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Saturday Nov 28: Brighton 1 L 1. Well that was unpleasant. Just a real kick in the balls again. We weren’t great today but we were the better side and deserved the points. The lads are goosed. They’re either dropping like flies or they look tired as fuck because they’re having to play so many games. It’s a vicious circle. We’ve got loads of injuries so can’t rotate the squad, and because we can’t rotate the squad we’re getting more and more injuries. Milner was playing his third full game in six days so it’s no wonder he broke down. Matip was left at home because we couldn’t put him in that situation. Fabinho had to sit out much of the Atalanta game because he’s just back from a hamstring, and Robbo is running on fumes and looks ripe for an injury of some sort. It’s a fucking nightmare, which is why Klopp is over-reacting to the whole 12.30 thing. He has a point, of course he does, but surely those two and a half hours difference between 12.30 and 3pm kick offs aren’t going to make THAT much difference? He’s just pissed off about everything right now and I don’t blame him. I’d be lashing out in all directions if I were him too. Not sure Chris Wilder would be high on my list, but each to his own. Des Kelly was a bit of a twat in that post match interview today and did seem to be poking the bear a little bit. I do think some of his points were valid though, as were some of Klopp’s. To Jurgen’s credit he stayed and argued his case whereas a lot of managers would have stormed off at that line of questioning. It wasn’t comfortable to watch though and he’s looking a bit frazzled at the moment. It’s understandable, everything is going against us at the moment but personally I don’t want to see the manager looking as pissed off with everything as I am. I need to see him looking like he has it all in hand and to be a reassuring presence. That’s obviously difficult given the shit he’s having to deal with. In terms of VAR, I could just copy and paste what I wrote in the diary exactly a week ago after the farce at Old Trafford. It’s killing football and sucking the enjoyment out of it. Milner even said the same on Twitter. This is not football, it’s a fucking made for TV drama now. Meanwhile, there were rumours today that a couple of funeral workers had been killed by Boca Juniors ultras because they took selfies with Diego’s corpse. Turns out it wasn’t true but it raised an interesting question. What kind of punishment would have been too much? Killing them would be excessive, obviously, but some level of retribution is in order I’d say. It’s basically the Marcellus Wallace / Tony Rocky Horror discussion that Jules and Vincent had in Pulp Fiction. Marcellus threw Tony out of a fourth storey window for giving his wife a foot massage. Was that an over-reaction? Maybe, but Tony Rocky Horror had to know there would be consequences, just like the morons who took selfies with a dead Maradona should know that’s not cool. Now they’re issuing grovelling apologies and pleading for clemency. Good luck with that. For what it’s worth, I definitely think some kind of beating is warranted as you can’t be showing that level of disrespect just because he was famous. Imagine how his family must be feeling. I’m still obsessing about Maradona by the way. The documentary was on Channel four tonight and I watched it again. It’s fucking brilliant, if you haven’t seen it you should as it’s an incredible look into all the shit that went down when he was in Italy. It’s also very sad, especially now. You see the fresh faced kid and then you see the mess he ended up as and all the trials and tribulations in between that caused it. It was emotional. One thing that really stood out to me because I didn’t know any of this until I watched the documentary the first time was that Italy turned against him just because Argentina beat them in the semi final and Diego had asked Napoli fans to support Argentina. A lot of them did, as the game was being played in their stadium. After that, all bets were off and the press (not to mention the law) went after him with everything they had. It’s not Maradona’s fault that some Neapolitans turned against Italy though. The rest of Italy has looked down on Naples and treated them like shit for decades. Fans of clubs in the north of Italy sing about Naples being dirty and the people being unwashed and in need of soap. It’s basically how Merseyside is treated by most of England. It got me thinking. If England were playing a World Cup semi final at Anfield against Uruguay when Suarez was in his pomp here, if he asked scousers to support Uruguay what percentage do you reckon would? 50%? 75%? 90%? Obviously I would, but that doesn’t count for much as, hell, I’d have backed El Hadji Diouf even now if he asked me to support Senegal over England, and I can’t stand that cunt. Sunday Nov 29: Going back to Klopp’s interview after the game yesterday. While I didn’t like Kelly’s confrontational approach, Klopp did start that whole argument with his response to a question about Milner’s injury. He said something like “you’ll be happy now” which was always going to draw some kind of response from any interviewer with a backbone. Obviously I side with Klopp as he’s right about us getting shafted with all these 12.30 kick offs, but he should probably let it go now as it’s not a fight he’s going to win. We’re a massive fucking draw in the Asian market so BT are going to want us (or United) in that time slot as much as possible. They aren’t going to show Burnley v Everton and while Klopp is right to say this problem could be avoided if BT and Sky worked together, there’s as much chance of that happening as there is Everton doing something to help us out. Bet they're against the five subs rule just to spite us. Cunts. On the pitch today there was a sickening injury to Raul Jimenez, who fractured his skull in a clash of heads with Sideshow Bob. I didn’t watch it and I don’t want to. I was told about the horrific noise which was clearly from his skull cracking, and I have no desire to see or hear that. I like Jimenez, he’s boss. I really hope he makes a full recovery, but so much of his game is about heading that there’s a good chance he might be finished, which is terrible really. Why does this happen to the inoffensive ones? If this has to happen to anyone, let it be the likes of Richarlison. Monday Nov 30: My boy Troy has let himself down today talking about the Jimenez / Luiz incident. He’s getting hammered for what he said about players should be able to decide if they carry on with head injuries, but really he needs educating as this is a commonly held belief in the game. I’ve said it so many times but he’s a complete throwback to the 80s. He thinks and plays like an old school player so is it really any surprise that he thinks players should be allowed to decide themselves if they can carry on? It’s easy for those of us who have never played at that kind of level to sit in judgement about how these players need to be more sensible, but you have to understand what makes these fellas tick. They’re built differently to us. They’re intense competitors and in a lot of cases that’s the reason they’ve gotten as far as they have. Deeney hasn’t had the career he’s had based on just his talent. It’s the fire and drive they have to win and be the best that allows these fellas to make it as high in the game as they do, but sometimes they need protecting from themselves. I see it in the NFL all the time. Those lads needed to be protected for their own good because they’d lie about concussions just so they could stay in the game. They’d get smashed on the head, be down on the floor seeing stars and when the physio would get there they’d say “it’s my knee”. I’ve heard loads of NFL players talking about how they’d say they were ok and that they can’t even remember the rest of the game. The NFL now has people sat in a box whose job it is just to watch for potential head injuries and they will send down the order that a player needs to be assessed for a concussion, and if he has signs of one then he can’t go back in the game. David Luiz yesterday would 100% have been pulled from an NFL game, and clearly footy has a long way to go to catch up. Deeney is far from the only footballer who thinks like that, although most of them are aware enough to not say it publicly. Meanwhile, Klopp gives us a little more clarity - if you can call it that - on Thiago’s situation. He didn’t damage ligaments or break anything, but whatever the injury actually is (they haven’t said) it hasn’t improved at all since it happened and he still can’t train. Some days he can do a bit, others he can’t do anything. This is fucked up. Klopp said he’s still a few weeks away but what difference is a few weeks going to make if it’s as bad now as when he did it? I really don’t like the sound of this at all and it feels like we’re heading into a situation like we had with Gomez a couple of years ago when he ended up having an op months after the initial injury because they didn’t know what the problem was initially. We won’t see Thiago before Christmas, I’m fairly sure of that. Fucking dirty Everton cunts. Tuesday Dec 1: L 1 Ajax 0 Ah football. That’s how I remember it. What a boss game that was and not a VAR review in sight. I loved how Ajax didn’t give a fuck about who we are and just went and played their own game. They played really well I thought, but they were so wide open on another night we’d have scored five. The forwards were sloppy throughout though and Curtis was our most likely scorer all night. He’d gone close twice in the first half and he made it third time lucky after the break with a boss little finish. The kids were great tonight. Kelleher didn’t do anything I wouldn’t expect a Liverpool keeper to do, but given that not all Liverpool keepers have been able to do those things in recent years so you’ve got to be happy with what he did tonight. Yeah he made some saves, but what I liked most was he just looked in control of what he was doing and he radiated confidence. I haven’t really seen that for him in the cup games he’s played prior to this but goalkeepers do take time to mature and develop and even at 23 he’s still a baby. Great night’s work for him though and also for Curtis and Neco. We expect Curtis to play well but I was made yup seeing Neco bounce back like this. I think a lot of people have forgot just how impressive he was in his first half a dozen or so games. He’s not been too good since the first lockdown ended but tonight was the Neco we want to see. I read some comments from Lallana last week about Neco and how unfair it is that he’s been getting stick. He said that when Neto was first called up to train with the team most of the lads had no idea who he was, but immediately they were wondering why they hadn’t seen him at Melwood before before he was so good. That’s the thing for me. If these lads weren’t good enough they wouldn’t be here. Klopp could have signed players for the squad but instead chose to promote young players because he believes in them. It’s not like when he first got here and just had to make do with what he had. These kids aren’t making up the numbers, they’re training at New Melwood because Klopp wants them to be a part of the squad. And if he thinks they’re good enough then I’d say he’s probably done just about enough for us to trust him, no? We’ll see several more of the kids next week now because we’ve won the group with a game to spare, which is a refreshing change. We’re down to the bare bones in midfield and defence now with all these injuries, so next week is a chance for Cain, Clarkson, Rhys Williams and a load of other kids to get a senior appearance to their names. I’d imagine Tsimikas, Origi and Minamino will start too as they badly need games because they’ve looked well off the pace when they have played. Wednesday Dec 2: So fans are back in Anfield this weekend. I didn’t qualify for the ballot on account of living a 2 minute drive away from an area that did qualify. That’s fine though, there has to be a cut off point and I’m just outside of it. *Shrugs* whadayagonnado? TLW’s own Dan Thomas qualified though so I’m excited about that. I knew I had no chance of getting a ticket but Dan getting one is the next best thing. This must be exactly how Jimmy and Henry felt in Goodfellas when they heard Tommy was getting made. They knew they could never be made on account of them being part Irish. Only 100% full Italians could be made guys so Tommy getting his button was the next best thing. Hopefully Dan’s story has a better ending than Tommy’s did. Now I’ve got an image in my head of Dan walking into Anfield, all excited, then suddenly seeing there’s no-one else there and going “oh shit”. Saw an interview with Trent today where he spoke about how competitive he is and that is what drives him on to improve. “I’ve always found the competitive side of playing to be really beneficial. If I want to work on long-range passing, then I’ll turn it into a competition as that’s how I get the best out of myself. I’ll challenge someone, saying: ‘I bet you can’t do this’, and make sure that mine’s better.” Yep, we see that all the time when LFCTV put out videos. Trent is the worst loser you’ll ever see. He takes everything ultra seriously and his toys come out of the pram all the time when he doesn’t win. It’s great, especially as he hardly ever seems to win when they do those random challenges or quizzes, or playing FIFA. Doesn’t matter what it is, he’s always moaning about something when he doesn't win. He lost again on this week’s episode of Wingmen. Him and Robbo had a quiz and Trent lost, with the forfeit being he had to post an inspirational voice message to the player’s WhatsApp group ahead of a training session. It was fucking hilarious to be fair, but they missed a trick by now showing us any of the replies. That was the first thing I thought when he sent that message. We needed to see how it was received by the rest of the lads otherwise there wasn’t really much point showing us that. It got me thinking anyway. I reckon most of the foreign lads didn’t even know it was a piss take and will have replied with thumbs up emojis. Gini will have posted a 100 emoji, a bicep emoji, a fist emoji and five flame emojis. Gini loves his emojis. The savvy Milner will have known what was going on and will have posted a crying with laughter emoji. Curtis will have replied "Lad WTF lad???" Sadio, bless him, will have heard it and got all fired up and will have replied “Trent’s right boys, let’s do this”. Minamino won’t have had a clue what was happening and will have just posted “Taki!” Mo will have immediately forwarded the voice message to Lovren. Can’t believe they didn’t let us in on the responses though. Poor show that lads. Once again though, Wingmen proved to be a highlight of the week. It’s great, I love it. Hendo was in this one and his straighten routine was fucking hilarious. The best bit was when Trent had to do the speech and Hendo said “do you want me to do it for you?” because he knows he’s boss at them. Robbo then says “he is great at motivational speeches to be fair” and even Trent goes “yeah he is”. Hendo fucking rules doesn’t he? He reckons him and Milner would do a better show than Trent and Robbo. I’m not sure they would but I’d certainly like to see it. “Middlemen” - come on LFC TV, make it happen. Thursday Dec 3: Fell down a Maradona rabbit hole on youtube again today. Saw something that really made me laugh. It was an interview with him when he was talking about Italia 90 and he referenced what I mentioned the other day about when he asked Napoli fans to support Argentina. There was more to it than that, as he explained. He said “I told them that for one day they want you to be Italian. Then for the other 364 days in the year they’ll go back to calling us Africans.” Then he starting laughing his head off at the memory and said “They went mad. They went loco!!!” It was boss. Firstly because he was 100% right in what he said about how Italy treated Naples back then (and probably still does). They did refer to them as Africans and you can bet that Diego bringing that up will have touched a nerve with the Neopolitans. Secondly, I loved it because even though that incident changed everything for him in Italy and caused him a lot of pain, suffering and humiliation, he was sat there laughing his cock off about the memory of how Italy reacted to what he said. Saw something today that Harry Winks might be looking to leave Spurs. I’ve always thought he’s a bit over-rated, which makes what I’m about to say seem somewhat contradictory. I think he’d look great in our midfield. How can I say that if I think he’s over-rated? Because while I think he’s been good for Spurs, but nothing special, I see what Klopp has done for so many players and I look at Winks and his style of play and I could see him being dynamite for us. Not that we’re going to sign him, I’m just saying that there are loads of players out there who would go from being good to great just from playing in this team. Look at Jota for example. Everyone looked at him and thought “yeah he’s a good little player” but nothing more than that. No other top teams were banging down his door, he wasn’t even going to be an automatic selection at Wolves this season as Podence (Jota’s clone), Neto and Adama (my boy) were all fighting for the same spot. Yet he signs for us and immediately his game is elevated by about ten levels. I could see Winks being the same, and there will be loads of other players out there in the same category. A few of them will be playing against us on Sunday. Podence, Adama and Neves. All good now, all would be great if Klopp got his hands on them. Not Conor Coady though. Klopp’s great but he can’t turn water into wine. Friday Dec 4: Virgil posts a picture of himself in the gym starting his rehab. It was meant to be uplifting but it just made me sad and angry. He has to spend the next six months in the gym after having his entire knee rebuilt, while the reckless little cunt responsible for it is allowed to continue to go out there and concede daft goals in his mediocre little fucking team. It’s proper shit this. Jeez, Klopp looked rough as fuck in his presser again today. This has been going on for a couple of weeks now. He looks tired, bedraggled and he doesn’t have his usual upbeat demeanour. Something is just a bit off with him lately. He looks like I feel. In terms of what he gave us on injuries, Naby and Trent are both back in full training now but he more or less said there’s no chance for them to start but maybe they could be on the bench. That’s good as it means they can start next week if needed. Ox is closer too. Every little helps at the moment. Still no Shaq though. What the fuck is up with him now? Is it his calf again? I don’t think they’ve given us any detail on what it is have they? I know Klopp said it was a muscle problem from international duty, but which muscle? Obviously there was nothing on Thiago. Let’s face it, we won’t see him again in 2020. I know I keep saying it, but I don’t think I’ll ever not be boiling over with anger about what happened that day at Goodison. We could win every trophy there is to win for the next ten years and I’ll still be fucking raging about that derby. Not enough was made of that. It feels like it’s all been forgotten now except we’re left to deal with the aftermath of it, with no Virg, no Thiago and two points less than we have actually earned. Dirty Everton cunts. Speaking of whom, how funny is this! The other day I wrote “they aren’t going to show Burnley v Everton” in that 12.30 slot. Tomorrow’s early kick off on BT is Burnley v Everton! I’d love to see the viewing figures for that compared to when we’re in that slot. That will show once and for all why all of Klopp’s complaining isn’t going to make a blind bit of difference because the bottom line is the Reds pull in more viewers than anyone else. Staying with the Blues. Chippy Tits Joe and Derek Hatton have been arrested for corruption and intimidation of witnesses. I for one am shocked that these two might not have been acting completely above board all these years. Shocked I tells ya! and that was the week that was….

After we had two points stolen from us at the end of the Brighton game I wasn’t in the best of moods and unsurprisingly had pretty much zero interest in watching any footy for the rest of that weekend. And I didn’t. I’m catching up on it now although I did know most of the results. In fact, I knew the result of Man City v Burnley before it even kicked off. Ok, that’s not quite true as I thought it was going to be 6-0. It almost was but City had two goals disallowed and had to settle for just the 5-0. That was on right after our game and although I wasn’t watching it, the TV was still on while I was mooching around doing other things. When I saw Burnley’s starting line up with no Nick Pope I knew there was only one outcome here, and that was a massive City win. You see here’s the thing about Burnley. We know they can be difficult to play against for a lot of teams but they’re an absolutely perfect opponent for Man City. If Guardiola was to create the perfect team for his boys to roll over, whatever he came up with would give them more of a test than Burnley. The Clarets have zero pace or skill in the midfield and forward positions and therefore pose no counter attacking threat. And how do you hurt Man City? Counter attacks, of course. The only way Burnley can potentially hurt Man City is with set plays but you aren’t going to win enough of them when you’re being pushed back into your own penalty for most of the game. So Burnley are like a big ol’ slow heavyweight boxer who no longer has a knockout punch. Putting them up against Man City is like when Homer fought for the heavyweight title against Drederick Tatum. They just stand there taking punch after punch after punch and the only hope they have is that eventually Man City might break their fist on their big dumb old head. That never happened, and City won 5-0 against Burnley at the Etihad for the fourth time in a row. Burnley would actually just be better off forfeiting this game and taking a 3-0 loss. Elsewhere, Everton’s stuttering title challenge *sniggers* suffered another blow as they lost at home to Leeds. It finished 1-0 but Leeds fucking battered them and could easily have won by three or four. They look good and the early season hype about them seems justified. Leeds I mean, the early season hype about Everton was fucking laughable. Cracking game this by all accounts. I’ve only seen the MOTD highlights but I caught bits of it on the radio and they were raving about how entertaining it was. Loads of chances at both ends (but far more for Leeds) and Everton had two goals ruled out for offside by VAR. Both correct decisions and both would have been given by the linesman anyway. My boy Bamford had one ruled out for offside too before Leeds eventually broke the deadlock when the lively Raphinha fired in from 20 yards. Even after taking the lead they kept throwing men forward looking for a second and they almost got caught on the break. That’s just all the more reason to like this team though. Leeds are fun. Meanwhile, across Yorkshire Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder still has “three subs and one point” after they were beaten 1-0 at West Brom. The Baggies hadn’t won all season but everyone is beating the Blades at the moment because they just can’t score. Even in this game they missed two or three absolute sitters (Mousset somehow missed an open goal from two yards out). They didn’t deserve to lose but that seems to be the case most weeks now. It feels like they get beat 1-0 every game. Last season must feel like a lifetime ago for them. I’m pleased for Bilic that he’s finally got a win. I like him. I don’t think his team have a snowballs chance in hell of staying up but maybe I’m wrong. Palace were without Zaha for their home game with Newcastle. Wilf’s got the ‘rona, but then has the Newcastle squad did too so that balanced itself out. First thing I saw in the highlights of this game? Another camera save by that fraud Darlow. Shot straight at him, pushes it away then flicks out the legs, arches the back and flies through the air. Twat. Palace dominated the game but didn’t take their chances and paid the price late on. Callum Wilson broke the deadlock with two minutes left and Joelinton added a second in stoppage time. Wilson was a great signing for them as he’s exactly what they needed. Some players just seem like a perfect fit for certain clubs and Wilson was made for Newcastle. Their fans aren’t happy with Bruce though and I sort of understand it as he is incredibly negative. Thing is though, those same fans moaning about Bruce fucking idolised Rafa who is basically the same guy but with much better PR. Bruce is no more defensive than Benitez but he is picking up more points. Yet one is demonised while the other is loved. What makes it even more baffling is that Bruce is a Geordie and lifelong Newcastle fan. Nobody knows how to get the local media onside better than Rafa though. Shit, he employs people specifically to do just that. Maybe Steve Bruce should give Owen Brown a call? Results aren’t going to win the fans over so maybe getting Rafa's self proclaimed "Minister of War" will do the trick? Onto Sunday now and Southampton had United right where they wanted them before completely shitting the bed in the second half. Bednarek headed the opener and then Ward-Prowse doubled their lead just before half time. I was listening to this in the car and when they went over to St Mary’s because Southampton had a free-kick, I said to Adrianna “listen to this now, it’s about to be a goal for Southampton”. And it was. She was like “how did you know???” and I just shrugged and said “I know football, it's my job” and left it at that. Cool. As. Fuck. She was less impressed a few days when we went to pick her mate up from the bus stop. Her mate's name is Rihanna, and it was pissing down that day. So you can probably guess the rest. That's right, she gets in the car and I go "Hi Rihanna, it's lashing down out there. Did you not bring an umbrella-ella-ella-eh-eh-eh" Rihanna laughed a little awkwardly while Adrianna sat there and fumed. I have no regrets. Anyway, my clairvoyance in the Southampton game wasn't actually that impressive really as a free-kick to Ward-Prowse is like a penalty to most players. He’s lethal and I honestly fully expected him to score. De Gea probably should have saved it though, but he’s shite these days and only seems to be able to make saves with his feet. He injured himself trying to save it and was replaced by Dean Henderson for the second half. He might not get his place back now as this might be the opportunity Solskjaer needed to get Henderson in. Tell you what was weird. I’m watching MOTD now and when Henderson came on I found myself saying “is that what he looks like?”. I’d never have been able to pick him out of a line up, even though I must have seen him play at least a dozen times when he was at Sheffield United. Has he had a facelift or something? It was another half time sub that made the difference though. Cavani created one for Portuguese Gylfi and then scored two himself, including the winner in stoppage time. Fair play, that was a good comeback from United. If Southampton could defend they’d be nailed on for top six. They can’t though, which is why they’ll do well to stay in the top half. Afterwards Cavani got himself in hot water by using the term ‘negrito’ on social media. I’m not sitting in judgement on him as there’s not a chance there was any racist intent to what he said and I feel like it’s pretty fucking arrogant of the English to judge what a word means in another language. Translating a word that means one thing in one language and then applying the meaning it has in our language is a nuanced issue. Cavani wasn’t using that in any kind of negative way, it’s a term of endearment where he comes from. Should he be aware of what could happen when using that term though? Maybe, he’s close to Suarez and knows how all of that went down and the massive stitch up that was involved, but really I just struggle to give a fuck about this as it’s a nonsense and making an issue out of it cheapens the real fight against racism. Still, it’s fucking hilarious seeing United fans bending over backwards to make excuses and telling everyone about how certain terms are meant affectionately in Uruguay and should not be translated literally. The stench of hypocrisy is overwhelming. Cunts. Sunday’s big game was Spurs v Chelsea and it went perfectly from our point of view. We didn’t want either of these winning so a 0-0 draw was just what the doctor ordered. Awful game, a proper Mourinho ‘masterclass’. Lampard and Mourinho really don’t like each other anymore do they? Nothing happened here, there was no kick off or needling like last time they met, but you can just see it with the coldness in the handshakes. There’s no warmth of friendliness there between them, which is weird seeing how they had so much success together. As much as we all know what a twat Mourinho is, I reckon this frostiness is totally down to Fat Frank who has outed himself as a bad bellend since he got that job. Chelsea went closest to winning it but Werner’s goal was ruled out for offside. Not by VAR, but by the linesman. It was tight but the linesman spotted it and put his flag up. This is what I’m saying. The linos are generally very good and don’t need VAR, which only seems to be brought in to give decisions that are so fucking tight they should just be given as onside. Go back to how it was. The refs might all be shite but the linos are actually really good at their jobs. I see Arsenal lost again. The wheels have come right off since they won at Old Trafford and had Tim Cahill declaring Arteta a genius. Roy Keane wasn’t having it and he finally got to gloat this week as Sky had him working the Arsenal game. Everything he said about the Gunners was dripping in either dripping in disdain or sarcasm. It was great. Talking about how the “Arteta cheerleaders” were out in force after they beat United and then quipping “I think they’ve got enough to stay up. I think they’ll be ok”. It’s just a pity they didn’t have Cahill on with him so Keane could have directed the ‘cheerleader’ comment at him, as that was blatantly what he was referring to. Keane looked mortally offended when Cahill was embarrassing himself by talking up Arteta like he’d just produced some kind of masterclass. He sat there seething until eventually he had to interrupt with “how many games have Arsenal lost already this season?”. However many it was, it’s more now. They’ve only taken one point since then and Wolves were good value for this win. Neto got the opener, Gabriel equalised and Podence got the winner. My boy Adama caught the eye for pretty much the first time this season. He was really sharp which isn’t good news for us as we welcome him and Wolves to Anfield this weekend. That’s going to be a tough game, it always is when play these. I know I keep saying it, but its mad the way they’ve just replaced Jota with an exact replica. Its scary how Jota-like he is. He runs like him, moves like him, he’s two footed and he basically plays exactly like him. And like Jota, he’s fucking brilliant. Has Jorge Mendez discovered cloning? Would anyone be surprised if he had? He knows how to make money this fucker. If there are any flies on him they’re paying fucking rent. Even Neto is like a Poundland Jota. Or a Neto Jota if you like. If he has discovered cloning, can he make another Adama and send him our way? The biggest thing to come out of this game though was the horrific skull fracture to Raul Jiminez following a clash of heads with David Luiz, who also ended up going off with a concussion. A terrible shame as he’s fucking boss. I enjoy watching him but there has to be a real chance that we might not see him play again after this. So much of his game is about his aerial prowess but how is he going to able to attack a ball with his head again after this? Even if it was medically cleared, psychologically how would you do it? I defo couldn’t, I’d be gun-shy as fuck. I hope he makes a full recovery and is back playing soon, I just fear that won’t happen. It has sparked discussion again about concussion in football and what needs to be done. One of the things being suggested is a concussion substitute that doesn’t count toward the regular sub count. It seems like a good idea but I promise you that if that is brought in, you’ll have cunts like Mourinho instructing players to feign head injuries so he can make an extra sub. I’m fine with that rule coming in, but any player who leaves the field with a concussion should automatically be ruled out for seven days, just like in the NFL who are light years ahead of footy when it comes to this issue. The heat is increasing on Arteta now and no amount of Tim Cahill caressing his balls is going to help him now. He needs results and performances, because Arsenal look fucking sterile as shit right now. They’ve got loads of good attacking players but they can’t score goals. Arteta is being exposed. After the Wolves game he was banging on about how many crosses they put in and that if they keep doing that they’ll win games. Jesus Christ, he’s gone full Moyes. Everyone knows you never, ever go full Moyes. Still, it just shows you once again, when Everton touches you…. Finally, Monday night. Fulham beat Leicester and they deserved it. It was no fluke. They’ve been playing pretty well for most of the season but that defence is so bad it undermines anything they good they do at the other end. And they are doing some good things. Lookman opened the scoring when he finished off a nice counter attack. Then they were awarded a penalty when Bobby Reid touched the ball past Fuchs and was clumsily kicked by the Leicester man. On first viewing you probably wouldn’t have given that if you’re the ref because it was difficult to see from his position. As soon as you saw the replay though it was clear that it was a pen. VAR was useful in that situation and it’s decisions like that one that strengthen the case for keeping it. Not for me though, I’d rather my team not get that penalty if it means no VAR. It’s always been a part of the game that sometimes you get penalties and sometimes you don’t. It’s only really a big problem when you don’t get the blatant ones. Anyway, Fulham actually converted a spot kick for once to go 2-0 up and although Leicester pulled one back in the second half through Barnes, Scott ‘Scotty’ Parker’s men held out for a huge three points. Initially I said they’d finish bottom and might smash the record for the lowest points tally. More recently I said they’d finish above West Brom but still go down. Now I’m not so sure. Their defence is terrible and will probably be their undoing, but one thing I have to say is that they look like they’re well coached and so I have to give Parker some credit. He might actually be a decent manager. I’m not prepared to go there yet but I’m preparing myself for the possibility. The other game on Monday saw West Ham beat Villa. Ogbonna headed West Ham in front but Grealish drew the visitors level with a run and deflected shot from distance. Bowen won it for the Hammers with a flicked header. Trezeguet missed a sitter and then Watkins missed a pen. Justice there as I didn’t think there was enough in that to give a penalty. Sight tug of the shirt but not enough to impede the forward who took a clear dive. Not a VAR call that though, the ref gave that himself. Watkins smashed it against the bar though and West Ham survived, not least because of an incredible shit VAR offside call against Watkins. His arm was adjudged to be slightly ahed of the last defender, but the only reason that was the case was because the defender was pulling him back and he was having to struggle to free himself When he did that, his arm strayed offside! VAR looked at it and they disallowed the goal. Yet more evidence as to why this fucking farce can’t be allowed to continue. There’s just no way that isn’t a goal. None. Villa were absolutely fucking robbed there. If you’re disallowing the goal then give them a penalty for the pull by the defender. This is just so shit. Every week we see two, three, sometimes more games completely ruined by this fucking nonsense. As an aside, I just realised that I don’t like that Watkins. I’m trying to think why that might be and I’m fairly sure it’s because he seemed way too cocky when he was scoring those goals against us.