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I’ll be honest, after an hour or so of this I was thinking that this might finally be the game where the streak ends. Not necessarily the unbeaten streak (although that did cross my mind), but the 17 game winning run felt as though it was in real danger. It just had the stench of ‘one of those games’ about it. We were below par, the opposition were performing well above themselves and it was a cold, windy horrible night. With the title already wrapped up barring the formalities, the stakes weren’t especially high and if we had dropped points it would have made no difference to the outcome of the title race. And yet it felt horrible. The idea of us dropping any points, let alone losing a game, was horrifying. Games shouldn’t be stressful when you’re this far ahead, but they are. It’s almost as stressful as watching us during us last year’s title run in. The feeling when watching our games is exactly the same. The only difference is this time we don’t have to suffer through City’s games as well. Doesn’t matter what they do now, they’re an irrelevance. It’s just about us now. Some of you reading this will say you’re not bothered about going unbeaten. Some will argue that once the title is won we should be resting players for Champions League games (assuming we get past Atletico) and even the FA Cup. My head can go along with that, but my heart is a different matter. I don’t just want to go unbeaten, I don’t even want to draw any games. It’s greedy, unreasonable, perhaps even unrealistic. But there it is. That’s how I feel. Irrational as it might sound, a draw would feel like the end of the world at the moment. You know whats great though? As much as I feel like that, it’s nothing to how the players themselves feel. Take how I feel about us dropping any points and magnify it by a hundred and you still won’t match how the players feel. None of them will say it of course, because it would sound cocky and be seen as disrespectful to the other teams we face. That’s how they feel though. They don’t have to say it because it shows in how they approach every game. So many times this season they could have settled for a draw or even accepted a defeat, knowing that it’s “not a big deal” given how far ahead they are. They never do though. They’re desperate to win every game and I bet you that in their quieter moments some of them look back at that draw at Old Trafford and fucking fume about it. It’s that relentless drive that keeps seeing us through when things get hairy. It’s a cliché but this is a game we’d have lost a few years ago. The last game we lost at Anfield was 2-1 against Palace and there were a lot of similarities with this game. The big difference was this time we found a way to win it. That’s what we do now. I actually feel a little guilty for doubting them. I sat there at 1-2 with mixed thoughts. The over-riding one was that this just had the feel of a game that wasn’t going to go our way, but then there was the voice inside telling me “show a little fucking faith in them you shithouse”. We’d come through much worse situations than this after all. So why did it feel like this was going to be the one that finally tripped us up? After all, it had started well enough and we’d taken an early lead through Wijnaldum’s header from a stunning cross by Trent. West Ham’s equaliser just seemed to knock everyone for six, not least because it came from a corner and they looked like scoring every time they had one. Defensively we looked unsettled all night while it wasn’t clicking at the other end. The law of averages suggests that we can’t just keep winning every single game regardless of performance, yet these lads keep finding a way to defy that law of averages. Klopp’s assessment afterwards was that West Ham’s best hope of troubling us was second balls and set-pieces and that we were not good enough on either. He’s right, but on the set-piece issue I think you have to look to what West Ham did well rather than what we were doing badly. The delivery from Snodgrass was sensational. It’s really hard to defend balls like that, especially when West Ham have so much height in there. I looked in the box and saw Diop, Ogbonna, Rice, Antonio and that Czech lad. All big bastards. We had only Virg and Fabinho who stood comparison. So it’s not easy. The main problem for me was we gave them so many corners. I didn’t think they’d be able to get forward as often as they did and with the numbers they did. I under-estimated them because Moyes is normally such a fucking coward. I expected them to come here and just try and keep the score down, like they did at City last week. Instead they had a go and it seemed to take us by surprise. I didn’t even feel like either of their goals came out of the blue. I wouldn’t say they had been coming but they weren’t a total shock either. Their equaliser came after a little flurry of corners. They went close with the second one and I think it was from the third that Diop scored. Alisson maybe could have done better on that, although I think he saw it late. They had a couple more corners after that and I had flashbacks to when my arse would be twitching any time the opponent had a set-piece. I don’t miss those days one little bit. So anyway, level at half time and I’m relaxed about the whole thing even though we didn’t look like ourselves. Let the analyst nerds do their thing and show the lads what they’re doing wrong and we’ll be fine. Then after ten minutes we go behind. That wasn’t part of the plan. Shitty goal to concede as well. Just a hopeful cross in, and Fornels had somehow found himself in a few yards of space. He scuffed his volley but it went right in the corner and Alisson had no chance. As soon as that went in Klopp signalled to Ox to get ready. I think we all knew who would be the one to make way. There were only two options really and it was never going to be Gini. So off went Keita and on came Ox, and immediately we began looking more like ourselves. Whether it was Ox that was the catalyst or merely the fact we’d fallen behind, it’s impossible to tell. The game changed from that moment though and the crowd came alive. West Ham had some incredible escapes and the thought was niggling away that this would be the night when nothing fell for us. We’ve made our own luck but we have had luck during this amazing run. You can’t have a run like this without catching some breaks along the way, and we undoubtedly have done. And we did again. It’s incredible really. We benefitted greatly from a rare, almost inexplicable off night from one of the league’s best goalkeepers, but even if Fabianksi hadn’t fumbled that one in from Mo I still think we’d have won the game. It’s almost force of will at times. The boys just pushed and pushed until eventually West Ham cracked. I keep saying it, but it must be an absolute nightmare to play against us. You need to be at your absolute best and you need several of our players to have an off night. And you need luck. Even then it isn’t always enough. Just ask West Ham. It was far from vintage from us but we still put together some great moves and created clear chances. The Hammers goal led a charmed life at times. I still don’t know how the ball didn’t go in when Salah’s shot deflected off Fabianski’s boot and Bobby headed against the post from about an inch out. It’s not happening for him at Anfield at all at the moment. He put a shot over at the beginning of the second half, he headed over from a corner, he had that one against the post and even on the winning goal for Mané the ball just went over Bobby’s head when he would have had an empty net to put it into. I thought the catalyst for the win was the two full backs. They made all three goals and they provided a stream of dangerous deliveries into the box. Trent especially seemed to be at the heart of everything. Not all of his crosses were perfect, but enough of them were. Robbo did brilliantly for the equaliser too. It was a great ball by Ox to hit him in stride, but the way Robbo surged past his man and then got his head up to pick out Mo was fantastic. I was a little surprised later on to hear Carra talking about how many world class players we have and not mention Robbo (or Fabinho for that matter). If Robbo isn’t a world class left back then who is? I’d say it was fairly obvious that we missed Hendo though. Not just because his replacement didn’t set the world alight, but you could just tell that Henderson wasn’t there. A lot of what he does is almost unnoticed, but it was noticeable in this game because he wasn’t there doing it. Teams can’t usually counter attack against us because he’s always there picking up second balls, covering spaces and generally just filling in whatever gaps appear. He does this regardless of whether he’s playing the ‘six’ or the ‘eight’. Without him, there were gaps everywhere and a better team than West Ham might have exploited them more. We missed him with the ball too. His passing is massively under-rated, especially those long diagonals in behind to Salah and (especially) Mané. Then there’s his leadership and the urgency he brings. I thought it was quite glaring how he missed all of the things he brings. Still, we should be able to beat teams like West Ham without him and in the end we did. It took the introduction of Ox to inject some life and urgency into us though. As I say, Keita wasn’t especially bad but he just didn’t do enough. He’s a nice little player, he floats around with his little give and go’s and he’s sneakily good at winning the ball back when we lose it. Not with crunching tackles, but he seems to be able to just get a toe in here and there and nick the ball away. So I’m not bashing Keita, but this was a chance for him to stake a claim with Hendo out for a little while, and he didn’t do it. The difference when Ox replaced him was immediate. We’ve seen that before from Ox. Sometimes he’ll just come on and he’s immediately like “give me the fucking ball and I’ll show you how it’s done”. I love that about him. He brings instant tempo and he gets the crowd going too. Sometimes that’s all it needs. Just one player to show some thrust and urgency, and all of a sudden the fans are like “yeah, that’s more like it, let’s fucking do these”. Ox came on, he picked the ball up and he ran forward at pace and had a shot. And that changed everything. It led to a spell of relentless pressure where it felt like we forced a dozen corners in about five minutes. West Ham were hanging on desperately but you knew they were eventually going to crack because the pressure being applied to them was relentless. They did eventually crack. Well, Fabianksi did anyway. He will probably never do that again for the rest of his career. That’s how it goes sometimes. Mo had a brilliant effort in the first half that deserved a goal but was brilliantly saved by Fabianski. And then he lets one in like that from the same player. It’s a tough life being a keeper. There was loads of time left for us to get the winner and at that stage I was fairly confident that we’d do it. In the back of my mind though I always felt that West Ham had another goal in them. We just didn’t look secure and the threat of Antonio loomed almost as large as the shadow he cast. I swear that lad gets wider every time I see him. He’s fucking massive. We’d gotten lucky with the equaliser and the winning goal was somewhat fortunate too. Trent did very well to loft the ball in for Sadio at the back post but he was only able to get in behind in the first place because a speculative shot by Gomez looped up off a defender into his path. What Joe thought he was doing shooting with his left foot from 30 yards only he knows, but it paid off. Shades of Big Virg there on the Origi derby winner. You can understand why fans of rival clubs are doing they nuts and calling us all the spawn twats under the sun. Shit, we did it with United for years. It is luck, but it’s also sheer force of will and a refusal to accept anything less than a victory. United had that for years and we’ve got it now. If you keep pushing, and keep believing, eventually you’ll make something happen. And because of that it’s a self fulfilling prophesy. It’s not a co-incidence that rival players (especially keepers) are making errors. It’s the psychological pressure of playing against an opponent this relentless. Normally you’d think “game over” once we’d turned it around like that. Not this time. Not me anyway. I still thought West Ham had another goal in them. Moyes had introduced Haller up front and switched Antonio to the left. And after that, literally the only thing they did was play the ball to him and hope he could make something happen. I like him. He’s a good player and if he could stay fit for an entire season West Ham wouldn’t ever be in relegation trouble. He’s so important to them and they’re a completely different proposition when he plays. Take him away and what do they have? Seriously, just imagine if he hadn’t played in this game. I don’t think they’d have even been able to get out of their own half. He’s such a handful that any hopeful ball played up the pitch has a chance of finding him (and not just because he takes up half the width of the field). He chases everything, he’s lightning quick and he’s hard to shake off the ball. Don’t get me wrong, he’s nowhere near as terrifying as Adama Traore, but you always have to be wary of him. There is nobody else at West Ham who would have posed us any threat, even though I thought they played well as a team. I’ve watched a fair bit of them this season and they’re usually fucking terrible. The defence is a joke and going forward they’re not much better. So I didn’t think they had a performance like this in them. They defended really well and they were intelligent in how they broke. And when they did break they got plenty of men forward. Fair play to them, they were miles better than I expected them to be and if they’d gotten a draw I couldn’t have begrudged them it. That’s not to say we didn’t deserve to win, as we clearly did. If we hadn’t won though we could have had no complaints as the Hammers gave it all they had, and they’d have snatched a point late on but for the brilliance of Alisson. What was the five minutes of stoppage time all about by the way? You never get five minutes unless something out of the ordinary happens, and nothing out of the ordinary happened so how did they get five minutes? Of course, Jon Moss actually played even more than five minutes, the bum. He was poor, as usual. I thought we had two good penalty shouts for handball waved away by him but VAR wasn’t interested either. The worst decision of the game was when a raking pass by Trent to Robbo was headed into touch by a West Ham player and Moss gave them the throw in. I don’t blame him for that though as he wouldn’t have seen that clearly. The linesman on the Main Stand side saw it though. I know he saw it because he had the same sight line as me and it was glaringly obvious. I hate that. So many times you see it now, where the linesman has a clear view of something but gives nothing because presumably he’s under instructions from the ref not to. Winds me right up. Also, can I just say that I hated the Matip for Mané substitution in stoppage time. I understand the logic behind it, but I hated it. I always hate it when Klopp does that because I always fear it’s going to backfire. It nearly did, as Matip gave away a late free-kick that might have cost us. It’s really hard to come into a game that late and immediately pick up the intensity of the game. Matip comes on cold and is immediately having to deal with a rampaging Antonio. That’s a tough task. Like I say, I understand the thinking behind it as it’s an insurance policy against set-pieces and long balls. West Ham had half a dozen really big lads in the side so it makes sense to get Matip on, but I just never feel confident when we do things like that. It’s a minor gripe though. That’s all we have these days though isn’t it? It’s hard finding anything to moan about. I commented on that before the game to a couple of the lads when I caught myself having a right old fucking whinge about us having two centre backs on the bench while Curtis Jones is banging in a hat-trick for the u23s earlier in the day. I stand by my gripe. Jones is so fucking good and his current form is sensational. He should be on the bench and we should be looking to get him on the field any time we’re a few goals up. We don’t need Lovren and Matip on the bench, especially when Fabinho is on the field to provide extra cover at centre back if needed. It smacks to me of just picking the senior players regardless of position, simply because it’s easier to overlook the kids as they won’t see their arse over it. Even if we disregard Jones for a second, Neco Williams would have been a more sensible choice than having two centre halves on there. So I went off about that big time while walking up to the ground, and that’s when it suddenly hit me. We’re so fucking amazing these days, that THIS is the only thing I have to moan about?? We’ve come such a long way. We might be living through the greatest time in the club’s history depending on how the next couple of years play out. The debate on Sky afterwards was who are the greatest team in English football history. They went with Paisley’s great side of the late 70s. I can’t really be arsed going into it too deeply here as that’s probably an entire article on it’s own for another time (maybe this summer). What I would say though is this current team is doing something nobody else ever has. They’ve taken 109 points from the last 111 available. Over the last two years they’re going to be averaging over a hundred points a season and will have played in two (possibly three) Champions League finals. They’ve matched the record for the most consecutive wins and are closing in on Arsenal’s record for the longest ever unbeaten run. What we’re seeing at the moment hasn’t ever been done before and this team is nowhere near peaking yet either. As I say, what we’re living through right now is something that will be talked about for generations to come. Final word is on the atmosphere. It’s a weird one this because everyone who wasn’t at the game seemed to commenting on how terrible it was. Most seemed to say it was flat, quiet and reeked of complacency. Yet Trent and Klopp both spoke glowingly afterwards about how the fans played their part in getting us over the line and the atmosphere was great. I can’t speak for how it came across on telly but it just felt like a normal league game to me. It wasn’t great in the first half, but it was no quieter than normal either. After we went behind the crowd responded and did what was needed. In an ideal world Anfield would be rocking for ninety minutes every game, but that’s just not realistic. We’re twenty odd points clear so of course there’s going to be an element of complacency there from the crowd. It’s not even complacency so much, it’s just that everyone feels relaxed now. It was only when it looked like we were in danger that the fans showed up, but the same can be said of the team. West Ham fans had some fucking balls on them singing “where’s your famous atmosphere” though. These are the only fans I can ever remember who didn’t even cheer the names of their players when the teams were read out before kick off. I couldn’t believe it. Peter McDowell is reading out the teams and there was utter silence as he went through the Hammers line up. No cheers at all. I’ve never, ever experienced that before. Then it gets to 1-1 and they start singing. Granted, it was funny when they mimicked us with “we’re gonna win the league” (we’d sung that after going 1-0 up) but sorry lads, you don’t get to mock the Anfield atmosphere when you can’t even be arsed cheering the names of your team as they’re read out. I’m a little conflicted when it comes to West Ham. On the one hand I want them to go down because I fucking despise their Tory owners and David Moyes deserves nothing but misery. On the other, I respect Mark Noble for the loyalty and love he’s got for his club (and obviously for his mum, his queen and his country, Gawd bless ‘im), and I feel quite sorry for their fans as they’ve been given a right shitty deal. They lost their home and they’ve been saddled with Moyes so I feel bad wishing any more misery on them, especially as in terms of the London teams they’re probably the least offensive (I don’t mind Palace either), but I’m not gonna lie, if Moyes gets relegated and Sullivan, Gold and Brady all end up massively out of pocket then I’ll enjoy it. Star man is Trent, with honourable mentions to Gini (who stepped it up massively when we needed to up the pace), Robbo and Ox. Also to Alisson for being there when we really needed him at the end. What a fucking man he is. Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson; Fabinho, Keita (Oxlade-Chamberlain), Wijnaldum; Salah, Firmino, Mané (Matip):

The weekend kicked off with a controversial game at Molineux as Wolves found themselves on the wrong end of another bizarre VAR decision as they were held to a goalless draw by Leicester. When Willy Boli headed in there was not a soul inside the stadium (or watching on TV) thought for a second there was anything wrong with it. Usually you have an inkling that VAR is going to take a look. It doesn’t always mean the goal will be ruled out but usually you have an inkling if something might be looked at and it's enough to make you hold off on the celebrations. Sadio’s winner at Norwich for example. I didn’t think it was a foul but I knew they’d be looking at it. This one though, there was hint of anything and not even the Leicester players appealed for a possible offside. For all the cryarsing about it though, technically it was the correct decision. You can argue all day about whether goals morally should be disallowed for that, but by the current laws of the game that was offside and Wolves don’t have a leg to stand on. Nuno Holy Spirit handled it with his usual good grace, and Conor Coady handled it with his usual arrogance and bitching. He remonstrated with Mike Dean as they left the field at half time and the ref admitted he didn’t know who was offside or why, he was just going by what he was told in the headset. Seeing Coady continually whining about VAR decisions this season has been a guilty pleasure of mine. He’s arguing about black and white shit. Offside is offside, regardless of whether he likes it or not. He was crying about the one that was disallowed at Anfield, and also wanting a handball when there wasn’t one. I’m sick of him spouting off when the officials have gotten the decisions right. What does he want them to do, ignore the rules just to suit him and his team? The disallowed Boli goal was a bizarre one but when VAR looks at it and puts their little lines in and the player is offside, there is no other option than to disallow the goal. Do we want to see goals disallowed for THAT? No, of course not. It’s ridiculous and there are probably at least 20 goals this season that have been disallowed that would never have been ruled out in the past. That’s a problem but haranguing referees over it is stupid as it’s not their fault. I'm all for giving them shit over their own mistakes, but this isn't that. The law definitely needs to change but until then VAR can only enforce it as it is, and like it or not (and I don’t think anyone does), Neto was offside. What does Coady want them to do, ignore the laws of the game just to make him happy? Fair play to him though, being in a shot with Mike Dean where you’re the one who is more arrogant and full of yourself is pretty much impossible for most people, but Conor pulled it off. Ronaldo might be the only man on the planet who can beat him on that front. Not gonna lie, if I had my way then Wolves would be on the wrong on VAR every week as I find it funny as fuck, albeit I do have sympathy for Nuno as he’s a top fella. Anyway, in summary Wolves had the better chances but couldn't score, and Choudhury finally got a red card that’s been months in the making. Reckless bastard him. Onto Saturday now and Southampton were surprisingly beaten at home by Burnley. I didn’t see that coming, but Burnley are fucking weird aren't they? They’re even more Bournemouth than Bournemouth. Seven games unbeaten, eight losses on the bounce, six game unbeaten run, seven games winless and rinse and repeat every season. I heard someone on the radio describe Burnley as a team that loses every game it’s expected to lose and wins every game it’s expected to win. That’s pretty accurate, although winning away at Southampton isn’t something I’d have expected them to do. Generally though that's what they do. They took the lead direct from a corner when Ings inexplicably moved out of the way of Westwood’s inswinger. No idea what he was thinking there but it was an embarrassing moment for him against his old club. Naturally he soon made amends with a thumping equaliser from 20 yards. 18 goals for the season now, great stuff from him. Southampton were doing all the attacking but they couldn’t make it count and out of nowhere Vydra blasted in a superb winner. That was his first goal since September 2018, which makes Benteke seem like Gerd Muller. In fairness he hardly ever plays. He plays more for the Czech Republic than he does Burnley, which is about as damning an indictment of the current state of Czech football as you’ll find. Onto Sunday now where both North London clubs were in action against relegation threatened sides. At Villa Park Toby Alderweireld put through his own net to give Villa the lead but then scored at the other end to cancel it out. Spurs were (correctly) awarded a pen by VAR. Reina saved from Son but was beaten by the rebound. Dean Smith wasn’t happy about it and he repeated an argument I’ve heard a few times lately but makes no sense to me. He said “forty thousand people in the stadium didn’t think it was a penalty, but it goes to a sterile environment and two minutes later a penalty is given”. What does the environment have to do with it? A foul is a foul, and that was a foul. Smith said it wasn’t a clear and obvious error, but it was. Refs can’t always see fouls clearly (especially when they’re registered blind, like Martin Atkinson) but it’s precisely for incidents like this that VAR was introduced. Fat Jon Moss was the VAR and he got it right, no doubt while saying “it’s not VAR’s fault you’re in a relegation battle”. (see what I did there? Gold that is. That’s why you pay your money). The one point Smith made that I agree with is that Atkinson should have taken a look at the monitor himself as that decision should really be made by the ref on the field. All VAR should be for in that situation is to tell him he might want to have a look as there’s a reasonable case that it was a foul. And it was a foul. It took a replay to show it as you can’t possibly tell in real time, but a foul is a foul. No point crying about it, but I do think it’s probably easier to take if it’s the referee on the field who makes the decision. Maybe that was the point he was trying to make, but as I say, I’ve heard it said a few times lately that it’s not right that someone who isn’t involved in the ebb and flow of the game is making decisions. I don’t really see how it makes any difference to the decision itself but I’m in total agreement that I’d rather the on field referee look at the monitor for any ‘judgement’ calls and leave the black and white issues to VAR. Engels (who had conceded the pen) headed the equaliser from a Grealish corner, but Villa’s hearts were broken in stoppage time when Engels missed the ball and Son ran through to win it. Mad how Spurs have had so many 3-2 wins since Mourinho came in. I don’t see them getting too many more though, not now that Son has joined Kane in the treatment room. That bus of Jose's won't be clocking up much mileage between now and May. As for Villa, the more I watch them the more I have to confess that Jack Grealish wins me over. I know I know, you’re disappointed in me but I can’t help it. I’m doing my best to fight it, as I’ve been ripping him for years and he looks like such a bad knobhead. The hair, the tan, the shinnies…. the fact he plays for Villa… all of that goes against him and it’s why I’ve always slated him. Yet it’s really hard to keep disliking him as he’s fucking brilliant and he gives everything he’s got every time he steps onto the field. I love his commitment and attitude. At the end of this game he went over to console Engels and it was just a genuine, heartfelt gesture. He’s been an inspiration to that team and if they stay up it’s entirely because of him. I feel as though this new found respect and grudging admiration I have will be short lived though, as come the end of the season he’ll be on the move and unless we buy him (unlikely, as we don’t need any more midfielders) then he’s going to be playing for the likes of United or Spurs and normal service will be resumed. He’ll be back to being a Poundland Lee Hendrie again. The other game on Sunday saw Arsenal wallop Newcastle at the Emirates. I watched the first half and Arsenal looked abysmal, so I was shocked when I checked back in later with a couple of minutes to go and they led 3-0. Even Ozil scored. That's how bad Newcastle must have been. Lacazette added a fourth in stoppage time and the celebrations for that were, shall we say, a little excessive. You’d have thought it was a winner in a cup final. Stuff like that really annoys me. That’s the problem with Arsenal’s players. They have zero self awareness. So often I find myself squirming at their lack of awareness of their reality. Look at where you are in the table lads. You have nothing to celebrate, you fucking bums. Arsenal’s squad is jam packed with fucking losers who just don’t get it. They’re genuinely embarrassing and it angers me far more than it should. Monday night was a fucking farce. I have no love for Chelsea but what a stitch up that was. A referee from Manchester and a VAR ref from Manchester. Seriously, how is that allowed to happen? Chelsea had two goals disallowed by VAR (one correctly, one not) but the main issue was that neither Anthony Taylor nor Neil Swarbrick felt that Slabhead Maguire should have been sent off for kicking Batshuayi in the balls. I’ll give Taylor a pass on that one because he might not have seen it and also because at least his shitness is consistent. He didn’t give a red card to Son the other week for more or less the exact same thing so at least there are no double standards there. He missed the Son one on Rudiger but VAR corrected his mistake. When that happened, virtually everyone other than Mourinho said it was the right call. So how come Maguire got away with it, especially as if anything the intent was even more clear in this one? Of course Maguire would later score, as he tends to do. The cunt did the same thing at Anfield last season when he also escaped a clear red card. What is it with this big fucking dope, has he got diplomatic immunity on red cards because he plays for England? Chelsea should be kicking up all manner of stink over this as what happened just wasn’t right. Their first disallowed goal was a scandal too. Fred pushed Azpilacueta into Williams. Yes, Azpilacueta then shoves the United defender in the back, but he couldn’t stop himself after being shoved by Fred. I don’t understand how you can give a foul against Azpilacueta there. I’ve seen it justified on the basis that Fred’s push isn’t enough to justify a penalty, so that has to be ignored and it’s the foul by Azpilacueta that has to be given. Bollocks. One foul only takes place as a result of the other. If Fred doesn’t push him then Azpilacueta can stop himself from running into Williams. I had missed the start of this game but I tuned in seconds before Chelsea 'scored' to make it 1-1. I was watching the replay as they did the VAR check and it seemed so obvious to me that I didn’t think there was anyway they’d disallow that goal. I was genuinely shocked but at that point I had no idea the VAR was a manc. I actually felt sorry for Chelsea and it takes a lot for that to happen. I want to hate Lampard but he’s made it really difficult as he’s been such a good guy all season, and even their team these days doesn’t really have any villains. Under Mourinho the first time around I hated every single one of the fuckers, but now? There’s no-one I actively dislike. They really can’t beat shite teams at home though and they seem to come unstuck in the same way all the time. Shit teams sit back and frustrate them, and then take advantage of set-pieces or counter attacks. That’s exactly what happened again. United are fucking shit and it seems like the only gameplan Solskjaer has it to sit back and try and play on the break. He’s had some decent results playing that way, especially against Chelsea, and it’s a black mark against Lampard that he hasn’t been able to figure out how to overcome that. In fairness to him though it’s not easy when you’re up against twelve men as well as the VAR official. Until someone actually lodges a formal complaint about manc refs being allowed to referee manc teams though this will continue. Mike Dean isn’t allowed anywhere near Liverpool or Everton unless we’re playing each other, and he isn’t even from Liverpool, he’s a Tranmere fan from the Wirral. So how come mancs are allowed to do City and United games? That’s the question other clubs should be asking, as Chelsea aren’t the only ones to have been on the receiving end of the manc mafia. Staying with the dishonesty amongst mancs theme, City had a predictably comfortable time against sorry West Ham at the Etihad on Wednesday. They won 2-0 without breaking sweat and Moyes seemed content to just not get battered. I often joke about Phil Foden and his token ‘eight minutes at the end of a game’ appearance stat padding, but it’s amazing how often it happens. He got six minutes at the end of this one. I mean, if the kid is as good as they’re trying to tell us he is, why don’t they ever let the little scrote play? There were more seats than fans on view, although obviously it’ll be listed as a full house on City’s books as the Sheikh buys up any unsold tickets. Apparently that's ok though. After the week they'd had I thought there'd be a show of defiance and the fans would show up in force to back their team. Maybe they stayed away in disgust at the cheating? What? It could be that. Ok ok I'm taking the piss. I'd actually respect any of them who did stay away on those grounds. The reality is they didn't show because it was West Ham in midweek in a re-arranged game. The ones who did show up sang “Fuck off UEFA, we’ll see you in court”. Always the victims, eh? Laughable that they think they’re being hard done to. Their own club hasn’t even denied any of the allegations, they’ve just launched a scorched earth campaign about how everyone has it in for them (and some are even playing the ‘islamophobia card’). Firstly, they’ve cheated. For years. They’re still cheating now in fact and the only reason nobody is talking about that (or investigating) is because the leaked emails only go up to 2016 or something. I read something about how they’ve been operating within FFP parameters these past couple of years but based on what? The fact there are no leaked emails to prove otherwise. Don’t believe for one second that they aren’t still paying people off the books, over inflating the value of sponsorship deals and having their owners subsidise the payment of those deals. Had it not been for their emails being hacked though they’d still be getting away with it. Secondly, not only are they cheating, but they’ve repeatedly lied to try and cover it up. And that’s what UEFA are getting them on. They cheated and they tried to deceive the authorities to cover it up. They haven’t denied it because they’re bang to rights. Yet their sportswashed fans think UEFA are the bad guys in all this and it’s a conspiracy to hold them back and protect the ‘big club cartel’. Fucking idiots. Looking at all those empty seats against West Ham I can’t help but wonder what some of the players must be thinking. Sergio Aguero and Kevin De Bruyne for example. They must be getting even more money than anyone realises, as these are players who could grace any club in the world, yet they’re playing in front of 25,000 morons for a club that nobody outside of Manchester gives a shit about. We got a full house for an u23 side playing League One opposition. If you’re a player at a top side you must look at that and then compare it to your own fanbase. Same with the trophy parades. I saw a quip made on Twitter that the difference between us and City is that the video of their trophy parade has a third of the views that one of Robbo and Milner talking about biscuits had. I’m sure our players know how good they have it here, but I reckon City players have to have noticed it too. It’s human nature. We know they’re well paid but I’d be willing to bet they’re making well more money than anybody ever suspected. If the ban is upheld and there isn’t a mass exodus, then we’ll know for sure, because realistically there’s no way ANY of those top stars (or Guardiola) would stay there without Champions League football. Still, maybe the ban will be a good thing for them. Those fans who were there in League One but have mysteriously fucked off might return, and who knows, maybe if all the rats flee the sinking ship then Foden might finally get to start some games.