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We should have won that but in the end we didn’t deserve to. I’m still trying to process how I feel about it two days later. Well, I know how I feel. I’m disappointed and frustrated. I’m just not sure how disappointed I should be. Being massively frustrated is justified though, for a variety of reasons. The draw was definitely a fair outcome as Chelsea were fairly comfortable in the second half all things considered. A minute or two before half time if you’d offered me a draw I may well have taken it as we were a goal down and not really looking too great. Then everything was turned on its head with the pen and sending off and because of that it’s hard not to think this was a missed opportunity. It’s a better point for Chelsea than it is for us but it’s not that bad a point for us either. Not losing the big games is vital. If you can win them then all the better. Chelsea are a good side and them going down to ten men didn’t really help us much on reflection. Don’t get me wrong, if you offer me that scenario again I’m taking it 100 times out of 100. I think it made it much easier for us to not lose the game but also made it more difficult to win. Going down to ten greatly reduced any attacking threat Chelsea might pose but it made it a whole lot tougher for us to break them down because their focus became almost entirely about defending, and they’re very good at it. I don’t think any other team in the league would have coped as well as they did in that situation against us. When you have a load of high quality players who are well drilled and focusing solely on not conceding, it’s really fucking hard to break down. When it was 11 v 11 it was a more even game but because of that it could have gone either way. We’re usually at our most dangerous when things gets a bit wild so we’ll never know how the second half had played out if Reece James had been allowed to stay on the pitch. We’d started brilliantly but went behind against the run of play with a goal that I’d say was pretty much impossible to stop. A six foot three lad runs to the near post and flicks on a ball that is delivered right on the money, then that flick fortuitously loops right over everyone into the far top corner. How do you stop that? You can’t. That was a kick in the nuts as we were well on top until then. Elliott had started superbly and was inches away from his fist goal with a rasping low drive that went just past the post with the keeper scrambling. Hendo missed a glorious chance when he was picked out by a phenomenal ball by Trent. He tried to side foot it on the run with his left foot and got it horribly wrong. It was really interesting that Harvey was given the nod to start and that as a result of his inclusion Hendo was on the left of the three. It’s a massive vote of confidence in the kid because Klopp could easily have gone with Keita or Thiago and then kept Hendo in his more natural spot. The significance of this is huge I think. Elliott might actually be number four in the pecking order for midfield spots now. I say four rather than three because I expect Thiago to come in soon once he’s back up to full fitness, but Elliott being selected to start against as tough an opponent as we’ll face this season definitely tells us a lot about how Klopp views him. The link up on the right between him, Mo and Trent looks really promising but it also needs some work because it was a little too predictable with all of them wanting to play inside. Trent did regularly go outside to get crosses in but generally there was too much play cutting back into the middle where Chelsea had packed the box. I didn’t think Hendo looked comfortable on the other side either. He was ok, but it seemed to take something away from him as he’s not usually on that side of the pitch linking with Robbo and Sadio. Usually it would be Keita, Jones or Thiago. Maybe it’s worth having a look at Harvey on that side next game and get Hendo back in his best spot. Anyway, our bright start kind of fizzled out a bit after Chelsea scored and it didn’t feel as though we were making much headway against them. And then they began to threaten on the counter, which gave the game a completely different feel to how it was in the opening 15 minutes. I didn’t like how it was going and when Mount missed a good chance to make it 2-0 there was a definite feeling of edginess around Anfield. How Robbo managed to avoiding getting a touch on that as it flashed across goal I’ll never know, but when he retires from footy he should give ‘Dodgeball’ a go as that was impressive. Harvey had a chance to level when a loose ball dropped to him in the box but he leant back and skied it into the Anny Road end with his right foot. Klopp was forced into a substitution when Bobby felt something in his hamstring. He’d been recalled at the expense of Jota, something that was widely expected but was still probably unfair on Diogo as really what more could he have done to keep his place? I was on board with bringing Bobby back in but even if he hadn’t picked up an injury I’d have been thinking about making that change at half time anyway. Not because he’d played badly. He was fine. His touch seemed good, he was working hard and trying to get involved, but it wasn’t really working. Not even through any fault of Bobby’s. It just seemed to me that the areas he was wanting to play in were being patrolled by Kante and Jorginho and Chelsea were letting them deal with him, meaning he wasn’t dragging any defenders out of position and creating space for Sadio and Mo. That’s not Bobby’s fault, it was just good tactics by Chelsea. So yeah, I’d have wanted Jota on because he’ll be that bit more direct and play up against the defenders. His first involvement was to win the corner that would completely change the flow of the game. He drove into the box past two players and a third knocked it off his toe and behind. After that, carnage happened. In real time all I can remember was Matip winning a header on the back post and it hitting the bar, and then there being a massive scramble that left me wondering just how we hadn’t scored. I didn’t even see all of our players appealing for something because I had my head in my hands. Then I saw there was a VAR check so assumed it must have been handball. I certainly didn’t see it at the time, but then neither did Anthony Taylor and he was stood right there looking at at it. I’m down the other end of the stadium. So I have an excuse. What’s his? VAR told him to go and take a look, which he did and then quickly came back on to award a penalty and show a red card to James. Having since looked at replays of it I’d say it’s the right call because it’s a handball that prevents a certain goal. I don’t think James deliberately handled, I just think his movements were instinctive. Either way, that has to be a red card and a penalty. There is no leeway for the ref there, it's not a judgement call whether to send him off or not. I’m not in favour of that rule and I’d change it if I could. I’ve always said in that situation I’d just give a goal. That’s probably difficult to enforce when the handball isn’t on the line, but when it’s as clear as this and you can say with 100% certainty that if it isn’t handled it’s a definite goal, then just give the fucking goal and get on with the game. I’ve felt that way since an incident in my playing days many moons ago. When I say playing days, I was working for Gulf and we had an office footy team and used to play ‘friendlies’ against other companies that we had dealings with. One of them was ‘Geest’ who sold bananas. They were our big rivals and I had a great record against them. The other big rival was ‘Palmer & Harvey’ and my record against them was not so great. In fact, I hadn’t ever scored against them and it was starting to get in my head a bit. Then one night we’re playing them and the ball is played to me on the edge of the box. My first touch flicked it over the defender and with my second touch I lobbed the keeper. The ball is dropping just under the bar for a Bergkamp-esque goal when a defender runs back and punches it out from on the line. The ref gave a penalty but I wasn’t the penalty taker so I was robbed of a goal and I lost my shit about it. “Just give the goal, it was going in anyway”. “I can’t do that, I have to give a penalty”. “Well why aren’t you sending the cheating cunt off?” I demanded. “Because it’s a friendly”. “Well if it’s a friendly you can give the fucking goal then and not a penalty”. I was up in that ref's face in a way that even Azpilacueta would have been uncomfortable with. I don’t even know if we scored the penalty. I don’t think I even watched it as I was sulking about having a goal taken off me. Back then I was very much of the “it doesn’t matter who wins as long as I score” mentality. Like Harry Kane without the diving and drool. But I digress. Back to the incident. Taylor had no choice really. It was clearly a penalty and if he gave the penalty he had to produce a red card. This wasn’t something that was at his discretion, it was a black and white issue and his hands were tied. The way he handled everything else afterwards was fucking pathetic though. Starting with the immediate aftermath of the red card and then continuing throughout the entire second half. There was so much going on that I couldn’t see half of it. I just saw lots of pushing and shoving in the box as Mo tried to put the ball on the spot, but I was mostly watching James who wouldn’t leave the field. He was just stood there, crestfallen and feeling hard done by. Then Robbo gently pushes him in the chest and I’m fairly certain will have said “off you go pal”. James eventually trudged off but all hell was still breaking loose in the box. Taylor produced one yellow card, which I assumed must have been for the keeper because he wouldn’t go back on his line and was delaying the kick. Turns out it was one of the defenders. Really it should have been about six of them. I’ve watched it back this morning and it’s even worse than I thought. Taylor should be embarrassed at how he was bullied by those Chelsea players. Weak as piss that. Rudiger and Azpilacueta (busy little cunt, the Spanish Gary Neville) were distracting him while Mendy went right up and stood in front of Mo, staring him down. By the time Taylor realised what was happening, instead of yellow carding the keeper he tries to get him to go back to his goal, which he does, incredibly slowly and with both of his arms raised up the air trying to distract Salah. It’s just a clear booking. That’s how you stop that shit. You get your card out and then start saying “who’s next?” until they get the message. Taylor let Mendy get away with it which meant he was then able to boot Hendo as he tried to retrieve the ball after it went in. He got a yellow card for that, but it should have been his second. And of course Azpilacueta was then in the middle of all the handbags and started crying that Hendo wasn’t also booked. Booked for what? Being kicked and not smiling about it? Twat. He’s the one Chelsea player that’s a throwback to when the entire team were bad cunts. Credit to Mo for keeping his cool despite being made to wait an age. So after being behind suddenly we were level and playing the second half with a man advantage. At least that’s what we thought. We were actually a man down because Taylor and the short arse little fuck running the line on the Main Stand may as well have been wearing Chelsea shirts in that second half. If the first half had lasted another five minutes we’d have scored. Chelsea’s heads had gone, our lads smelled blood and the crowd was as loud as I’ve heard in a long time. Maybe not being there for 18 months has made me forgotten how loud Anfield is, but this felt exceptional. The half time whistle saved Chelsea as it allowed them to go in and regroup. They did that and despite losing Kante to injury they were solid as fuck in that second half. Of course we had some chances and we had a spell of pressure where it really felt like a goal was coming, but Chelsea weathered the storm and by the end they were comfortable. Our left side was especially disappointing. Robbo didn’t really get forward much and I’m putting that down to him not being 100% yet. He eventually made way for Kostas but I’d have brought him off earlier. I’d have taken Sadio off as well if we’d had anyone on the bench that could have replaced him. We didn’t though, because Jota was already on and that’s it as far as forward options are concerned. We can’t go out and bring in another big hitter because we already have four front line forwards. Surely we can find someone that’s going to give us more than Origi though? The problem is we’ll need to sell him first and that’s proving easier said than done. Mané couldn’t do a thing right in that second half. He was trying to be positive and he was looking to run at Azpilacueta whenever possible, but Chelsea always had a second or third player over helping, and Sadio kept coming inside into trouble. On the other side Mo was doing likewise, and it just never felt like a goal was coming. Mendy pulled off a few routine stops that he made look far more difficult than they were but we didn’t test him enough. Probably the best chance we had fell to Mo and he hit a weak shot with his right foot that barely even reached the keeper. My Dad may not sit next to me anymore but even from his couch miles away I could almost hear him scoff “I could have hit that harder with me cap”. A set-piece felt like our most likely goal source but we couldn’t get Virgil a clear run at anything as he was being fouled on every corner kick. I hadn’t noticed it in the first half as our corners were down the Anny Road end and I didn’t have a great view of them, but at half time I saw in the group chat someone saying how Azpilacueta was just blocking Virgil on every corner and not even looking at the ball. So I was watching out for that in the second half and sure enough it happened every single time. He was just fouling him constantly. Taylor did nothing about it until the last couple of minutes, and even then he may as well not have bothered. He spoke to them to say he was watching, the corner came in, Azpilacueta grabbed Virgil, then took a tumble and Taylor blew for a Chelsea free-kick. Great job, yer baldy manc ballbag. His second half performance was a disgrace. Don’t mistake that for me blaming him for us not winning as that’s not my point at all. We had our own failings that we need to work on, but Taylor and his Main Stand Lino were blatantly favouring Chelsea that entire second half. The difference between first half and second was night and day. Taylor began the game refereeing the way we’ve seen all season so far. Letting things go, not giving any soft fouls and generally telling players to get up and get on with it. There were a few he let that go that were blatant fouls but it felt like it was generally the same for both teams so that’s all good. The second half though? Fucking hell, could he have made it any more obvious he was trying to make it up to Chelsea after the sending off? Just one soft free-kick after another. But only one way, interestingly. And that cunt linesman was complicit in it. Trent was tripped up right in front of him and he waved play on. The most blatant foul you’ll ever see and he gave nothing. A few minutes later Harvey nutmegs Alonso, who falls over backwards and lands on the ball. Harvey is trying to dig the ball out from under him, Alonso is trying to stand up and is obstructing Elliott but he is completely off balance and falls down under minimal contact. Suddenly Jimmy Crankie has his fucking flag up. Just blatant favouritism. Here’s a stat for you. We didn’t get one free-kick in the second half. NOT ONE!! Even though we had all of the ball, playing against a team who were defending for their lives. Not a single foul. Here’s another stat. We attempted 20 tackles and Taylor awarded free-kicks for 13 of them. Chelsea attempted 30 tackles and only two of them were given as fouls. Bent. As. Fuck. Klopp tried to change it up by bringing on Thiago for Hendo and then belatedly turning to Kostas, but it made no difference. Again though, Harvey being kept on while the captain got the hook felt significant to me. I know Klopp is saying it’s about minutes in pre-season and that he’s going with the fittest players, but even allowing for that it’s still a huge call rolling with the 18 year old kid over all these senior players. Harvey must be blowing the fucking doors off in training. He was the pick of our midfield but he wasn’t the star man. That was Virgil. Fucking hell, talk about dominant. He treated Lukaku like he was a little kid, just manhandling him and throwing him around. Matip did too, other than one moment in the first half when he rashly tried to nip in front of him to nick the ball and got rolled. That almost led to a goal for Mount, but apart from that one moment Lukaku was completely kept in check by the two centre backs. They both made terrific blocks to prevent him getting shots on goal too. Virgil looks all the way back now. Against Burnley I saw a couple of things that made me think his timing was still a little off, especially challenging for long balls, but this was just a supreme display of how to deal with a top class forward. Because Lukaku is top class. He’ll get criticised for not doing much in this game but there’s a reason for that. He couldn’t do anything because although he may be really good, borderline great even, he was up against two world class defenders, one of whom is a generational talent. And Virgil might be too for that matter. Ok, all joking aside, Matip is a fucking brilliant defender but no-one outside of Liverpool seems to get that. In fact, many of our own fans don’t get it either. I absolutely guarantee you there’ll be some FIFA nonces out there who think Konate should be playing with Virgil. It’s criminal how under-rated Joel is. What a player he is. We even had a customary Mad Matip Moment too, when a free-kick was given against him and he lost the plot because he knew it was a dive. Just look at him go! So in summary, I thought we played really well in most areas of the game but we didn’t do a great job in and around the box. I’ve been saying this for years, but it frustrates me how when we face opponents who are defending the width of their box and playing deep, we don’t just constantly try and get round the back and smash low crosses across the six yard box. Too much of it was aimless crossing or trying to go through the middle when it was all too tight. We’ve got the players to do it but they all seem to want to cut inside all the time, which presumably is because that’s what is expected of them and what they work on in training. I’d just like to see us play where the space is a bit more, which is out wide. Work some overloads, get to the byline, cut it back. Man City have won four titles in five years doing that shit. Of course there are other reasons they have won those titles too, but the point stands. Then again, they couldn’t get round the back against Chelsea either so maybe it’s not as simple as I’m making out. One thing I do know is that we’d have won this game easily if Frank Lampard was still in charge there. The fucking bum. Tuchel knows what he’s doing and he’s got a squad rammed with top players. Chelsea’s bench for this game was fucking ridiculous and they didn’t even have Pulisic available. We’ve got a better best eleven and if we can avoid too many injuries I expect us to win the title. If it comes down to a war of attrition and who has the deepest squad though, Chelsea are going to be right up there. Ultimately we won’t know for a few months whether this was two points lost or not. It feels that way now, but who knows, maybe not losing is the main thing at this stage. This international break can fuck off though. Just when we were getting back into the swing of footy being back we have as needless week off for this shit. Hate it. Leeds away next. Potentially tricky but in reality it shouldn’t be. Play well and we’ll win easily. All depends on the forwards though doesn’t it? When they’re sharp we win. When they aren’t, that’s when it’s more up in the air. The question is whether we’ll have a new forward option to choose from by the time we play again? Time is running out but if we can shift Origi then who knows. Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson (Tsimikas); Fabinho, Elliott, Henderson (Thiago); Salah, Firmino (Jota), Mané:

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.