that went against them too, but none as absolutely blatant as this. Still, never mind, eh? Warnock was so pissed off afterwards he threatened to field his u23 side at City three days later and “hope to keep the score down to ten or eleven”. He didn’t do it because not even he can be that lacking in self awareness. The fella hasn’t shut up about Rafa resting players ten years ago, even though he did the exact same thing a few months earlier. There’s no question that Warnock has been on the end of some shitty decisions this season though and he said the next day (joking, it should be said) that he wonders if the officials have gotten together and said “let’s get him out of here” due to the years of abuse he’s dished out to fourth officials over the years. I don’t think it’s that, I just think it’s the subconscious “big club bias” we see all the time, but I often wonder how refs manage to not let things like Warnock’s continual behaviour towards them influence their thinking. Maybe the answer is that they do let it influence them. I know I would. Most of them must hate Warnock so it’s human nature to not give his team the benefit of the doubt. He’s reaping what he sewed, as are Cardiff after their Sala shenanigans. Just need them to hold on long enough to keep Burnley involved in the relegation battle, then they can fuck off to join Fulham and Huddersfield. As for Chelsea, they needed that bit of luck and they capitalised on it by winning again in midweek. That one was far more comfortable as Brighton were just overwhelmed. Giroud, Hazard and Loftus-Cheek got the goals in a 3-0 win that opened up a two gap between them and United, and kept them just one point behind third placed Spurs, who got back on track with a win over Palace in midweek. The game was their first in their new stadium, and you know that dribble chin fuckwit Kane will be fuming that he didn’t get the first goal there. That honour fell to Son, with Eriksen adding a second with ten minutes to go. Spurs really needed that win as they’ve been a little unfortunate in recent weeks and their form has been nowhere near as bad as their results. It’s mad how they had suddenly found themselves below Arsenal when the gap between them was so big not so long ago. Arsenal have just sneaked up there by doing Arsenal things. By that I mean taking care of business against the dregs, especially at home. That’s a good habit to have and it kept them in the top four under Wenger for years. The thing that proved their undoing was the constant spineless away defeats, but they’ve got a bit more backbone about them now (especially since they stopped relying on the freeloading Oil). They beat Newcastle 2-0 on Monday night. I don’t have much more to say about it as I didn’t see any of it. I know Ramsay scored, and that they're going to find him difficult to replace as the rest of their midfielders are bang average, much like all of their defenders. Man for man, Spurs look way better than Arsenal yet they're neck and neck. At this point if I had to pick who’ll get third and fourth I’d go for Spurs and Arsenal, but much of it depends on how much Chelsea’s players can be arsed and how much spawn United continue to have. It looks like it may have run out now, but you can never tell with them. Sarri’s best bet might be to play a few of the squad players with points to prove. The likes of Loftus-Cheek and Hudson-Odoi are going to give him more than Willian, Pedro and Kovacic in the run in. And with that transfer ban looming it would make sense for them to look more to the future. In fact, leaving out Hazard at Anfield next week would make perfect sense too as he’s not going to be there next year. They should leave him at home and bring one of their youth players instead. Come on Sarri, you know it makes sense.
    3 points



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