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The most anticipated clash of the season so far saw honours shared as the Reds were unable to put away a spirited and organised Chelsea side who comfortably navigated the entire second half with only ten men. Ian Brown was on the Kop and penned some thoughts on what we witnessed.... 1. My first thought is what a relief it was to actually make it to the game! I set off 5 hours before kick off for a journey that should normally take around 2 hours but due to an accident on the M62 I got to my seat 5 minutes before kick off. The long queues outside didn’t help and this was the first time i’ve had problems with NFC; it took 3 or 4 attempts for the scanner to read my phone. A few people in front had similar issues. It needs sorting out as this just isn’t sustainable and the club can’t expect people to permanently change their match day routine. Yes, we’re all made up to be back and can make some short-term changes but this needs sorting now. 2. I was really happy with the team selection and especially intrigued to see Harvey Elliott had been picked. I assumed he’d be rotated for experience given the scale of the game but Kloppo gave him a huge vote of confidence and his trust was repaid; I thought Harvey was one of our best players on the day and definitely the pick of the midfielders. There were moments where he could have done a little bit better but for me that was something that will come with more games. As he gains experience and confidence I can see some huge performances from this lad. Earlier in the summer I wanted Gini to be replaced but i’m now completely fine with the situation. 3. I thought we started the game well. Trent's range of passing and his linking up with Harvey and Mo on the right side was a feature early on and we looked dangerous. It was from one of Trent’s raking passes that we created our best chance of the game. The ball was just superb and Hendo really should have done better. He tried to guide it with the side of his foot but got it all wrong. 4. After that Chelsea settled into it and started to look like a really good side to me. They were soaking up our pressure and then trying to hit on the break and looked dangerous. The goal was probably slightly against the run of play overall when it came but the game was becoming more even at that point. I thought the goal had a fair bit of luck attached to it as Havertz was just looking to flick the ball into a dangerous area. Having watched the replay back you can see that they had worked on that particular corner though. Havertz purposely made a run in front of Robbo at the front post and the way the Chelsea players celebrated you could tell it was a plan they had come up with. 5. I wasn’t especially worried about going behind, indeed i’d predicted that we would on the preview pod. As half time approached though I have to admit to being a bit concerned because our attacks were breaking down a bit too easily and Chelsea were creating chances with their counters. Mount missed a decent chance to make it 2-0 and I was hoping to get to half time and make some adjustments. 6. Those few minutes before half time were absolutely amazing! It all started when Jota picked up the ball and just drove at the Chelsea back line and won a corner. From the corner, all hell broke loose. From my spec on the Kop it just looked like your bog-standard penalty box scramble. Matip clearly had a chance but after that it was hard to see what had happened. Something clearly wasn’t right because our lads were going apeshit at the referee (i’ll get to that prick later). It was no surprise when the board came up with a VAR check. The moment the ref goes to have a look you think there’s a good chance you’ll get a decision, although I had my doubts with this prick. He gave the pen but the red card took me by surprise and was a massive bonus. I didn’t once consider that may happen, I was just happy to have the penalty. I know a few people have since said that the rule should be changed because of double jeopardy and all that but having watched the incident back on MOTD I don’t agree with that. For me, Reece James knew exactly what he was doing. He blocked the effort with his arm and scooped it out. It was completely deliberate. Whether it was instinctive or not doesn’t matter, it was a deliberate act that prevented a goal so i’m happy with that being a red. If you deliberately hack someone down in the box when you’re the last man, that’s a red too. Double jeopardy only applies if it’s not deliberate, i.e. you go for the ball in a tackle or the handball is accidental. That wasn’t the case so for me they got this one right (it was exactly what VAR should be used for). Mo slotted the pen and that was basically half time so we had 45 minutes to break them down and lay down a marker. I was bullish at this point; the noise from the Kop in those few minutes towards the end of the first half was just boss! I’ve missed it so much. I had my 10 year old son with me and although he’s been to a couple of games before this was his first ‘big’ game and his first proper Anfield experience in terms of the noise. He was physically shaking from it but had a big grin on his face, it was a real proud dad moment for me to see it. 7. To be totally honest I thought the second half was really disappointing. We had a couple of efforts from long range but the best chances came from a Jota header and Mo with a really tame effort on his weak foot. None of those were big chances though, we really struggled to create. It was clear that they would be hard to break down but I thought we moved the ball far too slowly and were also very predictable in our decision making. It just felt like the ball was moving from side to side at snails pace and it wasn’t especially tricky to defend against. It felt like a lot of the ball came down our left side and both Robbo and Sadio had poor halves. Instead of whipping balls in when we had half a yard, the ball would come back inside and we’d try to create something with intricate passing. That was never going to work, we needed to stretch the game more and move it far quicker. Our lads looked really leggy to me so whether this was down to a gruelling pre-season or not I don’t know; that might be something to keep an eye on going forward. 8. It was really pleasing to see Virgil looking almost back to normal. There were times where the ball went up to Lukaku and he just handled him with ease, almost nonchalantly moving him out of the way as if he was just a kid. You know Virg is getting back to normal when he’s doing that. Joel also handled him well apart from the one time he got too tight in the first half and was easily rolled (I think it was in the build up to Mounts chance?) As I said in the preview pod, our lads are built to handle the likes of Lukaku so I had no concerns on that front and was happy to be proven right for a change! 9. Now onto the referee. I can’t stand this c***, i’m not even mentioning his name. What happened to letting the game flow?! He let the game flow whenever one of our lads went down but when we breathed near a Chelsea player, this prick was whistling. It was absolutely infuriating. Some will say “oh yeah but he gave you the pen and red card” but no he didn’t did he? He missed that, it was the VAR who gave us those, he had no choice in the matter. In fact, he spent the entire second half trying to pay Chelsea back for it. I cannot stand him and shudder every time he gets one of our games. Plenty has been said and written about VAR but thankfully we had it as a back-up to this whopper. I’m not wasting any more of my energy on this gobshite. 10. Overall, a draw against title rivals is a never a bad result however it does feel like a lost opportunity considering the circumstances. A win here would have been great heading into the international break (international football again, already?!) but it wasn’t to be. One thing is clear after this game for me though, we are definitely challenging for the league this year. Chelsea are supposedly a better team than us according to all of the experts and although they did impress me to a degree, it was hardly frightening stuff was it? We’ll be there or thereabouts I have no doubt about that. Ian Brown

Monday Aug 23: Shaq leaves. Good for him, he deserves to play. I’ll miss him though. I’ll miss his happy little face. I love Shaq, always will. And despite the fact he hardly played he still made a big impact and left us with some boss memories. Scoring twice against the Mancs at Anfield, he scored in an Anfield derby and he was part of the Barcelona comeback. He’s left behind a pretty decent legacy, the little fucking legend. Best of luck wee man. The U23s spanked Everton at Hague Avenue tonight. For a minute when I heard that I got excited and thought the lads were back playing at Southport, like in the good old days when I covered the Nessie’s for the Echo and Post. That would be great for me as it’s only 10 minutes from mine now. Sadly not though. It was Everton’s home game. I don’t actually know where our lads play their home games The Academy I assume. Gordon and Ojo both scored, which was kind of interesting as there’s 8 years between them. Ojo was Gordon back in the day but his career has stood still for about five years now. There’s interest in him but I can’t see us getting much of a fee for him in this market. Meanwhile, there’s so much bollocks being spoken about what Klopp said about Burnley and wrestling. Every news outlet is waffling on about it but none of them are actually showing the videos of the incidents he was referring to. “I didn’t see anything in the game” said Jermaine Jenas. “He’s playing mind games” said Lineker. On Talksport today Danny Murphy was “flabbergasted” by what Klopp said. Simon Jordan said Klopp was talking rubbish. The problem here is he’s being lumped in with Solskjaer who was complaining about tackles not being given as fouls as that it’s going to cause injuries. Klopp wasn’t referring to that, he was talking about specific incidents in the Burnley game when players were grabbing our players and throwing them to the ground, or Barnes and Wood barging into the defenders when they were off the ground. Tuesday Aug 24: Another week another new contract. Robbo this time. Good news, obviously. Not so much because he's tied down as he isn't someone you think would ever want to leave anyway. I'm happy about it because it always bothers me how underpaid he is in relation to everyone else. He's arguably the world's best in his position but his pay packet doesn't reflect that. I hope now he's at least getting something approaching his worth as he deserves it as much as anyone. Dyche hits back at Klopp and says it was disrespectful of him to mention individual players. Storm in a tea cup this. All he said was that Barnes and Wood were fouling our defenders all day, which they were! Dyche can fuck off with his patron saint of sportsmanship bullshit. He accused Mo of diving a couple of years ago. He had no qualms about ‘naming names’ then did he, the goateed cunt. Everton narrowly progressed in the League Cup with a win over Huddersfield, who lost 5-0 at the weekend and made a load of changes tonight. Everton are fucking shit and give it a few weeks and their results will start to show that. Wednesday Aug 25: Kane announces he’s staying at Spurs. Well, kind of. He said he won’t be leaving ‘this summer’ which is pretty telling. He’s still planning on trying to force a move in January if there’s any chance, but this ‘announcement’ today is hilarious. Trying to make out it’s his decision when basically he’s been body bagged by Daniel Levy. Arsenal actually won a game tonight. 6-0 away at West Brom in the League Cup. And of course certain players were smelling themselves. Pepe and Lacazette, the pair of fucking losers, giving it the zany celebrations after scoring. No shame at all these absolute fucking bums. If I was an Arsenal fan I’d absolutely despise most of these players, the low expectation having cunts. They haven’t scored a league goal yet and have no points. They haven’t earned the right to celebrate anything. Pricks. Ronaldo is being heavily linked with City now, while in completely unrelated news Guardiola starts talking about leaving City next year to take on a national team role. There’s no way he wants Ronaldo as firstly he’s a Messi acolyte and secondly Ronaldo does not fit how City play at all. Thirdly, Ronaldo has a bigger ego and bigger profile than Pep and that just won’t do either. So why would City want him? To be relevant. Despite their success nobody gives a fuck about Man City and their achievements. Everything they do is tainted and therefore they don’t get the credit and recognition they crave. See how upset they get whenever us or United are getting publicity. They’re Everton with money. Screaming “look at us, someone, please look at us. We’re over here”. But no-one gives a shit about them. Signing Messi last year was all about getting themselves attention and making people take an interest in what they’re doing, and going for Ronaldo now smacks of the same thing. PSG have done it too. No-one outside of France really gives a fuck about them either, although they’re much more relevant than City because they were a big club even before the Qatar money. Thursday Aug 26: Well that CL draw was pretty sweet. Revenge opportunity against Atletico and an Anfield return for Suarez. Porto, who we always beat, and Milan which is glamour tie but not an especially difficult one as they aren’t very good. I reckon Suarez will get a good reception this time. When he came back last time the stakes were fucking huge as it was a knockout, a semi final and he’d pissed us off in the first leg. Anfield was on a knife edge that night and when he started trying to get Virg and Robbo booked the crowd turned on him big time. It was fair game, we were doing what we had to in order to win. I reckon it’ll be different this time. There might be a “fuck off Suarez” chant during the game if he pulls some Suarez shit, but before the game I think he’s getting a bit of warmth. Hope so anyway. Crazy news today as Mendy is charged with four counts of rape. Usually he’s one being raped by whatever right winger he’s facing. Ok, I know, sorry. Poor taste as this is an actual thing and not just rumours. He’s been charged, not questioned. Three different girls too apparently. Fucking awful business. Obviously it made headlines but still, the main City related talking point is their ongoing pursuit of Ronaldo, which now makes even more sense than it did before. It’s the ultimate sports washing move. Make people turn away from the bad shit and look at the big superstar signing. Slight problem here is when you’re trying to distract people from a rape accusation it’s probably not the smartest move to sign the most high profile rape suspect in the world, Prince Andrew notwithstanding. This window is mad though, as Madrid are stepping up their efforts to get Mbappe. I don’t understand how this is even a possibility given their financial state but the problems being experienced by Barca and Madrid are entirely due to them trying to keep pace with the oil clubs because their egos won't allow them to cut their cloth accordingly and they feel they have a divine right to the world's best players. Friday Aug 27: Guardiola says that Spurs just point blank refused to talk whenever they enquired about signing Kane. There have been all sorts of stories about how much and when City made offers, and there have also been extensive, in depth articles about which players they offered. So I reckon baldy is lying again. If he's not though, how much of a fucking badass does that make Daniel Levy! I almost hope it's true because the idea of a club chairman basically just saying "fuck you and your money, there isn't enough oil in the world to make me bow down to you" makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. As I say, probably not true but either way Daniel Levy has bitch slapped Kane and City and for that I salute him. 12 months down the line when they're signing Haaland I'll probably be pinning the whole mess on Levy and his stubborn streak. I'm fickle like that. Staying with City though, and fucking hell, Mendy is facing even more charges and one of them relates to something that allegedly happened THIS WEEK!! This is fucking nuts. He’s had this hanging over his head for ages but the allegation is he’s still doing this shit even now? I can’t get my head around this, the whole thing is mad. Speaking of mad, City missed out on Ronaldo as he signed for United instead. United only went for him because they couldn’t stand the thought of him signing for City. They’re paying him stupid money too. Football currently is completely fucked. You’ve basically got four teams (potentially five if Madrid get Mbappe) spending crazy money and everyone else balancing the books. I don’t especially care that United have got Ronaldo. I don’t think it tips the scales in their favour and it might actually create more problems than it solves. Fernandes and Pogba aren’t getting near free-kicks and pens now so let’s see how they like that. And imagine Solskjaer trying to tell Ronaldo what to do. What I do resent is the happiness I'm seeing from United fans and how excited they are. I want that, I want us to go out and bring Suarez 'home'. Well if United can say they're 'home' to Ronaldo I sure as shit can say it about Luis. It does piss me off that they’ve added £1.5m a week to their wage bill this summer without even blinking. We just couldn’t ever do that no matter how much success we get. It’s frustrating but we have to do things a different way, which is fine as long as we have Klopp. When he’s not here anymore we could quickly end up like Spurs or even Arsenal. I thought Klopp explained the Kostas situation well today in his presser. He said he spoke with him about last season and said the reason he didn’t pick him was because initially he was adapting, then he got injured, then he got covid and by the time he was back the centre of the defence was in such a state of flux it wouldn’t have been fair to put him in. Fair enough. Now things are more settled I think Robbo is going to get a bit more rest than he wants. By that I mean he wants to play in every game and he’ll be pissed off when he doesn’t. I can see him being pissed off quite a bit because we can trust Kostas to do a job when needed. Robbo has to be back tomorrow though. Also liked how Klopp once again explained why he doesn’t want another midfielder in the wake of more reports linking us with Bissouma. I did think he was hinting that he’d still like one more signing if possible though. To me it must all depend on Origi. I’d imagine there’s someone lined up (Bowen or Sarr seem to the the ones most heavily linked) but nothing happens unless Div leaves, and he doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to go. I’m very confident about the season regardless, but if we added another forward (preferably one who won’t be fucking off with Mo and Sadio in January) I’d be positively giddy about our chances. Tomorrow is a really big test though. If we win that it lays down a big marker. ….and that was the week that was.