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Well it could have been worse. Our losing streak continued but other than City, pretty much everyone else is shite as well, which softens the blow a little. All the media focus seems to be on our bad run but it’s not just us. United, Spurs, Everton, Arsenal… all of them have records similar or worse to ours over the last half a dozen games. Yeah that’s right, Ole’s “flying United” have only won two of the last six and they’ve dropped points to the likes of West Brom and Sheffield United. I’ll start with Spurs who threatened early against City but were eventually just worn down and lost 3-0. Kane hit the inside of the post with a brilliant free-kick but that was as good as it got as Gundogan gave them the runaround. That’s a lot of G’s there. Bit of a tongue twister. City were awarded a penalty when Hoibjerg clashed with Gundogan. I don’t think it was a pen as I don’t see what the Spurs player could have done to avoid that. Not that I’m arsed. I would be if what City did have any relevance to us but it doesn’t, so they can win every game from now until May for all I care now. City are so desperate for a reliable penalty taker now that Rodri has been given a go. All the forwards are shite from the spot and it’s only a matter of time before Ederson is on them. Rodri scored, but only just. Lloris almost had it. Gundogan made it 2-0 when he stole into the box unnoticed to collect a pass from Sterling and toe poked it past Lloris. That’s exactly the kind of goal we NEVER score and it’s what you need to do against a packed defence. Spurs had everyone back, but Sterling held onto the ball and waited for the late run of Gundogan. None of our midfielders would make that run which is why so much responsibility is on our front three. I’m not criticising our midfield players individually, as they’re playing to instructions, but this is why City have so little trouble against mark the bus teams. You only have to look at how we struggle against Burnley and then compare it to the way City put four or five past them every time. Gundogan added another from a brilliant ball by Ederson. What he did to Sanchez there should illegal. I actually felt sorry for the poor bastard. Gundogan has 11 goals in his last 12 games but I don’t see him doing anything that Gini couldn’t if he was given licence to. We hardly ever let the midfielders run ahead of the ball into the box though. To be fair we’ve had a lot of success playing like that, I just think maybe it’s time to tweak some things against the shithouse teams. City have completely re-invented themselves and currently nobody has an answer to it. Eventually teams will figure it out, they always do. That’s why you need to keep evolving. To be fair that’s why we signed Thiago and Jota but at no point this season has Klopp ever been able to pick his strongest team. There’s been some talk that City are thinking of naming a stand after recently deceased City legend Colin Bell. The stumbling block is they’re concerned about the inevitable confusion it would cause as everyone would immediately think of Guardiola whenever they heard reference to ‘the Bell End’. Next up, Burnley smashed Palace 3-0. Gudmundsson scored for the second game in a row to give Burnley a lead after just five minutes. It was 2-0 before 10 minutes were on the clock as Rodriguez headed in a corner. Lowton made it 3-0 shortly after half time and that was a fucking corker of a goal. Surging run past three players, lays it off, continues his run and volleys in the return pass. Goal of the month I reckon. It’s funny because MOTD featured him heavily in the analysis and when they put his picture up I was like “yeah I’ve never seen that cunt before in my life”. He’s one of those players whose name you know but he’s just got a generic footballer face and you’d never be able to pick him out of a line up. Like Wes Hoolahan and half the Brighton team. Speaking of Brighton, they did us a favour by holding Villa to a goalless draw. Actually it was more Villa holding Brighton to a draw as Potter’s side fucking battered them. Villa’s keeper was man of the match and Villa didn’t manage any kind of effort on goal. Villa will still leapfrog us if they win both of their games in hand so this was a good result for us, depressing as that thought actually is. Aubamayeng fired Arsenal into an early lead against Leeds and then doubled their advantage from the spot. That penalty was awarded for a foul on Saka by the keeper after he’d been caught dawdling on the ball, Alisson style. It was a pen, but Stuart Atwell couldn’t fucking wait to give it. Minutes earlier he’d given Saka a pen for absolutely nothing and needed to be told by VAR to go and have a look because he’d made a balls up of it. He checked the screen and overturned his decision. It’s a pity there was no-one to tell him to overturn the fuck ups he made the day before when he was the VAR in our game. Cunt. Bellerin made it 3-0 before half time as Leeds did what Leeds do. They’re either great or awful. But they’re never dull. Two minutes after the break Aubamayeng completed his hat-trick but Struijik thumped a header in from a corner and Arsenal began to wobble. Helder Costa pulled another one back and then my boy Bamford was denied a stonewall pen when he surged into the box and was body checked by Cedric. Genuinely can’t believe that Atwell cunt gave Saka a pen for falling over (I know he overturned it, but he still gave it in the first place) but he ignored that. Honestly, this goes beyond them just being shit. I don’t know what is going on but this isn’t just incompetence. How the fuck Bamford didn’t get a pen for that just can’t be explained. Outrageous. If Leeds had got it to 4-3 they’d have at least drawn that and maybe even won, as Arsenal were all over the place. They regrouped after the penalty escape and held on comfortably. On to Goodison now. The Blues went into Sunday’s home game with Fulham three points behind us with three games in hand. By the end of the week they were still three points behind us but with only one game in hand having lost twice at home. Losing to City in midweek was expected. Losing to Fulham though? Actually that was expected too. Why? Because Everton are shit. I keep telling you this. Now I know I’m running a risk here by saying that because we play them this weekend, but regardless of what happens in the Derby the fact remains that Everton are shit. The body of evidence to support it is fucking massive. If we don’t win this weekend it won’t be because I’m wrong about Everton. It will almost certainly be down to some kind of officiating shenanigans again. The only other possibility is that we produce our worst display of the season, because if that happens even Everton could beat us, even though they’re fucking shit. Fulham are better than their league position. They’ve been playing well for a few months but the results just haven’t matched the performances. Every week they wheel out another player I’ve never seen before though. How big is their fucking squad? Maja put them ahead when he converted a cross by Aina. Never heard of either of them. Maja added a second with a rebound after Everton’s back up keeper failed to keep out a shot by Harrison Reed. He must be shit that keeper because Pickford regained his place for the City game in midweek (and made his customary mistake). Such a shame there are no fans in stadiums as the booing after this one would have been fucking epic. Fulham’s win keeps them just about in touch with safety but West Brom are a long way off despite picking up a point against thew Mancs. They led after just two minutes when Diagne forced his way in front of Lindelof to head past De Gea. Looked a good goal in real time but the replay angle from behind the goal shows his putting his hand in the defender’s face and I’d have been disappointed (but not at all surprised) if that goal had been given against us. Actually it has been given against us. What was the game at Anfield when someone beat Fabinho in the air by pushing his head down? Can’t remember who it was now. Doesn’t matter anyway, as on a list of shitty decisions given against us this season it probably doesn’t even make the top 50. This one was one of those that would not have even been in any doubt if you take VAR out of the equation. In normal speed and from almost every angle it looks like he just wants it more than Lindelof. There’s just that one angle that shows his hand in the face, but usually that’s enough for them if they want to disallow it. You know what happened there don’t you? When VAR was checking it he hasn’t looked at that angle. Decisions like that don’t go against United normally. Fernandez shinned in a volley to equalise just before half time and it seemed all set for United to win it in the second half. They didn’t though, and they didn’t ever really look like doing so. Maybe that’s why Craig Pawson did his best to help them out by awarding a fucking ludicrous penalty after a Maguire dive? Honestly, don’t be telling me that footy isn’t bent. They’re getting penalties for literally fucking anything. The only thing that stopped Pawson from awarding that was that Maguire was offside. It wasn’t even close, he was half a yard off and no amount of line manipulating could have made him onside, so between them Pawson and Jon Moss decided that it was “no foul”. You’re not fooling me you cheating cunts. If Maguire had been onside they’d have stood by the decision. As soon as they knew they couldn’t give a pen because it was offside, Pawson is then all like “yeah I’ve had a look and that’s not a foul”. Fuck off. I know your game, Pawson. Cunt. West Brom had three great chances to win it but blew them all and they almost paid the price when Maguire hit the bar with virtually the last kick of the game. Allardyce is 12 points off safety and there’s just no way they’re pulling that back. Enjoy relegation you mashed potato faced twat. Solksjaer was funny afterwards, complaining about the non-award of the penalty. He wasn’t complaining because it was a pen (although he did say it was a foul when it clearly wasn’t). He was complaining because “it’s clearly offside and if there’s anyone awake in the VAR room then there’s no need to even check for the penalty”. Yep, he’s right and it needed saying. In fairness, Jon Moss was probably on his phone ordering a Just Eat. Southampton started like a runaway train against Wolces. They were all over them and should have scored a couple before Ings eventually volleyed them into the lead. Wolves had offered the square root of fuck all but were then given a penalty out of nothing. Just what the fuck is going on here? I can pick out at least half a dozen virtually identical incidents to this one where no penalty was given. In fact, Southampton got away with the exact same thing in the game against us at their place, yet NOW this is deemed a penalty? Fuck off. Bertrand was fucking fuming about it and rightly so. This was the kind of pen they were giving in the first couple of months of the season until everyone told them to stop being cunts and they went back to the way it was before. So just how can they justify giving that as a pen? Neves scored, Wolves suddenly had a spring in their step and Neto won it with a lovely individual goal. If he hadn’t acted the cunt at Anfield last season when he was giving it the beans to the Main Stand he might be ‘my boy Neto’ by now as I like him, he’s a boss little player. At 1-1 though the ball dropped out of the air and hit Dendoncker on the arm. He wasn’t in a natural position as he’d shoved a Southampton player in the back, causing him to miss the ball, and it hit him on the elbow. How you can give a pen against Bertrand but not give this one, well, I just have no idea. Ian Wright’s take on it on MOTD2 was funny as fuck. Even if you disregard the fucking scandals that we’ve been subjected to, every single week when I’m doing these round ups it’s just bad decision after bad decision after bad decision that is determining the outcomes of these games. Probably half the games this season have been decided by refs and VAR. Someone made a point the other day on the radio that bookies must be making a fortune this season as results are so unpredictable. Hmmm, makes you wonder. Anyway, Southampton have lost a ridiculous number of points from winning positions but when they showed the graphic we were on it too with 11 points dropped from being in the lead. If we’d held onto those leads we’d be five ahead of United and five behind City. Frustrating. Instead we’re now sixth after Chelsea and West Ham both went ahead of us with wins on Monday. The Hammers briefly weren’t fourth after beating Sheffield United 3-0. Declan Rice set them on their way from the penalty spot after Lingard had been flattened. I have a question. How come David Luiz got sent off the other week for a accidental contact on a striker that was clean through, but Egan only got a yellow card for wiping out Lingard when he only had the keeper to beat? There’s no covering defender, it’s as clear a goalscoring opportunity as you can get, but Mason only pulled out a yellow card? I don’t get it. I’m not even saying Mason is wrong because I actually thought this ‘no double jeopardy’ was the rule now. But then Luiz and Bednarek were both sent off the other week and apparently the only reason Ruben Dias wasn’t sent off against us was because Stones was in a covering position. So who’s right and who’s wrong here? Diop headed in number two and Fredericks added a third. West Ham being ahead of us after well more than half of the season has gone might be the most shocking thing to happen to us since the days of Gillett and Hicks. Imagine if someone had suggested that to you in December, let alone August. Chelsea then overtook West Ham by beating Newcastle 2-0 on MNF with goals from Big Handsome Olly and Timo Walcott, who finally scored after about six months of firing blanks. I actually think Walcott himself has more than Werner. I notice Kepa was back in goal. Has Tuchel ditched the new keeper already? Burnley and Fulham drew 1-1 at Turf Moor. Aina put Fulham ahead when he chested in a corner but Barnes levelled with a mis-control that sat the keeper down and then an easy finish. Jammy bastard. Finally, City took care of the Blues without even breaking sweat. I couldn’t be arsed even watching highlights of it. All I’ve seen is a goal that Pickford should have saved. He’s the luckiest man in football right now because imagine the gauntlet he’d be running this weekend if Anfield was packed? You know his head would go completely. Let’s hope it does anyway. If Karma is a thing then he’s going to have another “Origi moment”. Mind you, can Karma overcome bent refereeing? We’ll find out soon enough.

How refreshing was that? All the shit we’ve been fighting through these last few weeks just felt like it could be put to one side as the Champions League returned. I knew we’d win this game. I’m not being wise after the event as I posted on the forum the day before that we’d win. I’d have been shocked if we hadn’t. Why? A couple of reasons. Firstly, that cabal of bent refs who have been undermining us at every turn since the season began would have no influence on this game. It’s a level playing field and on a level playing field there are very few opponents that worry me. Second in the Bundesliga or not, Leipzig aren’t on that list. Secondly, I’ve been talking for a few weeks about 'rock bottom' and whether I felt we’d reached it or not. I didn’t think it was Burnley and that was proven to be right. I hoped it might have been Old Trafford in the cup and briefly it looked as though that was the case as we won our next two games. It was a false dawn though. I knew it wasn’t Brighton because we had Man City and Leicester next. I feared the worst for both of those games and ‘the worst’ is what we got, especially at Leicester. Not ‘worst’ as in performance, but more about how that whole thing went down. We played well until the officials got involved. The finish to that game was just brutal and a shock to everyone’s systems, especially the players. And that’s why I felt that Leicester was rock bottom and that the road back would start against Leipzig. I’m not ready to declare all of our problems are over with, not least because this weekend we’re back in the hands of Premier League officials. Everton don’t scare me one little bit. There isn’t even 1% of me that’s worried about Everton. I have about a 75% concern about the officiating though and that's why it's hard to ever be confident about winning league games now. A lot of it is out of our control. In the Champions League I don’t have that fear. Not because the officials are flawless and get everything right. They make mistakes and we’ve had some terrible refs in Europe. The difference is that any mistakes they make are honest mistakes. They aren’t out to get us. It’s a level playing field and that’s all I ask for. After that, may the best team win. Or the luckiest, whatever. If this was a Premier League game we’d have lost. Performance wise it wasn’t that much different to Leicester. We played some good stuff and were clearly the better side in both games. But there were two big factors in why we lost one and won the other. Officiating and luck. I can’t say this for certain as there’s no way of knowing for sure, but if Premier League refs had been in charge of this game it would have been a different outcome. I saw a comment on Twitter that absolutely nailed it. It was something like “the best thing about playing in Europe is that when Sadio and Mo are fouled we get free-kicks”. Yep. And those little things make a massive difference to games. Refs don’t always stiff you by giving penalties and red cards. Often it’s death by a thousand cuts. Sadio got fouled early in this game and the ref not only booked the lad who committed the foul, he also pulled out a yellow card for his mate who protested about it. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. So THIS is what proper referees do. It’s been so long that I’d forgotten. There was an incident in the second half that jumped out at me too. One of their forwards was running into the box and went around Kabak. Trent was running in to cover and got himself into a great position to block off the run and shepherd the ball out of play. “In the Premier League they’d have given a penalty for that” I thought. Not because it was a foul, but because an opposition player went down in the box and that’s all the excuse they need. And of course, had a penalty been awarded we’d then have to listen to baked bean head Shearer saying “well there is some contact and we’ve seen them given”. And fuck all would be said about the injustice of it because “some you get, some you don’t but they even themselves out”. We were arguably on the wrong end of a massive decision in this game but I don’t have any complaint about it at all, even if I don’t believe the goal should have been ruled out. Sadio probably got to that ball a fraction before it was fully over the line. The still shot of it seemed to suggest it’s an inch or two from going out, but if you’re the linesman there then that ball is out as you have to flag. There’s no way you can really come to any other conclusion as to the naked eye it’s over the line. So no problem with that. Could VAR have over-ruled? Maybe, but it’s so close and in the CL they only really tend to get involved when it’s a clear error. There’s no real definitive angle to show categorically that the linesman was wrong. Besides, on throw ins and goal kicks / corners they never use the ‘whole of the ball has to be over the line’ thing that they do with goal-line decisions. If most of the ball is out then they nearly always rule that it’s out, and morally that’s how it should be. That ‘whole of the ball must be over’ is one of the first things I’d change if I could. I hate it. It's just wrong. To me, once more than half of the ball is over then that’s enough. If you’re rolling a ball over the edge of a cliff, as soon as 51% of it goes over the edge that’s it, it’s gone. Why? Because it’s over and gravity proves it. That’s what it should be on goal-line decisions, not this utter fucking farce we have when less than 1cm of a ball is touching the line so it’s classed as not a goal. So yeah, even if technically Firmino’s goal may have been legit, that’s an honest ‘mistake’ (if you can even call it that) by the lino and I wouldn’t expect VAR to intervene when there isn’t a conclusive shot to prove an officiating error. Anyway, enough about refs. The second thing that was different to our recent Premier League games was just plain old 'rub of the green'. We deserved to win the game because we played the better football and created more chances. That’s been the case for most of the games we’ve failed to win though. Why didn't we win? Because we just can’t seem to catch a break domestically. The change of competition brought a change of luck. Both of our goals came from calamitous errors from the opposition. This kind of thing hasn’t happened for us much in the league. Average opposition players perform flawlessly against us and then the next week I’ll see them dropping a bollock against someone else *glares at Nick Pope*. We had some luck at the other end too. Leipzig had three great chances to score and maybe another three half decent opportunities. They hit the post with one, Alisson made a great save with another and the third one - with the last kick of the game - went wide. On another day, one, two or even three of those go in and we don’t win the game. I’m not saying we were lucky to win this, more that it highlights how unlucky we’ve been at other times. No matter how good you are you still need the rub of the green sometimes. Last season we had it but this year it feels like the only luck we’ve had has been bad. The change of competition brought a change of fortune and I dunno, it just felt more enjoyable watching this game. There wasn’t the same tension that there has been in league games. I think the players felt like that too. It looked like it. They played with less of a burden on them. It helps that Leipzig are a front foot team and wanted to have a go at us. We don’t often get that these days. Everyone seems to follow the same ‘everyone behind the ball and wait for a mistake or gift from the officials’ strategy. I don’t blame them because it’s proved to be successful one. Europe isn’t like that though. I’ve said this before but it’s worth repeating. Virtually everyone you face in Europe is used to having things their own way domestically and therefore they aren’t well drilled in playing defensively because they rarely need to do it. So generally you don’t come up against shithouse tactics, even against the lesser sides. You play against the Slovenian Champions and they’ve probably just won their last domestic game 5-0 and are used to dominating games and attacking. So Leipzig are not going to park the bus against us. Why would they? Teams play to their strengths. They’re currently the second best team in Germany so there’s no inferiority complex there. And them playing the way they did played right into our hands. We were able to press them high and win it back early which released the front three into favourable situations. We looked more like us, because we weren’t having to pass the ball around sideways and backwards for five minutes looking for gaps that aren’t there. Sadio and Mo were a constant threat in behind because there were gaps and because we were winning the ball quickly enough that Leipzig couldn’t get back and fill the gaps in time. They kept trying to play out from the back and we kept nicking it in midfield and releasing the forwards early. I thought we played better in the first half than we did in the second, even though both goals came after the break. Some of our stuff in the first half was great. The passing into the forwards, specifically from Trent, was quality. Thiago was very good with some of his first time passing too, and the only negative from that half was that we didn’t score. We could have. There were chances. Ex Red Peter Gulacsi did well in goal for them. He made a brilliant save to deny Mo when he raced onto a gorgeous ball by Trent. Gulacsi stood up really well and blocked the shot with his shoulder. Mo did everything right there but it was just good goalkeeping. Firmino then shot disappointingly wide after more great play by Trent. Sadio then headed over following some lovely play by Trent, Mo and Bobby in the build up. ’Spider’ Gulacsi (that was his nickname when he was here, no idea why) was beaten by a 40 yard chip by Robbo though and was fortunate to see the ball graze the top of the bar. He ended up in a heap in his own net and it’s incredible he didn’t do himself an injury there as it looked horrendous. Leipzig came out after the break with more purpose about them and I thought they looked quite sharp until they shot themselves in the foot. The midfielder played a blind pass towards his centre back and it went behind him. Salah had anticipated it and was already racing onto it before the defender knew what was happening. He never looked like missing that did he? Total confidence and control. Clinical. Soon after it was 2-0. Jones lofted a ball over the right sided centre back’s head for Sadio to chase. The defender should have dealt with it but he got himself into a terrible mess as he was turned around and Mané was in the clear. I wasn’t as confident in him finishing as I had been with Mo, simply because he’s not been in a great run. This is the Champions League though and what has been happening domestically isn’t a factor. Sadio’s goal record in CL knockout games is sensational and this was another cool finish to add to that collection. Perhaps if we’d pushed for it we could have got a third and killed the tie completely, but the focus seemed to be on seeing the game out and not doing anything silly. Or it might just have been that Ox and Shaw killed any momentum we had. Shaq barely touched the ball and every time Ox did it went straight to the opposition. He’s given us absolutely nothing this season. It’s tough because he needs games to get into some kind of form but we can’t give him them because he’s been mostly useless. You have to say though, if he can’t get a game in midfield with Fabinho and Hendo out of the picture and playing at the back, Keita out of the picture through never being fit and with Milner also out injured, there’s really nothing down for him is there? Great lad, like him a lot, but he’s almost become a spare part now. A shame. We’ll never know how his career would have gone if he hadn’t got that horrific injury against Roma when he was in the form of his life. That chance they missed at the end would have put a completely different complexion on the second leg as not only would it have halved the deficit but emotionally it would have been a huge swing too. As it is, they’ve got a mountain to climb and unless we shit the bed completely we should be fine. It was a little worrying how they got in though. Hendo has been brilliant at centre back but they got in off the back of him twice and on a third occasion he was booked for pulling the lad back. That’s a bit of a concern but it’s to be expected. His first movement is often forward as he’s a midfield player. A natural defender’s first movement will often be to go the other way to protect himself from the run in behind. That chance at the end was partly Hendo letting him run in behind him but also Kabak being a couple of yards deeper and playing him onside. That’s going to happen though isn’t it? You’ve got a midfielder filling in and a new boy learning to play in a different system with different players. It’s not going to be perfect. There’s definitely an argument to be had for introducing Davies as soon as possible now alongside Kabak and getting Hendo back in the middle. I don’t think that will happen, but maybe when Fabinho is back we’ll see either him or Hendo in midfield again. Star man is Trent but I thought Curtis was class too. Very mature performance from him. Kabak deserves a shout too. He didn’t do anything exceptional but he looked solid and secure. I think we have to remember here that he’s actually still a kid. We’re hoping / expecting him to slot in and play like a big money signing and have an immediate impact, but he’s 20 years old and normally someone of that age would not be playing centre back at a top club. He’s going to make mistakes and get caught out now and again because that’s what happens with young defenders. It’s part of the learning curve and if it happens between now and May it shouldn’t really be used to judge him negatively. If he’s doing that when he’s 25 then that’s a different matter. He’s only a few months older than Rhys Williams, but obviously he has much greater experience. I’m just saying, he’s still a kid so let’s remember that. Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Kabak, Henderson, Robertson; Wijnaldum, Thiago (Oxlade-Chamberlain), Jones; Salah (N Williams), Firmino (Shaqiri), Mané: