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Weird game this. We never looked like ourselves and we definitely can’t say we played well, yet we dominated the game, hit the woodwork three times and saw two other certain goals prevented by heroic blocks. Inter basically had one and half chances and scored from one of them. Contrary to much of the post match analysis we’ve seen, we deserved to go through over the two legs but the way we did it definitely leaves something of a bitter taste. We didn’t exactly back door our way in to the last eight but we certainly didn’t roar into it either, in the way that Bayern did for example. Ultimately though it really doesn’t matter. This ‘defeat’ will bother me for a few days but then it will be forgotten as there are no consequences to it. It hasn’t hurt us other than maybe knocked the aura of Anfield invincibility a touch. It may even help as it shows what can happen if we aren’t at full throttle. So what went wrong? Well it’s easy to point to all of the near misses and put it down to one of those nights, but there was more to it than that. We never looked right all night, especially at the top end of the pitch. The passing wasn’t sharp, the movement never looked right and the forwards seemed to lose the ball every single time they had it. That’s maybe harsh on Sadio as he wasn’t bad, but Diogo and Mo were shite in the first half. Mo got better after the break and his second half display was fine, but Jota just couldn’t get going and frankly I’m amazed he lasted 80 minutes before eventually making way for Diaz. Inter were feisty and positive and made life very difficult for us, but they didn’t threaten much. They pressed us well and they passed around our press, but they just seemed a bit toothless up front. Sanchez was given the nod over Dzeko and to be fair he rolled back the years and put in a quality performance until his costly sending off. I’ll get to that in a bit. The energy and desire showed by him really took me by surprise. I don’t know how he’s done for Inter but I remember how fat and shit he was at United. This was more like the Arsenal Sanchez though. Lively, skilful, hard working, he was popping up fucking everywhere. I was really impressed. Some will say he should have been sent off for a high, studs up challenge on Thiago. I would say he certainly could have been sent off for that, and it looks particularly bad on the freeze frame of the moment of impact. But watching it at full speed I’d say a red card would have been somewhat harsh, simply because there was a lack of force behind it. It was a rake of the studs rather than a full force, dangerous impact challenge. The ref could have justified a red if he’d wanted to, but for me a yellow was just about right. It’s one of the few things the prick did get right all night. What the hell was wrong with him? He’s been refereeing at the top level for donkey’s years and he’s done loads of our games. I had a generally positive view of him before this but he was fucking hopeless. At one point I was thinking Inter had paid off another ref, but then he sent Sanchez off who dispelled that theory. He was not biased, as I’m sure Inter are just as baffled by a lot of his decisions as we are. He fluctuated from giving no free kicks at all to giving them for absolutely nothing. They weren’t major decisions, thankfully, but so many of the minor decisions were just completely wrong. As an example, Virgil was about to head the ball clear and was blatantly shoved in the back and missed his header. Such an obvious foul, but this clown said play on. A second later Dumfries is taking a tumble after minimal contact from Robbo (I’m not sure he touched him at all) and not only is he giving a free-kick but he’s booking Robbo, who is immediately pointing to where the Virgil challenge took place and is yelling “THAT’S A FOUL!”. There were loads of things like that, it was embarrassing to watch at times he was getting so much wrong. The worst decision (or I should say non-decision) of the night was when a defender just barged into Mo from behind and flattened him about a second before the ball even arrived, and he gave nothing. That is legitimately one of the worst calls I’ve ever seen. It was genuinely incredible. He definitely didn’t help but as woeful as he was I’m not using him as an excuse for how we played. In fact, he probably made life easier for us by sending off Sanchez. Again, that’s a decision that you can give or you can ignore. You can say it’s a yellow because he caught Fabinho with his follow through, but if I’m honest I absolutely hate that decision. Sanchez wins the ball and his follow through isn’t high, it’s basically on the floor as he tries to pull his foot down to avoid contact with Fabinho. We shouldn’t be giving cards for those. We shouldn’t even be giving free-kicks. It’s different when the follow through is high, but I think that’s harsh. Maybe I need to just get used to it though as that’s the way the game has gone. It had a huge impact on the game because had just gone ahead on the night and we were set for a potentially very edgy last 20 minutes or so. Their confidence was now up after that brilliant strike by the otherwise anonymous Lautoro Fernandez but almost immediately the wind was taken out of their sails with the sending off. Actually Fernandez had another chance just before the goal. A much easier chance, but it hit Robbo on the heel and deflected wide. Given how shite he’d been over the two games it was a surprise when he rocketed one into the top corner. Bad goal from our point of view, as Joel gave it away cheaply and we never dealt with what came next. Hell of a finish though. When they scored I was worried. Not massively so as I expected a response from us and we were still ahead in the tie, but there was concern there because of how we’d been playing. If the sending off doesn’t happen when it does, who knows how this tie would have gone? So I didn’t blame the Inter coaching staff and subs going mad about it. One of them was sent to the stands for taking his protests too far, although Simone Inzaghi stayed fairly calm, to his credit. Imagine Simeone in that situation! That decision killed any chance they had because there was no way ten men were going to complete the comeback against us. So any concern I had when they scored disappeared when Sanchez did. I was hoping we would avoid defeat though as losing at Anfield is something that massively bothers me now because our record here is so great in recent years (at least when fans are present). We’ve been on such a great run of late that it’s something ideally you’d want to keep going, but then losing a game that doesn’t actually matter can be a good thing in the long run. We just didn’t look right and there were lots of examples of it. Whether it’s Joel’s weak ball down the line that led to the Inter goal or Robbo failing to beat the only covering defender with his cross when it was easier to bypass him and pick out one of the three team-mates that were running into the box unopposed, it was evident all night from most of the team. Two of our better players were Jones and Thiago and they were the first ones to be subbed. I didn’t agree with that but at the same time I do think Henderson and Keita gave us more control than we had previously. Then again, Inter were down to ten men so that made a big difference. I liked what I saw from Curtis but I don’t think we got him the ball enough. He looked bright and sharp when he had it but we couldn’t really build up any momentum as every time the ball went the forwards they invariably lost it cheaply. Thiago was involved more and he played well I thought. He won the ball back brilliantly on a few occasions with slide tackles and I assume his withdrawal was just a precaution following his injury. It did surprise me that with five subs to call on that Klopp didn’t make a change up front earlier. To me the game was crying out for Diaz but maybe because we were still creating chances Klopp wanted to see how it played out. Mo hit the post twice and it just one of those nights for him. I don’t think he did anything wrong with either chance, it’s just unlucky really. The first one comes after some lovely play by Thiago. Jota challenged the keeper and his punch fell to Mo. It looked like the goal was gaping but there were defenders back on the line so he had to try to place it in the corner and it hit the post. The second one was from a lovely pass by Sadio and Mo did everything right with the finish, it just didn’t go in. It happens, but far better it happens in this game than in the league. Diaz eventually came on and looked great again. He looked like he’d salvaged a draw for us late on but Vidal arrived from absolutely nowhere to make a block. That typified Inter’s resilience. Woodwork great last ditch defending was the main reason we lost this game. In the first half they survived a couple of major scares too. Joel headed against the bar and then Virgil had a goal bound header blocked by a defender. He didn’t know much about it but his desire to get in front of his man and try to impact the play probably deserved some reward. They defended very well and they had luck when they needed it. Sometimes that happens. There’s no cause for concern at this point although there’s no denying that ee weren’t at our best last weekend against West Ham and we were off it again in this one. It’s possibly a result of winning the League Cup Final and then dropping off just a fraction in terms of focus and intensity. We’ll get it back, hopefully soon and before it actually does cost us. Star man was probably Trent. His set-piece delivery was great, as was most of his crossing in general, while he also made some decisive contributions defensively. It’s going to be interesting to see how many changes Klopp makes this weekend. I don’t expect too many but who knows, he’s done it before where he makes eight changes out of the blue just to give us fresh legs. I don’t know if tiredness has contributed to the last couple of performances, but if it has then maybe we’ll see sweeping changes at Brighton. Personally I don’t think it is tiredness, but it’s probably worth freshening it up at least a little. Hendo will come back in after not starting this one, we might see Konate too. We have to see Diaz as he’s the liveliest of all of our forwards right now, and certainly the one who loses the ball the least. Since Potter arrived there Brighton have played us as well as anybody has but that needs to stop now. We need the points but we also need a performance. Hopefully this kick up the arse we had against Inter will refocus the team and get us playing our football again. Alisson: Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson; Fabinho, Thiago (Henderson), Jones (Keita); Salah, Jota (Diaz), Mané:

Monday Feb 28: Soaking up the content from yesterday. That’s the great thing about when we have a big win. You get to enjoy the moment but then you know the day after there’s so much more to come. Fans videos on social media and the brilliant stuff the club puts out too. Just so much to digest and savour. There’s loads of stuff I didn’t see yesterday, mainly because we did the podcast soon after the game so I didn’t get the chance to watch the post match two or three times like I normally would. You miss so much at the time because you’re still so caught up in the moment, but I’ve watched loads of it today. Klopp’s dancing is great. It’s completely natural for him to act like that but I don’t think there’s another manager in the league who could pull that off without looking like a knobhead. He’s so unique in that regard. He’s a figure of immense authority and he commands total respect, yet he can bounce around like a fool without losing any of that respect. Normally figures of authority distance themselves from those they have authority over and conduct themselves in a certain way. That does not include throwing shapes to Dua Lipa. Yet Klopp can act like a big soft kid and somehow no-one takes the piss and the aura of authority and respect he has is unaffected. He’s a special human being. Not as special as Alisson though. That man is a saint. Him bringing that kid up for the trophy lift was just an incredible gesture. There’s an interview with the kid today where he explained how it all came about and it really highlights what a lovely fella Alisson is. If he’s not consoling upset team-mates he’s giving fans an experience they’ll remember for the rest of their lives. Other things I noticed from the post match was that some lads who weren’t involved were a little subdued in the celebrations. Nothing wrong with that, everyone reacts in different ways and if Ox and Curtis don’t feel like dancing around like crazy fools because they didn’t play then I get that. Ox was sat on his own reading his phone while Ljinders was leading the dressing room dancing. Div wasn’t involved in that either although he was sat there, cool as fuck, smiling and tapping his feet. He got on the pitch though didn’t he, so it’s different for him. The big exception to all that was Kostas, who was front and centre in that Ljinders dancing video. He didn’t get on but if you didn’t know that you’d never guess based on the celebrations. He was everywhere, and never left the skipper’s side when it came to getting the trophy. He was like a Greek Josemi. Except I didn’t resent Kostas being there front and centre. In fact, I loved how enthusiastic he was about it all. No wonder he seems to be everyone’s best mate, he’s the life and soul of the party isn’t he? That clip of him teasing the fans by pretending to walk away only to then turn and run towards them with the trophy was hilarious. He did it about three or four times too. He’s mad him. Other notables. Harvey with his pyro was hilarious and has made for some amazing photos that I’m sure he’ll have on his wall soon. He might get in trouble for that but it’s worth it. I also loved seeing the lads make sure Taki got his moment in front of the fans with the trophy. Completely deserved that was. I love Taki, any time you see him he’s smiling. Tuesday Mar 1: Abramovich has reportedly but Chelsea up for sale and wants rid quickly. This is so fucking transparent what’s happening here. The Tories have tipped him off that they’re going to have to sanction him and seize his assets but they’re giving him enough time to stash away as much cash as he can before the sanctions hit. It stinks. I saw an article today discussing how it will impact Chelsea if they aren’t sold, because he won’t be allowed to invest any money into the club. Didn’t he stop doing that years ago anyway? Pretty sure Chelsea have been self sustaining for some time now, they aren’t Man City. Usmanov is also being looked into and may have his assets seized even before Abramovich. Whether that includes Everton or not fuck knows. Would they even be classed as an asset? He should probably be forced to keep hold of them as punishment. Meanwhile, Kelleher gets his picture on the goalkeepers mural of champions. I love this, it’s such a cool idea. I love even more than when Alisson was told he wouldn’t play at Wembley his first thought was that it was a chance for Kelleher to get on that wall. What a man. He’s a fucking saint isn’t he? City beat Peterborough and had the added bonus of a Championship club beating Spurs, ensuring easy passage for Flat Track Pep’s men in the next round too. If we get through tomorrow we’ll play Chelsea. No, you haven’t missed anything and the draw didn’t take place tonight, I’m just predicting the inevitable. Wednesday Mar 2: L 2 Norwich 1. Job done. Good performance for about 70 minutes and then the intensity dropped and it got slightly edgy when they scored. It never felt like they’d get a second though as when they scored it just refocused us and if anyone was going to score again it was going to be us, as Diaz was looking like the tits again. Klopp made 10 changes and we won the game, so that’s a perfect night really. It’s a cup so getting through is all that matters and if you can do it while giving almost the entire starting eleven the night off (Ali and Hendo being the exceptions) then that stands us in great stead. Winning a quadruple is almost impossible, no matter how good you are. The reason being that to win a cup you need a significant amount of luck. We had luck at Wembley last week and if we’re to win the FA Cup there will be a game in which luck plays a part. Look at every team that has ever won a treble and you’ll see moments along the way where if things had gone slightly different it would never have happened. Us in 2001 for example. Needed pens to win the League Cup. Needed Henchoz’s goalkeeping to win the FA Cup and the Alaves game was just so wild that anything could have happened. But the luck went our way in all of those. We’ll need similar if we’re to win a treble or quadruple this year too. But it could happen. It probably won’t, but it definitely could. Because not only do we have an incredible team but we’ve seen this season that the team behind the team can get a job done too when needed. Players like Kostas, Taki, Divock, Milner, Gomez, Jones and the rest are just slotting in and doing what we need them to do. I’ve got a huge soft spot for Minamino. He’s such a good little player but to get a starting place in this team (especially up front) you need to be one of the best in the world. Taki is never going to be first choice for us and he’s an intelligent lad so he’ll be aware of that. The great thing about him is he’s embracing the role he has and is making the most of every second he gets on the pitch. His goals per minute numbers this season must be off the charts. I think he’s scored seven goals now but it feels like he’s only started half a dozen games. I’d let him stay here for as long as he likes. If he wants to leave for more football then fair enough, but if he’s happy to fill this role then let him. Players like that are worth their weight in gold. Same with Origi. I hope they’re both still here next season. How great was Curtis tonight though? Made up for him as he’s responded brilliantly to his cup final disappointment. Excellent in the game before, left out of the final and then sensational in the next game. That’s what you want. No sulking from him. Hopefully that knock is nothing too serious and he can build on this. There was a funny moment in the coverage tonight when Wright was talking about the ‘This is Anfield’ sign and how cool he’s always thought it was. He said when he played here he always used to touch it but had to do it on the sly when he was going out to warm up because he didn’t want to seem disrespectful. Keane is looking on, unimpressed, and when he was asked if he touched it he scoffed “No, because it’s childish”. Wrighty was arguing that is isn’t and Keane says “what did you get out of touching it?”. It was classic Keane. Wrighty loves the Reds though, you can tell. Meanwhile, the u19s progressed in the kids Champions League after a penalty shoot out win over Genk. Wasn’t a great performance but they were without Bradley, Morton, Beck and Gordon so they were never going to be at their best. Harvey could play in this too if they wanted. He might feature in the latter stages, who knows. I was wrong about the FA Cup draw by the way. We got either Forest or Huddersfield and City got a trip to Southampton, which is a most refreshing change. Thursday Mar 3: So am I missing something here, or is this Chelsea sale a blatant breach of FFP? They owe him 1.5 billion quid and he’s writing it off, therefore he’s essentially just injecting that amount into the club. He won’t be doing that out of the goodness of his heart, and compared to what he spent buying them, he’s not going to be out of pocket. Not unless you believe that guff about all of the proceeds of the sale going to charity. Of course John Terry had to post a pic of him and his pal Roman on Instagram. That’s about as on brand for ‘JT’ as it gets. And yet it wasn’t even the least surprising thing of the day. That was that Amamda Staveley twat coming out and expressing sympathy for Abramovich and saying “it’s unfair” that he has to sell Chelsea. Fucking hell. “I’m really sad today that somebody is going to have a football club taken away because of a relationship they may have with someone. I don’t think that’s particularly fair, actually, to be honest”. Of course she thinks that. Some people are so blinded by money they see nothing else, and this cunt would have joined up with Hitler to buy a club if there was a few quid in it for her. There are some proper fucking lowlifes who own football clubs these days, yet none of them get the same grief from their fans as our owners do. I mean this evil fucking witch has a mural dedicated to her in Newcastle. No, I’m not kidding. They painted a fucking mural of her and her name is regularly chanted because she’s seen as their saviour. Fucking sports washing. It works. At least it does if you target the right fanbase. By that I mean the thickest ones. The thing that bothers me most about the sports washing is that for some reason these fans feel the need to defend their owners and fight their battles for them. If a City fan says “look, I don’t like what our owners do but I can’t do anything about it and just want to enjoy the footy” I can understand that. It’s when they feel compelled to defend them from valid criticism that we have a real problem. We’ve seen it with Chelsea and Abramovich, City with their owners and I promise it will be far worse over the next few years with Newcastle. Give those thick fucks a bit of success and they’ll strap bombs to their fat bellies and go over to Yemen if their new owners asked them too. Then you have us. FSG only have to do something a little bit questionable and we’re ready to riot. They wanted to furlough staff and we fucking savaged them and forced them to back down. Are we the only fanbase with any kind of social conscience? Friday Mar 4: On that note, I’m no FSG apologist and never have been, but I’m not much of a critic of them either. I’m on the fence really. I don’t particularly like them but as far as potential owners go, I doubt we could do better. Not in terms of them being palatable as people anyway. Most user rich people are arseholes, it’s just varying degrees of how much of an arsehole they are. And ours are really at the mild end of the arsehole scale. If they went what would happen? We might get some oil knob heads who would pump billions in and sign Mbappe, Haaland and whoever else, which would keep the twitter fam happy but would be off putting for most of us. So yeah, we could and almost certainly would do worse than FSG if they sold up. And that was how I felt BEFORE I saw the accounts from the COVID hit year. After seeing that, the only conclusion I can draw is that we’re a seriously well run club. Only £5m losses in a year when no fans were in the stadium? Virtually everyone else was making massive losses, but we’ve come through that while still adding Thiago, Kostas, Jota, Konate and Diaz. We haven’t sold any of our important players to fund it either. Looking at those accounting figures there are two things that jump out at me. How well run our club is and how close we now are to United in terms of finances and income. That gap has closed massively, yet get this, we’re £100m behind City!! Now here’s the thing, legitimate income is based on the size of club and the number of fans. Look at the rich list and its mostly the global superpower clubs. Why? Because they have the most fans, which means they’re more attractive to sponsors. So they get more sponsorship revenue, they also tend to have bigger stadiums that they can fill, which also increases revenue. So you get Real, Barca, United, Bayern, us, Arsenal, Chelsea, PSG, even Spurs. The outlier is City. They can’t fill their stadium, do NOT have any significant worldwide fanbase to speak of, and yet here they are, with £100m a year more revenue than us because of bogus sponsorship deals set up (and paid for) by their owners. Yet somehow that isn’t being deemed as suspicious by the wider footballing world? Honestly, it’s a fucking disgrace. The numbers are there in black and white. There is not a single reason why City would be wealthier than anyone else other than having super rich owners illegally funnelling money into the club. It can’t be explained in any other way than it’s just blatant cheating. Give it a couple of years and Newcastle will be there too. Possibly at the expense of Chelsea, although I refuse to believe that Abramovich and his oligarch pals like Usmanov will end up coming out of this any worse off. The world doesn’t work like that, evil rich cunts always win. If I had to bet on it, I’d say this time next year he’ll still own Chelsea and all this will have blown over for him. In other news today, I see a number of Reds getting excited about the news that Ruben Dias is out for 6 weeks. I don’t think it means that much as he’s nowhere near as great as he’s made out to be and that player of the year award he got last season was a fucking farce. Probably the most undeserving winner since Giggs. Him being injured is good for us, not because he’s that great but because it leaves them with three centre halves instead of four. Plus they still have Fernandinho who can fill in there. If they lose another one though then that will get my attention. Speaking of centre halves, LFCTV ran an interview with Konate today and it was great. He didn’t say anything earth shattering, but he just seems like such a fun lad who is having the time of his life here. They showed a lot of clips from the cup final celebrations I hadn’t seen before and it was noticeable how many of the lads went over to him to congratulate him on what I think is the first trophy of his career. He’s already become an important part of this team even if he doesn’t play every week. ….and that was the week that was.

For once Everton made a fight of it against City but the outcome was still the same as always. Usually a defeat by City is cause for celebration but this time the Blues were FUMING because 1) they needed the points, and 2) they got absolutely screwed by one of the worst decisions of the season so far. I say one of, because I still say the non-pen on Jota at Spurs was worse. Interestingly it was the same ref and same VAR involved. Maybe this time they'll face some punishment? Still rankles they got away with that Spurs game while Kevin Friend was punished for giving one in our favour that was nowhere near as egregious. Absolute bullshit how these manc refs get so much protection. I’m not going to waste any time talking about the game itself as I didn’t watch it live and after seeing the handball incident all over twitter I was even less inclined to watch. The one comment I’ll make is that this is more evidence that City aren’t all they are cracked up to be. This narrative about them being so fucking amazing needs to stop. They needed proper shit VAR decisions to bail them out against Wolves, Arsenal and now Everton, and let’s not forget that VAR almost came to their rescue last week too before Spurs went and won the game all over again. It’s hard enough competing with the financial doping but we also have to deal with officials doing them regular favours too. This is really simple. It’s something I said loads of times last season. The reason officials are giving some of these decisions is because they want to, or as in this case, don’t want to. This is nothing new but it has become much more obvious now because of VAR. Previously there was always that element of doubt because, y’know, refereeing is incredibly difficult and bad decisions are a natural consequence of the job. Refs make mistakes, but VAR was supposed to fix that. It hasn’t, because refs are human beings and human beings often have bias and favouritism. Sometimes this isn’t so obvious because often these are decisions that could go either way. Whichever way they give it, someone is going to be upset, but most of the time they will call it as they see it. Not all of the time though. And not all referees. Some of them are dodgy as fuck, with Kavanagh easily at the top of that list. Previously refs could hide behind the excuse of being shit, but VAR has removed that safety net. Paul Tierney can still hide behind it, not least because the referee on the pitch does not always have a good enough view to make certain calls. So like I said after the Spurs game, this isn’t on Tierney, it’s on the twat in the VAR room who didn’t help him out and instead left him out there facing the music. There’s no hiding place now when you can view incidents from multiple angles and slowed right down, and still somehow completely fuck it up. So Chris Kavanagh didn’t make a mistake (as Mike Riley told Everton in the laughable apology he gave them). There was no mistake, he knew what he was doing and he ensured he got the outcome he wanted. I don’t even see how there can be any doubt about that. Firstly, literally everybody else who saw the incident - including some of the most pro-Man City people out there - said it was handball. The only person who disagreed was Kavanagh. People can speculate over his reasons and suggest his bank account needs checking etc but I just think it’s a case of some referees favouring the team they support, which also includes punishing teams who are a threat. So when Kavanagh is stiffing us in that Spurs game, he’s doing so because it helps City. The real question is how the fuck are all these refs from Manchester and surrounding areas being allowed anywhere near City and United games? It’s just a huge conflict of interests. The nearest football stadium to where Kavanagh grew up was Man City. He either supports them or has friends and family members that do. It shouldn’t be allowed, but when a South Yorkshire copper was allowed to ref Liverpool games and repeatedly make controversial decisions against us, then this shouldn’t really surprise anyone. Corruption comes in many forms. It isn’t just brown envelopes or payments mad to offshore accounts. Sometimes it isn’t even about money. That non-decision at Goodison was absolutely not an honest mistake, because nobody is that incompetent. I know some will say that Kavanagh and others ARE that incompetent but it’s just not the case. They haven’t been plucked off the street and made referees. They’ve worked for years at it and worked their way up the ladder to reach the top of their profession. There is absolutely no way someone as qualified as that is viewing that Rodri incident and not seeing a handball. No way. He knew it was handball but he didn’t give it. Why? We can only guess at that. I don’t give a fuck about Everton getting screwed over. In fact I welcome it. But it screwed us over too, so that’s pissed me off. Hopefully that doesn’t prove decisive as I’m sick of missing out on titles because of corrupt calls in City’s favour. Remember the Sterling offside in 2014 that was about five yards on? Then there was the Kompany tackle on Salah that should have been a red card in 2019. I don’t think we’d specifically look back at this Goodison one if we narrowly miss out on the title (personally I’d still be blaming the Leicester defeat, as that was something we could control), but we’d certainly be entitled to. In an ideal world it won’t come to that, but Everton will be relegated because of it. They’ve spent large chunks of the last eight years championing the cause of City, so this would be so ironic even Alanis Morrisette would be raising an eyebrow. Moving on, and Bielsa’s reign at Leeds came to an end after they were beaten at home by Spurs. It took only 10 minutes for Spurs to go ahead when Sessegnon crossed for fellow wingback Doherty to convert. Kulusevski added another five minutes later, He looks good him. They signed him after missing out on Diaz but he’s done well. He’s no Diaz, but he’s definitely given Spurs something. Robin Koch *sniggers* then hit the post as Leeds tried to hit back, but Kane volleyed in number three and it was threatening to get completely out of hand. Leeds were just wide open, as they have been for weeks. Maybe things would have been different if Dallas had wasted a glorious opening presented to him by that clown Lloris. That was so bad, by Lloris and also Dallas. James then wasted a great chance too before Son put them out of their misery. So that was the end of Bielsa then. I’m a little surprised the Leeds board did it because there was no fan pressure involved. In fact, most Leeds fans seem to disagree with the decision and I absolutely get that. The fella put them back on the map and deserved the chance to see out the season and try to keep them up. Their chances of safety have not been increased by getting rid of him because the new fella now has to implement his own style of play, which is going to be quite the upheaval for the Leeds players as no-one else plays the way Bielsa does. They might yet stay up if they get their injured stars back for the run in but that wouldn’t vindicate the decision because Bielsa would have picked up point with his full squad. He just hasn’t had it all season. As for Spurs, they followed this up by losing to a Championship side in the FA Cup. “Very Spursy, it’s in their DNA” said Roy Keane, before adding contemptuously “you can’t trust them”. He’s not wrong, and Keane’s utter disdain for Spurs never fails to amuse me. Leeds are in trouble but so are Brentford, who lost at home to Newcastle. They were reduced to ten men very early on when Da Silva was sent off for an accidental but certainly dangerous bit of play. It was a weird one as he wasn’t trying to make a tackle, he wanted to plant his foot and then pirouette away from his man but he succeeded only in planting his foot on the shin of Matt Targett. It’s one of those that you don’t view as a red card on first view because of the unusual nature of it, but when you look at the replay it’s a definite red and Mike Dean took typical pleasure in brandishing it with a flourish. It was the first time Brentford managed to hit the Targett in weeks. What? That’s what you pay your subs for folks. Joeli N’ton headed Newcastle in front with only his second goal of the season. His first was against Brentford too. They should be relegated just for that really. Willock made it 2-0 with his second goal in consecutive games. He shushed the crowd too. Getting fucking cocky now are we after going six months without a goal? Appalling lack of self awareness. You can take the lad out of Arsenal…. Christian Eriksen made his first appearance since the Euros, which was a nice moment. Hopefully he can help them start picking up some points to take them clear of Everton. Villa ended their recent bad run with a win at Brighton. Not much in the game, chances for both teams but as usual Brighton wasted most of theirs. Cash put Villa in front with a brilliant strike from distance. You could say that was…. the Money Shot. God, I’m on form here. Watkins wrapped it up in the second half. Brighton’s early season form seems a long time ago now. Well, it is a long time ago I suppose, but yeah it feels like they’ve been pretty shit lately. We play them soon so that’s good news. Burnley picked up a really good point away at Palace. That’s not a game I thought they’d get anything from and they fell behind early as Palace started like a house on fire. Burnley equalised seconds after the break when Lennon’s cut back was deflected into his own net by Milovojevic. That’s how it stayed but they might have won but for a great save by Butland to deny Weghorst. The Big Dutchman had a goal ruled out for offside while at the other end Zaha hit the post. I’ve got high hopes for Palace when they play City soon on MNF. They’ve got so much pace and skill in wide areas and if Zaha is on it they’ll give City problems. That Olise is fucking boss too, I really like him. Southampton’s sneaky good run of form continued with a Friday night win over Norwich. Che Adams’ scruffy effort set them on their way. The game was just chance after chance for Southampton but they weren’t taking them and Norwich could have levelled through Hanley. That was a wake up call and Romeu’s stunning half volley made the game safe late on. They also beat West Ham in the cup in midweek and scored some cracking goals in the process. They’re having a good season on the sly. That Ralph Hasselhoff is a good coach, although I feel uneasy about saying that considering he’s had two 9-0 losses in the last couple of seasons. He can fuck off nicking Klopp’s post match celebration though. Not cool. Speaking of not cool, the Hodge took Watford to Old Trafford and went home with a point after a somewhat fortuitous 0-0 in which United should have scored half a dozen. Nemanja Matic still gets games for Man United and I find that hilarious. He was finished about five years ago yet somehow they’re still wheeling him out. There was a Juan Mata sighting the other week too in their FA Cup defeat by Boro. That shocked me as I had no idea he was still there. I thought he’d been shipped off to MLS or Qatar ages ago. Ronaldo had a goal ruled out for offside and that annoyed me to be honest. It was offside and it’s a good spot by the linesman, but he should be keeping his flag down there just for the ‘bantz’ of letting Ronaldo do that lame “SIIIIUUUUUUU” thing which is then copied by 40 year old virgins in United shorts all over the world. If I’m a linesman I’m never flagging against him, just let him celebrate and then have VAR shit all over it. Finally, Sunday’s only league game saw Wolves travel to London to take on West Ham. Both teams harbour slight hopes of nicking a top our spot but Wolves had make like very difficult for themselves with two losses to Arsenal in recent weeks. They deserve nothing after capitulating at the Emirates last week so I’m glad West Ham beat them, the Arteta enabling pricks. Soucek got the only goal of the game which was a blast from the past. Remember last season when he was scoring every week? Feels like he hasn’t scored at all this season. This result, coupled with the Mancs drawing, means West Ham are just two points off fourth now having played the same number of games. If they weren’t playing us this weekend I’d be wanting them to win, but as soon as this weekend is over I’m all in on the Hammers getting fourth. I can’t stand their owners or manager, but seeing Moyes beat United to fourth spot is just too funny a prospect to root against.