tlw content

Tuesday Jul 21: This trophy lift is gonna be shit. The lightshow and the pyro is a necessary evil as they’re just over-compensating for no fans being there. I get that, as you need to do something to cover up for the fact there’s no atmosphere and it’s all a massive damp squib compared to what it should be. But Coldplay? Getthefuckouttahere. I’m not thrilled about Kanye West either but if that’s what the players want then fine, they’ve earned the right to choose whatever they like and I’m good with it. Coldplay though? No-one is choosing that, except maybe Hendo. I could see him having lots of Coldplay on his play list and that’s fine because it’s Hendo. Anyone else and I’d be disappointed in them though. There’s a thing on the BBC website where you can pick your greatest ever LFC XI. I always struggle with these things, mainly because I overthink it. What formation are you meant to choose, because that has a huge bearing on which players you select. If it’s two up front then you’ll go Kenny and Rushy, but if it’s a three that changes things completely. What about the midfield? Wingers or a narrow three? There’s also the grey area between ‘greatest’ and ‘best’. For example, Luis Suarez walks into a ‘best’ selection for me but he’s nowhere near a ‘greatest’ one. Similarly, Alisson is undoubtedly ‘best’ but he isn’t yet ‘greatest’. So, for what it’s worth, here’s my ‘greatest’ eleven… Emlyn Hughes was probably the unluckiest not to get in considering everything he achieved (Tommy Smith would also be a strong contender). It came down to Emlyn or Carra but recency bias comes into it, plus the fact Carragher is second on the all time appearance list and that in itself is justification enough for selection. Same with Callaghan who gets in on appearances as well as being a great player and all round fucking legendary fella. There may have been greater players than him but no-one played more games for the two greatest managers ever so how could he not go in? As for the ‘best’ eleven…. This one is much more difficult I think, as medals and longevity don’t really come into it. It’s just about the best players. Right back was the toughest call. I actually think Trent will end up as the best we’ve had by a massive distance but I won’t argue too much with anyone who says that right now Nicol was better, so it’s a toss up there. There’s loads of other truly great players who didn’t get in too. Fowler, Owen, Alonso, Mascherano, Molby, Whelan, Carragher, Hyypia, Mané, Salah and loads of others. I could have put some of them in depending on what formation I went with. Plus, the team you pick as the ‘best’ isn’t necessarily the one you’d choose if you needed to win a game. I’d back our current eleven to win a game against any combination of great players from the past because they are a slick unit and not just a load of randomly chosen talented individuals. That’s why these things are so hard, because they are so arbitrary and there are all manner of different formations to choose from and each one opens up different options in terms of players. Yeah I know, I’m way overthinking this but I can’t just throw a load of names at it and say ‘that’s the best’. It requires more thought than that. One thing I would say is that our best eleven would smash the best eleven of anyone else other than maybe United. No-one else comes close. Wednesday Jul 22: L 5 Chelsea 3 I was wrong. The trophy lift was great, all things considered. It was never going to be how we’ve dreamed of it for all these years as none of us could be there, but I thought it was brilliant. I loved it and I didn’t even notice whether Coldplay was played or not. I’d say this was as good as it could possibly have been without fans, so great job by everyone involved. As for the game, it was a cracker. We haven’t defined particularly well since the restart but at least we remembered where the net was tonight. Some thrilling football and memorable goals, not least the fifth that clinched the game. Andy Robbo is incredible. I could actually make a strong argument for him as Footballer of the Year because he’s brilliant virtually every week. He’ll never win anything like that because he’s a left back, but if I was arguing his corner the question I’d ask the naysayers is this: Who is better at their job in this league than Andy Robertson? Very few are even in the discussion, but he’ll never even make a shortlist of six because of the position he plays and because so many of his team-mates are also great and receive more recognition than he does. I’m not even saying Robbo has been our best player this season (Hendo shades it for me) but just as he was last season he’s right up there with everyone else, whether he gets that public recognition or not. Meanwhile, Mbappe says he’s staying at PSG for another year. Great news as maybe in 12 months time his value will be lower and we’ll actually have a pot to piss in. Maybe. Thursday Jul 23: I was thinking about last night and soaking up all the different coverage of it and one thing really jumped out at me. Graeme Souness, a man who is notoriously difficult to please, is just in absolute awe of Klopp and this team. He is. Every time he’s on Sky he’s raving about what this team is doing and singing the praises of Klopp. He’s actually like a broken record, he keeps going on about the consistency and how he can’t get over it, and when he had a chance to speak to Klopp that’s what he asked him about. I think it’s hilarious. Souness the pundit goes out of the window when he’s covering the Reds these days. And when he got to speak to Virgil he never even bothered asking him anything, he just told him how fucking great he is. This is Graeme Souness, a man who played in some of our greatest ever sides and who won everything. He’s notoriously hard to impress, yet look at him these days, he’s as much of a fanboy as any of us. It’s great and it’s as big a compliment to Klopp and his players as you’ll find because Souness is second only to Roy Keane when it comes to “everything now is shit, it was much better in my day”. Another thing I noticed from the celebrations was how Klopp stood there with each individual player, cheering them as they took turns to lift the trophy. He lifted it himself with Lallana, which was a nice moment for both of them I’m sure. It’s when you see him right in the thick of it all that you realise just how different he is to other managers. Footage emerged today of the spat between him and Lampard and it really didn’t portray Lampard in a flattering light at all. I was embarrassed for him to be honest, although we didn’t see exactly what it was that caused him to start kicking off. It was obviously something Ljinders did, which doesn’t surprise me as he’s a yappy little bastard on that bench and is often getting under the skin of rival managers. He’s like Scrappy Do, constantly yapping away and then being held back while Klopp has to sort it out. I love him though, he’s funny as fuck. Lampard was telling him to sit down and Klopp was saying “he is sat down” trying to calm the situation. Then Trent scores and Ljinders is virtually on the pitch bouncing around and rubbing it in Lampard’s face again. Klopp had to tell him to get back in his seat! The funniest part of it all was the reaction of our subs when Lampard says “first title you’ve won and you’re giving it the big ‘un”. You can just hear a collective, sarcastic “ooooooooh!” led by Milner and Ox. If Lampard was directing that at Klopp then it makes him look like an absolute clown. If it was Ljinders (which I assume it was) then I’m actually ok with that as this type of thing happens all the time on the touchline and it’s mostly fair game I’d say. Not sure I’d be taking lectures from Lampard on TV afterwards though about winning with class and not being arrogant. One thing you can’t level at Klopp, his staff and the team is that they’re arrogant, because they’re the polar opposite of that. Can Lampard say the same about the Chelsea team he was so successful with? Something else I was thinking about today was an interview with Pete Krawietz I read earlier this week where he was talking about what he did during lockdown. Basically he went through all of our games this season with a fine tooth comb looking at ways we can improve. He said he spotted some things and that they’ve been working on them ahead of next season. It’s this kind of thing that gives encouragement that we can still keep improving even without new signings. There’s room for improvement within this squad but nothing will change my mind that if we bring in one more top forward we’d be unstoppable. Meanwhile, Birmingham have sold 17 year old Jude Bellingham to Dortmund and have retired his number 22 shirt. Apparently their reason for it is because he could have left for peanuts but he knew the club was skint so he signed a new contract to ensure they got a good fee for him. I did wonder why we weren’t in for him and that might explain why. Clubs in England were probably in his ear telling him not to sign so they could get him for compensation set by a tribunal. For him to do that and ensure Birmingham got much needed cash for him is actually a class move from the kid. So while I think retiring his shirt number is daft, I understand that they want to make a gesture to show their appreciation and I’d also say there are a lot more things to be riled up about than this. Like Pep Guardiola for example. Crying again about the Player of the Year awards and saying that Liverpool players win it when Man City win the league, so a Liverpool player will definitely win it now that we have won the league. Apparently this is “an award for Liverpool players”. We’ll just gloss over Raheem Sterling being awarded it ahead of Big Virg last year then shall we? Even though our man was in the top three for the Balon D’or he didn’t get the best player in his own league because a City player got it. They only finished one point ahead of us, whereas this year we’re about six weeks worth of fixtures ahead of City. Just sayin’ like. This is just part of a wider issue with Guardiola and City. It gnaws away at them that no matter what they do people generally just aren’t that arsed because everyone knows they’ve cheated and it means very little. Like when they beat Watford 6-0 in the FA Cup Final and thought everyone would be singing their praises. No-one cared because they’re a nothing club outside of Manchester and their achievements carry no weight because of how they’ve gone about it. De Bruyne will probably get it just because the LFC vote will be split between Hendo, Virg, Sadio and maybe even Trent, and if he does then you won’t get anyone from Liverpool crying about it as I doubt any of them really give much of a fuck about individual awards anyway (except Mo, he loves all that!). Friday Jul 24: Or maybe not! Hendo is indeed the FWA Player of the Season and no-one is more deserving. Made up for him because - in my opinion anyway - he’s been our Player of the Season and seeing as how we’ve been the best team by a mile, that makes him deserving. And that’s BEFORE you factor in all the other off the field stuff that seems have been taken into account. Clearly that counts for a lot because Marcus Rashford came third, and he’s not even been the third best player on his own bang average team. Focussing on what a top fella Hendo is and all that other stuff is actually deflecting away from the fact he’s been brilliant on the pitch. Not enough is being made of that. Going back to the Guardiola comments though. I was irked by them but I wasn’t particularly angry. Today though a mate expressed a completely different take on why he was pissed off about them and it was something I hadn’t even really considered. “Guardiola’s Hendo slight might be the thing he’s done that’s pissed me off the most. What kind of a cunt have you gotta be to be that disrespectful. Not to say “well done” to him and instead just deride him by saying Liverpool players always win these awards. Little prick.” He’s right isn’t he? Anyone else, literally anyone else I can think of, would have just said “personally I think my player should win it but Jordan Henderson has been brilliant. He’s a fantastic professional and role model, so he’d be a worthy winner too”. Imagine Klopp saying something that petty and snide if De Bruyne won it. Wouldn’t happen. He’d just say “Wow, what a player. Well deserved. My boys would have deserved it too but I love Kevin De Bruyne so congratulations to him”. It’s perfectly fine that he thinks De Bruyne has been the best player in the league this year. He might be right, De Bruyne has been sensational, but don’t disrespect Henderson by being so petty and dismissive, you spoilt little cunt. I’ve said it a lot recently but Guardiola is by far the worst twat in this league. It’s not even close. You can say Mourinho if you like but 50% of the shit he says and does is him playing a character. With Guardiola, he’s just a childish, petty, entitled, cheating, whiny little fucking bitch. So yeah now I’m proper angry about what he said. Disrespectful, classless bald, platform heel wearing, short arse, CAS appealing nonce. Fucking hate him and his cunt club. Also today, Klopp hit back at Lampard by saying “that’s not how to behave you big fat fuck”. I’m paraphrasing slightly. The jist of it was more “say what you like in the heat of battle and it’s fine, but if you continue it after the whistle then you’re being a cunt.” Which is fair I’d say, as I have no doubt Jurgen has come out with all sorts of shite during a game when his emotions are high. He never carries it on afterwards though. I hated Lampard for years and then for some reason I relented and started thinking he was alright. Seeing how he carried on the other night in that spat with our bench though, it was pretty revealing I thought. He’s one of those fake nice guys. Most of the time he comes across as a top fella but occasionally the mask slips and you realise it’s a front and that he’s actually a bellend. In yet more news today, what about that interview with Lallana where he spoke about Hendo. Fucking hell that was powerful stuff. Really emotional. Genuinely choked me up it did. I was thinking “I defy anyone to watch that without getting emotional”. Then I sent the video to my mum, who regular readers will know is not a fan of Adam. I won’t share the full response but needless to say she wasn’t moved by it at all and she ended her withering reply with “I was just surprised they didn’t get him a stair lift to go and get his medal”. Jeez. Let it go, Mum, for fucks sake! Saturday Jul 25: There was so much going on yesterday I forgot to mention that Lovren is joining Zenit for £11m. Good price that in today’s market. My gut feeling is we won’t replace him with a signing and that Hoever will be promoted into the squad, with Fabinho also providing extra cover there, so those funds might be used elsewhere. I’m just thinking aloud here, but with Lovren and Lallana off the wage bill and that cash from Zenit, that would surely be enough to cover a deal for someone such as Willian for example. I get that we don’t have money to go out and buy Havertz or Sancho, but I can’t see us going into next season without ANY new faces. I’d also be well in favour of another Harvey Elliott type signing if that were possible. Bellingham would have fitted the bill nicely but for him helping Birmingham out, but there might be one or two other wonder kids out there we could look at bringing in, because the culture here now is absolutely perfect for talented young players. Of course one of the people who played a huge part in creating that culture won’t be here. Lallana looks like he’s joining Brighton, and not Leicester. He seems like a good fit for how they play these days and Klopp has been effusive in his praise for Brighton this year. I’m sure I saw an interview with one of his staff recently too when they singled out Graham Potter and the brilliant coaching job he’s done there. Meanwhile, Andreas Pereira says he doesn’t like Milner and Van Dijk. Pereira, for those of you who don’t know (I’m guessing 50% of you) is one of numerous little nomark scrotes that currently plays for Manchester United. This is what he said "I don't really like that guy, Milner. And to tell you the truth, I don't like that guy, the defender, Van Dijk. He is Marrento, man (this means cocky, apparently). Even the way he plays is kind of arrogant." The way Virg plays IS arrogant, because all great players play with arrogance. It’s because they’re better than everyone else and can do things no-one else can. So yeah, when Virg is heading the ball to himself and leaving the hapless striker wondering what happened, it is arrogant. I don’t know why he singled out Milner though. Probably because he’s been crunched by him a few times. There was a report in the Guardian today about a fella being found guilty of the attack on Owen Jones. The reason I bring this up is because of the headline, which read “Far right Chelsea fan jailed for attack on Owen Jones”. Now far be it for me to defend Chelsea fans, but just what the fuck does who he supports have to do with anything in this case? It’s not an act of football hooliganism, it’s just a cunt doing something cunty. Even if he lived on the doorstep of Stamford Bridge it would still be irrelevant who he supports, but the guy is from Portsmouth. It’s a bad shithouse move mentioning what football team he supports. Why does football have to be brought into everything? I’m sure he likes other things too, but “far right Eastenders fan” or “far right pasta lover” won’t get as many clicks, will it? It’s easy to dismiss this just because it’s Chelsea and they do have a number of right wing loons that follow them, but it’s still grossly unfair and it could just as easily be Liverpool being dragged into the next grisly story they report. Finally today, I read Lampard’s explanation of what happened the other night and I’m mostly in agreement with him. It’s clear his only real issue was with Ljinders and he’s not backing down from his annoyance with him, which I’m fine with. He denied he has any issue with Klopp (he was very complimentary about him) and he dismissed suggestions that he was unhappy about any of the celebrations. It’s pretty much what I thought the other night. That ‘giving it the big ‘un’ comment was defo directed at Ljinders and I’m fine with that because I have no idea what Pep did to elicit that kind of response, but I’m sure he defo did something because he is a spiky little bastard. Like I said, he’s Scrappy Do. So I’m gonna go back to not hating Lampard. Until next time anyway. Sunday Jul 26: Newcastle 1 L 3. Boss that. Made up with how we played under the circumstances. It was always going to be a bit of a slog with the front three all on the bench but in fairness to the replacements we were 2-1 up by the time the cavalry arrived. Divock was brutal but then he scored. Ox did fuck all but still had an assist. I thought Minamino was lively enough and the big regret I have with him so far is he's never really had a chance to play the false nine with Sadio and Mo flanking him. That's the only way to judge him properly I think. Speaking of Minamino though, how awkward was he at the celebrations the other night? I felt sorry for him as the language barrier is obviously a bit of a problem for him. He speaks German so he can converse with Matip, Shaq, Lovren and Keita but it ust be really hard to get involved in the dressing room banter when you've got no idea what's going on. My cousin Al said it reminded him of the episode of Only Fools when 'Gary' went to live with Del and Rodney and didn't have a fucking clue what was going on. He's nailed it there. Taki had the same confused look on his face, and 'Gary Minamino' has a nice ring to it. Might start calling him 'Gary' from now on. Elsewhere today Villa stayed up and Leicester choked away a top four spot. Not going into any of this in too much detail because it will be covered in the round up, but Villa staying up has opened up a whole can of worms now because of that Hawkeye incident against Sheffield United. I don't think Watford have much of a claim as they'd still be down even if that goal had stood (although that one goal may have led to another and another, we'll never know), but Bournemouth aren't going to just accept this with so much money at stake. It's a legitimate beef but this is why that whole thing should have been sorted out at the time during that particular game. The technology wasn't working, everyone could see it was a goal and had the VAR official stepped in and just given the goal then this situation would never have arisen. Now it'll get messy and the Premier League only have themselves to blame, as they should have addressed it at the time, even if that meant replaying the game. Monday Jul 27: Kloppo wins Manager of the Year and Ferguson reveals that he was woken up at 3.30am by Klopp telling him "we've won the league". This is one of the greatest things ever. Just imagine how that went down. We all saw how shitfaced the gaffer was that night when the title was clinched. We saw the video of him dancing in his little white hotpants! Eventually he must have reached a stage where he thought "I'm gonna ring Ferguson for a laugh". I have questions though. How does he have Ferguson's number? He must have got it from Kenny, right? What did he say to him? Did he just sing "We are the Champions"? Did he put any of the players on? Did Kenny also have something to say? What did Ferguson say? Was he more pissed off than when Mike Phelan popped that balloon and scared the bejesus out of him? Sadly I doubt we'll ever get that answers I want. And sure enough Bournemouth are considering legal action about the hawkeye incident. I don't blame them but this is a case they can't win. Meanwhile... goodnight, sweet prince. Dejan officially leaves and Mo gives him a nice touching tribute on LFCTV. I’m a little surprised as Mo usually completely downplays their friendship just to bust Lovren’s balls. I fully expected him to respond to “do you have a farewell message for Dejan” with “bye then”. But he didn’t, and it was nice. Then he went on instagram and said to him “don’t text me too much, I’m on vacation”. Classic Mo. It was time for Dejan to go. Definitely. He could have gone this time last year but I wasn’t in favour of that and was glad it didn’t happen. Now though the time is obviously right for everyone. He leaves with a Premier League winners medal, we got a good fee for him and everybody is happy. The best part about him leaving is I won’t get riled up reading the abuse sent to him from the “LFC fam” on social media. They’ll have to find someone else to pick on now, especially as Hendo has made himself virtually untouchable. It’ll be Milner next. “You’re too old, fuck off out of my club and back to Leeds”. Telling yer, if I ever see that then I’m rounding up a posse and going after them. …..and that was the week that was

What a nice way to finish. You have to give this team massive credit for being able to dominate a potentially tricky game like this when there was nothing really at stake. I’m not saying it was a vintage performance by any means but they completely strangled the life out of Newcastle. Apart from their goal did they even get near our box? I don’t actually remember Alisson having to do anything. Just complete and utter dominance of the ball and the only thing that saved the Geordies from a cricket score was Klopp’s initial team selection. With the front three all left on the bench it was always going to be difficult for us in the final third. We know how big the drop off is to the replacements so what we saw in the first half was hardly surprising. It was also completely understandable as I don’t think those three have ever played together before, have they? Maybe in the cup. The task was made a lot tougher by the way we were caught napping in the first minute and fell behind. Schoolboy stuff that. That’s the last thing you need against a team that only wants to sit in and frustrate. You give them a led to protect and it could be a long day. For a while it looked like it would be but by the end Newcastle were probably relieved to have only lost 3-1. The opening goal was just daft and I just can’t ever envisage that happening if there was something riding on the game. It goes back to what I’ve been saying ever since the title was won. There’s no lack of effort, *Brendan Rodgers voice* they've just lost that wee bit of focus. That goal was a perfect example of it. Van Dijk commits a sloppy foul and then throws the ball back towards the direction of where the free-kick would be taken. He didn’t throw it straight to Shelvey though because he wanted to get back into position. Gini catches the ball, which he shouldn’t have done. Then he gives it straight to Shelvey, which again, he just shouldn’t be doing. Let them get the ball themselves. Don’t be helping them catch us flat footed. You’re not a fucking ballboy, Gini! This is basic stuff. It’s why players will often stand over the ball to prevent quick free-kicks being taken. Funnily enough, thinking about it, I can’t really ever remember our lads standing over a free-kick. Robbo and Milner would probably do it but I’m not sure any of the others would. I’m not saying they haven’t done it but I can’t recall it. Not really our style is it? It happens to us all the time though, because most managers drill it into their players. I’m not saying Klopp should do that as we’ve done pretty well so far doing it our own way. But there’s good sportsmanship and then there is having our players fetch the ball and give it to the opposition to take a quick free-kick! Too much, Gini. Too much. The biggest problem was probably how early in the game it happened. We just weren’t switched on yet. Gini isn’t thinking and the back four just weren’t expecting what followed. Credit to Gayle and Shelvey for their quick thinking but Gomez was half asleep and Williams had dropped a fraction deeper than the rest, apparently playing Gayle onside. I say apparently because we only saw one angle of it and that wasn’t conclusive. What went on there? Seemed a bit weird to me. The VAR took over two minutes to give the goal but we didn’t see any replays or clips with the lines on or anything. Did something malfunction? Was that why it took two minutes, because they were trying to get it working? It looked extremely tight and while in theory I’m more than happy for attackers to get the benefit when it’s that close, something just didn’t feel right about this did it? Has this happened before where we didn’t get to see the freeze-frame with the lines on it? No matter, the goal was given and we now had to come from behind with a front three of Ox, Origi and Minamino. I can’t say my expectations were especially high when I saw the team sheet and nothing I saw in the first hour makes me feel like I was overly harsh. And yet, Ox had an assist and Big Div scored, so you could easily say I was wrong. It doesn’t feel that way though. I was still extremely frustrated watching Origi, and other than the run and cross for the equaliser I thought this was just standard “Ox on the wing” mediocrity. The reason he plays there as often as he does can only be down to what he does without the ball. His pressing and the angles he makes when doing so and general positioning. All shit that I don’t really understand but the coaches look for. Because what the untrained eye sees when he plays on the wing just isn’t very good and you wouldn’t select him based solely on that. It’s not even his fault so don’t take this as a criticism of Ox. I like him. Just not in the front three. He’s a completely different type of player to Salah and Mané. He wants to go outside and cross, they want go inside and shoot. I’d have liked to see Shaqiri given a run out (or even young Harvey), and the fact he wasn’t leads me to believe he may well be sacrificed this summer to bring in funds. Minamino is a totally different player to Salah and Mané. He’s much more similar to Bobby than the other two, yet he started the game on the left. I can’t complain too much about that given how often I’ve complained at Div not being given a chance in the middle. I thought Minamino did alright actually, especially after he switched with Origi. He was involved a lot and had a couple of shots from the edge of the box. It’s not been easy for him so far for a lot of reasons, one of which is that he’s never had a chance in his best position with Salah and Mané either side of him. So it’s hard for Ox and Minamino and to a lesser extent Origi, but the fact is when any of these players come in the whole dynamic of the forward line changes. When all three of them are starting it’s always going to be difficult, especially for them. Divock though. He drives me mad. He should be so much better than he is and in theory he should be able to play any of the positions in the three and play them well. And occasionally he has. Just not very often. In this game he’d done the square root of fuck all until out of nowhere he scored a trademark Origi goal. One thing I have to say about Div is he’s a really good finisher. It’s not like he misses many chances is it? He’s clinical as fuck actually, it’s all the other stuff that has me tearing my hair out. Thankfully I have plenty of it otherwise I’d be looking like Uncle Fester, especially this season. Derby Divock is great. Regular Divock just leaves me perplexed. Maybe I’m just expecting too much. I don’t want a massive drop off from the first choice three and that impacts on how I judge the replacements. They played their part in this win so I feel like I should be praising rather than criticising. But look at how different we were when the big three came on. It was night and day. Nevertheless, that terrific goal from Div had put us ahead and Ox had contributed to us getting level, so credit is due I guess. Ox does this kind of thing a lot when he’s in midfield but not so much when he’s in the forward line. We’ve seen it loads, he just suddenly injects a bit of pace into the game and explodes past somebody. Usually it ends with a shot but because he was in a wide position this time he drove to the line and clipped a ball into the middle. It wasn’t the greatest of crosses as Virgil couldn’t attack it. It was behind him so all he could do was get his head on it and try to direct it. And he did. What a header that was. I’ve seen a lot of people questioning whether he meant it, but that was the only way he could score. What else was he trying to do? He couldn’t power it in, the only thing he could do was try to get enough on it to loop it into the far corner. That goal was key really as once we’d wiped out Newcastle’s lead this was only ever going one way, especially as we knew we had the big three to bring on. They had been waiting to get on a while but the ball wouldn’t go out of play so the other lads had a few more minutes than intended. It was 1-1 at that point and Div must have known he was getting hooked, but he lashed in a great goal and I’d probably have left him on for another five or ten minutes to see how it played out as he had a real spring in his step then. Ironic as I’d spent the previous five or ten minutes screaming for him to be taken off! I always hate myself for getting too down on Origi. He’s a top lad and I love him for the massive contribution he’s made. I’m rooting for him and badly want him to do well so when it doesn’t happen it’s so frustrating. If he was shit it’d be easy to just write him off and say get rid but he’s shown what he is capable of. That just makes it worse though when he isn’t doing himself justice. He frustrates me more than any player we’ve had since…. I don’t know actually. Luis Garcia maybe? Emile Heskey? Players who you know have it in them to be brilliant but just don’t produce it often enough. The difference when the changes up front were made was massive. Mo hit the post within seconds of coming on and then ran clear on goal soon after (from a brilliant Firmino pass). He should have done better but as usual he tried to run around to get onto his left foot and the defender got back to make a block. Why does he do this?? I wrote about this in the last report because he did it in that game too. If he wasn’t so pre-occupied with getting onto his left foot and trying to bend it into the far corner he’d make life so much more difficult for the defenders. Of course there are times when this works, but more often than not he seems to get tackled because there isn’t enough time to do it. Keep it on your right side and they can’t tackle without committing a foul. He just needs to have more faith in his right foot and less faith in his speed. He’s quick but he’s not THAT quick where he can afford to run around the ball to get onto his strong foot. You know who was quick enough to do that and did it all the time? Michael Owen. He was the master at it. Then he lost a yard of pace and couldn’t do that anymore. So what did he do? He worked on his weaker foot and became proficient at finishing from that side too. Mo is a world class forward and he’s done as much as anybody to secure these trophies that we’ve won. I’m grateful to have him, he’s fucking great, but there’s still room for him to get even greater. With Sadio I’m not sure we can say the same. What areas can he improve in? He’s just brilliant at everything and is probably at his peak right now. Can he get better? I don’t really see how. There’s not much between Sadio and Mo currently but if Salah improved his finishing (and there is plenty of room for that) then he’d be top dog like he was in his first season here. Sadio curled one into the far corner in the last minute to get within one goal of Mo. He hasn’t taken any pens, although I’m not sure Mo has many either since the Premier League brought in that legislation that all the penalties Liverpool would have should now be awarded to Manchester United instead. For the second season in a row Sadio and Mo have finished almost neck and neck. The only reason their tallies are so close is because Mo misses so many chances. Yet it’s his greatness that means he gets so many chances, which makes it hard to be too critical. You could see how desperate Mo was to get goal number 20 but it was never going to happen was it? Not since I jinxed him the other week when I said I could see him going on a run and pipping Vardy for the Golden Boot. I don’t think he’s scored since. Me and big mouth. In the end he finished with 19 Premier League goals, with Sadio on 18 and Bobby on 9. Is it just me or is that actually pretty underwhelming for those three? Sadio is roughly where I’d expect him to be but the other two should have more (25, 20 & 15 would be about par). Yet here we are, on 99 points and light years ahead of everyone else. So maybe I’m becoming a little too fixated on these numbers. Man City scored over a hundred goals this season and their goal difference pisses all over ours. Where did it get them though? They’re the ultimate flat track bullies now, beating up on the likes of Watford and Brighton and racking up the goals in easy wins. It feels like they win 5-0 four games out of every five, but then they lose the fifth. They lost nine fucking games this season. Baldiola is the only manager in the world that could spend a billion pounds, lose nine games and still have everyone tonguing his balls as the best coach in the world. Anyone else would be getting pelters from the media. Gets away with murder that prick. While City were losing nine games we’d only lost one right up until the point the league was won and then we got a little sloppy and dropped another couple (not sure I’ll ever not be pissed off about that Arsenal game!). So while ideally I’d like a few more goals from the front three it almost seems churlish to be pointing that out given everything we’ve achieved. What we’ve seen these last couple of years is unprecedented, not just in our history but in the history of English football. This is all time, historical stuff we’re witnessing right now. We’ve averaged 98 points, won a title and won a European Cup. Yes we’ve got the Super Cup and Club World Club too, which is nice, but you only get to play for those if you’ve taken care of the main business. I don’t know if we can keep this up but Milner is the only player in the squad past his prime so in theory there’s no reason why it can’t continue a little while longer at least. And Milner was probably our best player in this game for me. Plenty of life left in that old dog yet. At the other end of the age scale is young Neco, who was given a start at right back. It wasn’t his best game of the season by a long way. He got off to a bad start and it took him probably until the second half to really settle into the game. That doesn’t concern me at all though. In fact it’s a good thing. Games like this speed up the development far more than coming in and playing great in a cup game. Neco will have learned more from this game, and the Brighton one, than he did in any of the others in which he excelled. It’s all money in the bank ahead of next season and it’s for that reason I’d have liked to have seen more minutes for Jones too. And at least some for young Harvey, who has been on the bench in every game bar one since the restart but only got on the field once I think. Williams and Jones are going to be important players next season. I’m not sure how many opportunities Harvey is going to get though, but he’s two years younger which is a lot at that age. To put in perspective how young Elliott is, he’s got six more years in which he’ll be eligible for the u23 side. For him to be as close as he is is quite the achievement really. So that’s that then, the longest season of all time is finally over. Reaching 100 points would have been nice and you know how irritated I was when it became clear we wouldn’t do it, but now that its done and dusted and we ended on 99, I’m not as frustrated by that as I thought I would be. I’m not sure we’ll ever be in that situation again as what we did this year was probably once in a lifetime shit. What was it, 27 wins and one draw from our first 28 games? When you actually think about that now, looking back, it’s fucking nuts. At the time it didn’t feel that strange because we were living through it, but winning 27 out of 28 at the start of the season is something we’ll probably never see again from anybody. Then we lost to Watford and soon after Covid hit and everything was on hold. We’ll never know what would have happened if we’d played right through but nothing will convince me that we wouldn’t have shattered the points record. Still, it is what it is and 99 points is nothing to be sniffed at like, especially as it bettered last season’s total which was inexplicably important to me. I’m guessing it was important to the lads too given the way they bounced back from the Arsenal loss to win the final two games. The desire to win games and to never allow standards to slip is one of the main things that separates this team from the rest, and to be able to go to Newcastle and play like this on the final day, just a few days after the title celebrations, I just think it says it all about this squad. Their standards won’t slip so for this success to not continue it’s going to take significant improvement from the chasing pack and some bad luck on the injury front from our side of things. Star man is Milner, just ahead of Keita (good once again) and the imperious Van Dijk. Team: Alisson; Williams (Alexander-Arnold), Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson; Wijnaldum, Keita (Jones), Milner; Oxlade-Chamberlain (Salah), Origi (Firmino), Minamino (Mané):

The first game of this round of fixtures saw Norwich lose yet again. This time Burnley were the ones benefitting from the Canaries’ generosity. Norwich had two players sent off in the first half and scored an own goal in the second. Buendia was a little unfortunate as although he did leave a gentle elbow on Westwood, he was needled into it and the Burnley man made a huge meal of it. And here was me thinking Burnley’s players weren’t allowed to do that because it goes against the moral code of St Sean. Some other bum then saw red for an over the ball tackle and then Wood opened the scoring with an overhead kick. Godfrey put one in his own net and a season that started so promisingly (remember them beating City?) is ending pathetically. Bournemouth look like they’ll be joining them in the Championship now after a home loss to Southampton on Tuesday. They started the game really well and had their chances before falling behind to goal number 21 on the season for Ingsy. Goal number 22 should have followed soon after but he missed a pen after Harry Wilson had handled. Harry just hasn’t got going since the restart has he? He missed two good chances to equalise as did fellow sub Solanke, but it looked like a third sub, Sam Surridge, had equalised in the fourth minute of stoppage time. VAR ruled it out for offside against Callum Wilson, and Southampton rubbed salt in the wounds when Che Adams made it 2-0 with the last kick of the game. They need a miracle now. Spurs’ win over Leicester was a weird one. 3-0 suggests they were comfortably the better side but Leicester had 71% possession, 24 shots to 7 and 13 corners versus just four from Spurs. You wonder how that’s possible, then you look at who the two managers are and those numbers all make perfect sense. Will Brendan ever figure out how to beat this negative cunt? The goals all came from counter attacks against the run of pay, but you get the feeling that’s exactly how Mourinho drew it up. Still, 29% in a home game is not going to fly when fans are back in the stadium. Mourinho must be loving this as he can be as negative as he likes and there’s no-one there to complain. Son’s off target shot was deflected in by young Leicester full back James Justin and then two brilliantly taken goals by Kane finished them off. Had Leicester managed a goal of their own they may have been able to appeal this result as you could make a strong argument that Kane’s goals shouldn’t count due to this social media post made by him this week. Honestly, what the fuck?? Surely some sort of points deduction is justified here? Leicester looked to have it sewn up prior to lockdown but since the restart they’ve found it difficult due to injuries. The lack of squad depth has really hurt them. They’ve really missed Ricardo while recently Chilwell has also been out. Now Soyuncu is suspended and they’ve got some bum who was out of his depth at Norwich playing in a back three with 92 year old Wes Morgan. It’s easy to criticise Rodgers but in fairness we wouldn’t be the same without Trent and Robbo. Leicester’s full backs are a huge part of how they play and that’s as big a reason as any why they go into the last game of the season in 5th place and in danger of losing the Champions League spot they had done so well to be in for virtually the whole season. I think I speak for everyone when I say I hope they fucking smash the mancs everywhere this Sunday. There could have been another top four head to head game this weekend too if only Wolves had picked up just one more point. They’d have been facing Chelsea this weekend knowing that victory would secure a place in the Champions League. But they didn’t pick up that one extra point so fuck them. Yeah I haven’t forgotten their fans being massive knobheads on the final day of last season. That being said, they might still get in via the Europa League, which I’m ok with as it would mean United not winning it. Ideally Stevie will pull off a miracle with Rangers. Yeah I know, no chance, but just imagine if he beat United. It’d be one of the funniest things ever. Wolves beat Palace 2-0 with goals from Podence and Johnny. My boy Adama was in scintillating form and Palace couldn’t cope with him. They aren’t the first and they won’t be the last. Palace had gotten themselves within smelling distance of a European spot a few weeks back and they’ve since lost seven on the spin. I have a sneaky feeling Hodgson will call it a day now. He should do, because he’s done a top job there all things considered but it’s only heading in one direction now. No doubt Zaha will be angling for a move and it will be interesting to see if anyone other than Everton wants him this year. All depends on the price tag really, and with most teams likely to be skint this summer it seems likely that he’ll have to stay put. Elsewhere, Brighton and Newcastle played out a goalless draw at the Amex. I have nothing else to say about that, because why would I? Amazon Prime had Sheffield United v Everton. They tried to plug it as though they’d actually got something worth watching. It’s pathetic really. Like getting the rights to Wimbledon, making a big song and dance about it and then having to show a 1st round mixed doubles match that no-one gives a fuck about. I can’t understand why anyone other than Sheffield United and Everton fans would watch that. The viewing figures must have been miniscule. For anyone who’s interested, the Blues won 1-0 with a goal from Richarlison who managed to stay off the floor just long enough to head in a free-kick from the original Bruno Fernandez, Gylfi Sigurdsson. I totally called Villa beating Arsenal. Admittedly I said it would be coming off the back of Arsenal getting spanked by City in the cup, which incredibly didn’t happen, but I looked at Villa’s remaining fixtures in comparison to Watford’s and I liked Villa’s chances of staying up. I like them much more after what happened this week. Trezeguet got the only goal of the game and Villa were just about good value for it. They’ve been playing alright since the restart even if results weren’t great. Recently they’ve been scrambling some points together and incredibly they go into the final game having moved out of the relegation zone on goal difference. That was such a huge win for Villa and they’ve got all the momentum now for their last game against West Ham. I wouldn’t bet on them winning it but they might not need to. They’ve given themselves a great chance to stay up now and you know what, I hope they do. Because as much as I’ve wanted Villa down since the moment they came back up, I have to say right now, fuck Watford, the manager sacking whoppers. If anyone truly deserves to go down it’s them. Sacking Pearson with two games left is just bonkers. No other word for it. They haven’t been on a great run but what benefit is there in doing this now? Pearson’s record is better than any of his recent predecessors and they had more chance of surviving with him than without him. If they wanted to fuck him off at the end of the season that would have been fine, but doing it now is just stupid and irresponsible and deserves relegation. One rumour was that he had some sort of confrontation with the players after they lost to West Ham last week. Another was that he had a bust up with the sporting director. Given that all of the players and the sporting director are still alive and haven’t been gutted like fish with Pearson’s hunting knife, I think we can safely dismiss those rumours. If there was any truth in them at all then the Watford dressing room would have looked like a scene from First Blood. It’s genuinely one of the most ridiculous moves I can ever remember a club making. When Pearson took over they were virtually dead and buried. The fact they even have a chance to stay up is because of him. Marco Silva, Javi Gracia and Quique Sanchez Flores are all no doubt sitting by the phone with a list of wage demands at the ready. If Watford go I certainly won’t miss them. City hammering Watford is as close to a guaranteed result as you’ll ever get, which is another reason to want the fuckers relegated. I mean, these clowns gave us a beatdown to (deservedly) ruin our unbeaten season but look what happens whenever they face City. Since they were promoted the aggregate score in games they’ve had with City is 46-4!! It’s 18-0 for the last three games alone. It’s incredible. So hopefully in a few days time I’m writing “off you fuck, Watford”. I see that Sterling took a penalty in that game because “it would be massive for a winger to score 20 goals in the Premier League”. Newsflash pal, Salah is on the brink of doing it for the third year in a row and Mané has done it as well. In fairness, I doubt that is on Sterling’s mind. It’ll be the off the books bonus he’ll be getting for it. He missed the pen which will have surprised nobody but he scored the rebound so got away with it. Honestly, he’d be the last player in the league I’d want taking a penalty for me. I’m not exaggerating. He’s a top player and I’m not going to deny that just because I don’t like him, but when it comes to penalties he’s quite literally the last player I’d want taking one. Speaking of penalties, United didn’t get one this week and they didn’t win. Co-incidence? I think not. They did concede one though, in the most hilarious of circumstances. Imagine your star player doing that? Isn’t he the captain too? Or did they take it off him and give it to Maguire? Doesn’t really matter because when you watch the video of it Maguire is doing the exact same thing as Pogba, he’s just fortunate that Pogba got in the way. The free frame of the incident shows that three United players are fucking petrified of getting hit with the ball. It’s times like these when Roy Keane is badly missed. I don’t mean on the pitch, I don’t give a fuck about that. No, I mean in the studio. I’d have loved to have seen his live reaction to that. In fact, imagine if Souness was there alongside him? I think the only way to ensure this doesn’t happen again is for Sky to have both of them in studio for every single game that Pogba is playing in. West Ham weren’t even taking the game seriously, as shown when regular spot kick specialist Noble let Antonio take the pen. Antonio later revealed that Noble said before the game “you’re on nine goals and I want you to reach double figures because of how well you’ve played, so you can have any pen we get”. In fairness he put it away very well, but it just shows that West Ham weren’t really too arsed. Yet despise this, United were in serious danger of losing to David Moyes before Greenwood equalised. For all the eulogising over Pogba, Martial and Fernandez, Greenwood is the one genuine superstar talent they have over there. The two points dropped meant that we could beat Chelsea without helping United too much in the process. For them it all comes down to a one off game at Leicester now. Win or draw and they’re in, lose and they’re down to fifth as long as Chelsea don’t fuck it up against Wolves (which I wouldn’t rule out). Really want United to miss out for so many reasons, but mainly so I can see @RobbieOR bust out his regular “United are back lads. Back in fifth place” tweet. Final point on this week. You may have missed this but I couldn’t let it go as it wound me right up. Jon Moss actually has ‘Mossy’ inscribed on his boots. This is worse than that time Michael Oliver had tramlines shaved into his head. There’s nothing more cringey than a referee trying to be cool. You’re not cool. If you were cool you’d be playing. Referees aren’t cool so just accept that. Here’s the thing, I often chastise myself for slating refs because it really is an incredibly tough job and I couldn’t do it. It’s the easiest thing in the world to sag off referees and we all do it to some degree, but it really is an incredibly tough job. As a rule I try not to be too insulting towards them unless there’s good reason (I’m not saying I succeed at this, just that I do try), which is usually related to them being arrogant in some way shape or form, or if they show a clear bias towards one team or against ours. Despite him repeatedly awarding penalties to United I’ve occasionally felt bad about constantly ripping Moss and calling him “Fat Jon Moss”, but when I saw ‘Mossy’ on his boots my reaction was….

Liverpool may be one of the world capitals of football, but as a supporter, you’ll have plenty of time to spare between a match and another. Whether you plan to stay only a night in the city or longer, a fun way to enjoy what it has to offer is visiting one of the top casinos in Liverpool. Here are three of the best that are worth checking out. 1. Grosvenor Casino Known as the Leo Casino, the Grosvenor is one of the most popular gambling venues in Liverpool, based down in the famous docks area. It attracts a lot of locals as well as tourists, as it is a great alternative to night’s out in the city centre. For gamblers, The Grosvenor offers modern gaming tables as well as many classic slots. If you’ve ever played slot games at the UK’s online casinos then you’ll know how fun these can be. Alternatively you can try low stakes electronic roulette which is playable from just 10p. There is also Blackjack, Punto Blanco, and other card games, as well as a Texas Hold Em room for those who want to test their metal against other players. And finally, if you’re not really into gambling, you can just grab some great food in Leo’s a la carte restaurant or just a drink in one of the two cocktail bars. In fact this place is a great place to start your night out in the city without even gambling at all! 2. Genting Casino Genting is another big-brand casino that you can enjoy while in Liverpool. It is open in two locations, with Genting Queen Square being unanimously considered the poshest between the two. Situated in the heart of the city, it offers you the ability to enjoy classic casino games, poker rooms, and slot machines. There are also poker tournaments and a great selection of cutting edge electronic roulettes. When you’re hungry or need a break, you can enjoy the quality in-house restaurant or one of the two bars. And once again it’s not all about gambling – there is also comedy and live music regularly hosted here so check out the website before you visit the city to see if there are any specials happening whilst you are in town. Most days The Genting opens at noon for roulette and slots, with table games available from 2pm. This one has a very late license so you can also come down late in the evening or early morning for a few hands, spins or just a drink. 3. Mecca Bingo Located near Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, the Mecca Bingo is another noteworthy casino you should check out in Liverpool. Inaugurated over 20 years ago, the purpose-built venue still retains most of its glitz and glamour, giving it a really luxurious feel, with attractive interiors and state-of-the-art facilities. But this place is all about the bingo – and Mecca is a massive name when it comes to that! You can play 7 days a week, 12 hours a day should you wish! And of course, there is also slots and table games too – so like Genting and Grosvenor there are loads of opportunities to have a punt and win some cash. Or, if you just want a drink or a bite to eat you can do that too. These are the best three gambling locations in the city - whether you want to play casino games, try your luck at the slots machines or enjoy a fun bingo night, there is plenty of choice. So if you’re not sure how to fill your time between matches or just want to extend your stay in the city after you’ve watched the game, consider paying them a visit. And remember to always gamble responsibly.

Ok so NOW it feels real. We may have won it weeks ago but I wasn’t really completely feeling it until now. I knew we were Champions and I saw how ecstatic people were, but I wasn’t quite there. Not sure why. A few things I suppose. Partly because this thing had essentially been sewn up since December. Partly because of the enforced break that halted the procession. Partly because we couldn’t be there in person to see it. But on reflection, I think it’s mostly because I’ve forgotten what winning the league is like and how it’s supposed to feel. I was a teenager when we last won it and I don’t really remember much about it other than it was business as usual. It’s completely different to winning other trophies though. Unless of course it goes down to the last day and it all hinges on a one off game, in which case it’s basically the same as any other trophy success. Over the last 30 years we’ve had plenty of trophies to celebrate but every one of those either involved being at a final in person or watching it in the City Centre with mates. When you win those, celebrating is easy. You know how to feel as you’re swept up in the moment. This was different. We didn’t even win it on the pitch. It was clinched when City lost at Chelsea and could therefore no longer catch us. That turned out great for the lads because they were able to watch that game together and go nuts afterwards. For us fans though, it was strange. We didn’t have that focal point. That one game where it happened and we could all celebrate afterwards. Even without Covid it wouldn’t have been the same as when you actually win a final, but to have this in the middle of a pandemic just killed the party mood. At least for me anyway. I just wasn’t as ecstatic as I always imagined I would be when it finally happened. Now I feel it though. This is what it needed to become real for me. Seeing them lift the trophy brought it all to life. Obviously I feel robbed of the opportunity to see it happen live but that’s something beyond everybody’s control. For now at least. In fairness to everyone involved, I thought this went as well as it possibly could without any fans inside the stadium. I’m not even arsed about Coldplay because to tell you the truth I didn’t even notice it. Did they even play it? I suppose that’s the thing with Coldplay, they’re not very noticeable as they’re so fucking bland (apart from Viva La Vida which is the exception that proves the rule). It felt great seeing the lads with their medals and the trophy and now it’s finally hit home that we are Champions. Champions of England. Champions of Europe (for a few more weeks at least). Champions of the World. We’re currently the Champions of everything and we should savour this because we’ve never done it before and might never do it again. Then again, we might. Who knows? As for the game itself, it was a cracker. Chelsea are not too dissimilar to what we were a few years ago. Great going forward, some very talented players but defensively vulnerable and with big questions marks over the goalkeeper. The biggest difference is we had Klopp to put that right whereas they have Lampard, who is still very much an unknown quantity. Chelsea started the game well and had a couple of good situations they could have made more of. They wasted them and within the blink of an eye they were 3-0 down. It all seemed to happen very quickly but in that spell we played some great stuff. We went ahead when Keita won the ball and then lashed one in off the bar from 18 yards. He’s good at that. Not so much the lashing one in from 18 yards, but generally just being a fucking pest and nicking the ball off people. He just seems very good at getting himself in the way, which must be due to good anticipation. So anyway, he wins the ball, advances to the edge of the box and lets fly. They always look better when they go in off the bar and it’s a great goal. If that goes in against us though I’m looking at my keeper. Maybe that’s harsh, but look at Kepa’s pitiful attempt to stop it. Why is he going for it with his right hand and not his left? Because he’s shite, that’s why. It’s funny really. Alisson was once the most expensive keeper and Van Dijk was the most expensive defender. Now it’s Kepa and Harry fucking Maguire! Crazy. I thought Kepa should have done better on the second goal too. I’m not saying he should definitely have saved it but he should be getting a lot closer than that. It’s basically the exact same goal Trent scored against Palace. It’s identical. Same spot on the pitch, exact same strike and it hits the net in the very same spot. The Palace keeper at least got close to it and he didn’t have the benefit of having seen it before. Kepa should have known where that was going, yet there he was stood there, flat footed, nowhere near it. Shite that. Chelsea had felt aggrieved at the decision to award us that free-kick and Lampard ended up in a big row with Klopp and the rest of our bench. Because there are no fans in the stadium one of the journalists in the press area was able to film the entire exchange and picked up everything that was said. Lots of ‘facking this’ and ‘facking that’ from Lampard while Klopp kept telling him to ‘calm down’. When you’re riled up is there anything more fucking infuriating than some patronising cunt telling you to calm down? Hilarious, Klopp was driving him mad. Lampard is a cheeky fat cunt though. Seemingly telling Klopp “first title you’ve ever won and you’re giving it the big ‘un”. I’d like to think he was directing that at someone else because it isn’t Klopp’s first title and one thing you’ll never see Klopp doing is getting above his station. Not his style at all. It seems Lampard’s real beef was with Ljinders and that’s almost certainly who he was referring to afterwards when he said some people are getting arrogant after winning the title. It also explains why Ljinders ran on the pitch to celebrate when the free-kick went in! It’s obvious what started it. Our bench will have gone mad at the challenge because it looked dangerous. I can also see why Lampard didn’t think it was a foul though. Klopp and his staff wouldn’t have liked it because it was an aggressive looking challenge and he went right through the back of Sadio. Lampard will say he got the ball first. Both are correct. The general consensus seems to be that it wasn’t a foul. Not sure I agree with that. Look, to me that’s a good tackle but all I’m saying is that in the modern game there will be more refs who give a foul for that than there will be ones who let it go. You can’t really tackle that anymore, whether you or I agree or not. So Lampard can stick his anger up his fat arse (yeah yeah I know he’s not fat, that’s what has always made the ‘Fat Frank’ thing so funny). It was another great strike by Trent though, who hasn’t looked back since the kick up the arse I gave him after the derby when I said he wasn’t all that at free-kicks. Sometimes you need that. Naby’s form has also improved since I questioned him. And then it was 3-0. Robbo’s corner wasn’t dealt with by Chelsea and while everyone else seemed to be appealing for handball Gini just smashed the ball in. At this stage it was looking like we’d completely humiliate Chelsea but they pulled one back just before half time and that stopped our momentum. Good goal to be fair. It’s hard to defend that simply because that one unexpected flick by Alonso completely takes everyone out of the game. Brilliant by him. Alisson’s save was stunning but it won’t be remembered because sadly the long (and no doubt extremely well groomed and waxed) leg of Giroud got to the rebound first to prod the ball over the line. That goal gave Chelsea a lifeline but then guess what, Bobby actually scored at Anfield in the league! Made up for him as nobody wanted him to go through the season with that record. He saw a perfectly good goal disallowed against United so it’s only right that he managed to avoid going goalless at home. Lovely goal it was too. Stunning delivery from Trent and a good header from Bobby. You could see how much it meant to him and I’m sure all the lads knew about the unwanted record too. We had chances to extend the lead but then the substitutions started coming and the game suddenly became ridiculously open. We took off Gini and Naby and sent on Milner and Jones. Chelsea brought on Abraham, Hudson-Adoi and Pulisic and all of a sudden they looked like they were going to score with every attack We should have been well out of sight by then anyway, but wasteful Mo showed up for this one, which was a real shame because finishing aside he was boss and gave Rudiger the run around all night. Maybe if he’d brought his right foot with him he’d have had at least a couple. Even Virg was taking the piss out of him afterwards, saying “Didn’t you want to score tonight, Mo?” It frustrates me so much when he runs around away from the ball to get on his left foot because his right foot is fine when he actually trusts himself to use it. It should also be pointed out that he seems to have become the victim of a new rule that says it's ok to grab, pull or bodycheck him any time he advances into the penalty area. I seem to remember similar happening at Stamford Bridge, where Chelsea decided the best way to stop Mo playing one twos around the box is to let him play the pass and then just flatten him. Rudiger did it twice in this game yet somehow it's being described on commentary as 'standing his ground'. Last time I checked, standing your ground wasn't taking a step to the left, into the path of another player, and bodychecking him. Opponents know now that they can do this without being called on it, as it's happening all the time. Chelsea just happen to be the most blatant exponents of it. Still, that just makes it all the more important that he makes the most of the clear chances he does get, and he failed to do that once again. I understand he's not going to score with every chance he gets, but his strike rate does seem to be really poor this season, especially since lockdown when he could easily have scored seven or eight. His profligacy looked like it might prove costly when ‘Eden Pulisic’ started running us ragged. I thought we’d seen the last of that shit when the tricky little Belgian fucker left but this brought back some unpleasant memories. He’d have been a good signing for us wouldn’t he, Pulisic? We made him look good though. The defending just went to pieces for a spell. Too much space appeared between the midfield and defence (possibly a result of Gini going off) while Trent and Gomez couldn’t cope with Pulisic. Chelsea got back to 4-2 when Pulisic skipped past three challenges and crossed for an Abraham tap in. He then missed a good chance when he got in behind Gomez but dragged a shot wide. The next chance he got he made no mistake. Gomez and Van Dijk went for the same ball and collided (defo Joe’s fault) which had us scrambling back. Trent tried to get across to cover Pulisic but sold himself too much and allowed him to turn and lash one in the top corner. Something that doesn’t seem to have been mentioned though is that Azpilacueta stole 20 yards on that throw in. Honestly, watch it back and it’s easily 20 yards, maybe more. The ball goes on level with the edge of the box and he takes the throw close to halfway. The goal comes directly from that. At this point I thought we’d concede another as we were all over the place, but the lads regrouped and defended pretty well after that. I wasn’t thinking this at 4-3 but now, knowing that it all ended well, I have to say that I did enjoy seeing the old roller coaster Reds again. I don’t want this every week but I have frequently bemoaned the fact that we were no longer quite as thrilling as we were a couple of years ago. Obviously I wouldn’t swap that for the stability and machine-like ability to win we have now, but there are times I get a little nostalgic for the thrill a minute, four or five goals a game Reds of the 17/18 season. So I did enjoy seeing this throwback performance, even though at 4-3 it wasn’t much fun. When Ox finally killed the game it just felt great and capped a memorable night. Grinding out a 1-0 and then lifting the trophy would have been sound, but this was better. And we wrapped it up with one of those goals I fucking love. Nothing compares to those fast break goals. There’s just nothing better. You rip the soul out of the opponent when you do that. They have an attacking set-piece and the hope that they might do something from it, then seconds later they’re picking it out of their own net wondering what hit them. Andy Robbo. What a man. He heads away the free-kick and then ten seconds later he’s putting in the cross for Ox to score. How does that even happen? He’s amazing. He isn’t talked about anywhere near enough for me. I mean yeah, he does get recognition and it seems like MOTD highlight him and Trent every other week. It’s not enough though. He’s so fucking good he should be everywhere. His face should be on a postage stamp and five pound notes. That goal was as important as a goal could be under the current circumstances. Technically there’s nothing to play for but these patchy results we’ve had lately have still been irritating and had we not beaten Chelsea it would have cast a slight shadow on the celebrations that followed. Not much of a shadow, as it doesn’t REALLY matter, but the lads lifting the trophy after a thrilling win will have given them a little bit more oomph in their celebrations. So that goal from Ox was a big one and it’s definitely top five for me this season. We’ve scored some great goals but I suspect this one will live longer in the memory than most because it came on the night we got the trophy. Plus it was a fucking phenomenal goal and summed up what this team is all about. Robbo running like that so late in the game when we’re in front and the title has been won weeks ago. He is the beating heart of this side and represents everything that you want your team to be. He has every single quality you would want, on and off the pitch. Most of the lads do though to be fair, but especially Robbo. He’s the most relatable in the entire squad. So now we have one more game. Away at Newcastle. I have no idea what to expect there as a lot will depend on how last night’s celebrations went. It’s easy enough to motivate players when there are seven games left and they haven’t had the trophy or their medals yet, but this one is much more tricky. I doubt anyone really gives a shit about it now. I’d prefer to win, that goes without saying, and even a draw would do because it would match last season’s points tally. That won’t matter to a lot of people but it does to me. I think I might be a little OCD about this because picking up less points than last year would bother me far more than it should. I know it doesn’t matter one jot, yet the thought of finishing one point less than a year ago would weigh on my mind. I wouldn’t be shocked if the lads went out there and just had nothing left though. Who could blame them if that’s the case? They’ve worked so hard to reach their goal and now having got there it might be a case of them just not being able to switch back on for one more, ultimately meaningless game. If that happens I’m fine with it. There’ll be no histrionics from me like there was after the Arsenal game for example. Whatever happens on Sunday happens. I really hope Mo manages to get his goal to reach 20 for the season third season in a row though. That’s also irrationally important to me, probably that OCD again. Star man is Robbo but had Naby played ninety minutes then he’d have ran him close. Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson; Fabinho, Wijnaldum (Jones), Keita (Milner); Salah (Oxlade-Chamberlain), Firmino (Minamino), Mané (Origi):

The new English champions - Liverpool - will try to strengthen their defence before the start of next season with cover for Andy Robertson a priority. One name which appeared in the British press recently is Norwich City's Jamal Lewis, who has been mentioned by Betindex.bet online. The 22-year-old Northern Irishman plays as a left-back, where the "reds" need reinforcements. Robertson is the established first choice but there is no natural cover or competition for him. For this reason, manager Jurgen Klopp wants to find a suitable alternative to the Scotsman and Lewis may fit the bill. Veteran James Milner has also been used at left back during recent seasons but he is certainly not an option for the future. In the matches for the League Cup, the 19-year-old Frenchman Yasser Larouci was also tried for this position but he is bound to the Merseysiders only until next summer and refuses to renew his contract at the moment. Lewis is a product of the Norwich Academy and this season he has played 31 matches in all competitions, in which he scored one goal. He has a contract with the team until the summer of 2023 and according to the portal Transfermarkt.com his price is 11 million euros. Money is likely to be tight this summer but that's a price that the Reds should be able to afford, especially if one or two fringe players move on.

Tuesday Jul 14: Guardiola wants an apology and is talking as though City were exonerated of all charges. The sneaky lying bald fuck. Honestly, the fucking balls on this prick. Klopp and Mourinho had both spoken out about the CAS decision being a disgrace and Guardiola had this to say in response. “When we lose, I shake their hands and congratulate them, all the time we have done that. So, guys, accept it.” I can’t speak for Mourinho as he has a long standing beef with Guardiola, but Klopp has always shook his hand and congratulated him too. The absolute cheek of the cunt. I’m sure Ben Johnson shook everyone’s hand after he won too, but it doesn’t change the fact he was a cheat, just like City. “We wanted to be here and we tried on the pitch. If you don't agree, knock on the door and speak to our chairman and chief executive, don’t go whispering.” Wanted to be here and tried on the pitch? What does that even mean? He sounds like Boris Johnson there, just rambling. As for speaking to the chairman and chief exec, maybe he should be the one doing that if he genuinely believes they haven’t been cheating when the whole world can see they have. There was a time when I thought he didn’t know. Not because he didn’t ‘know', but because he was like a mafia wife. She knows her husband isn’t ‘in construction’ but she doesn’t need to know what he actually does. That’s how I thought Guardiola was justifying it to himself. I don’t think that anymore. He knows. He’s up to his fucking neck in it. “We invested a lot of money, but we did it in the right things. We're not banned, because we followed the rules for FFP as UEFA decided. If not, we’d be banned.” You were banned!!! You were literally banned because you didn’t follow the rules. You got off on a technicality, that’s all. “We’ve done it properly, in the right way. UEFA say we do it and we did it. If we did something wrong, we will accept the decisions, because we did something wrong.” You did do something wrong, it was there for everyone to see in the emails. You didn’t accept the decisions though, you got your high powered lawyers to get it overturned on a technicality. “And we have the right to defend ourselves when we believe what we have done is correct.” Adolf Hitler believed what he was doing was correct. “Three judges said this, so it was a good day for football, as we showed we play with the same rules as all the clubs in Europe.” Your declared wage bill is less than Liverpool’s even though your actual wage bill is probably close to double. So no, you aren’t playing by the same rules as everyone else you duplicitous bald cunt. City were guilty as fuck and were fined £9m for it. The ban was overturned on a fucking technicality because the statute of limitations on any punishment had expired. Yet here they are, Guardiola especially, talking about being exonerated, proving their innocence and demanding apologies. It’s bullshit, lies and propaganda and it’s straight of the Abu Dhabi PR handbook. He even protested that they can’t match United’s spending and couldn’t afford Maguire or Sanchez. Funny that, because he paid £60m for Cancelo who never fucking plays. Proper scumbags these you know. Worse than United ever were. As much as I hate United and other clubs, I don’t want them to cease existing. City? I’d happily see them wiped off the face of football forever. Tell you something else too, Guardiola is the biggest cunt in football because he’s fully aware of what’s going on and he’s lied through his teeth about it because he’s enjoying taking the cash from these human right abusing fuckers. Meanwhile, Clive Tyldesley is in the news today after he posted a video complaining about ITV replacing him as their number one commentator. I like Clive and he probably should be ITV’s number one, but this shit happens all the time. Sam Matterface is younger and they probably see him as the future, so they’ve promoted him perhaps to prevent him leaving. Clive should know how this works and I’ll be honest, I was a little uncomfortable with him whining like that. A few of the lads were discussing it in the groupchat and it kind of reminded me of this, with Clive Tyldesley as Johnny Sac and me in the Phil Leotardo role…. Wednesday Jul 8: Arsenal 2 L 1. I know it’s over the top and I know most of you reading this won’t feel the same, but I’m genuinely appalled by this. Not because we lost. Because of who we lost to. We should never be losing to those bums. It’s embarrassing because Arsenal are a disgrace. The only way they would be able to beat us was if we beat ourselves and that’s what we did. Clearly some of our players have just as low an opinion of Arsenal as I do, but that’s not ok. It’s ok for me to think they’re a pathetic, quivering mess who capitulate any time they face someone half decent. I never have to get on the pitch with them so if I under-estimate them it doesn’t matter. The players can’t be that complacent, but they were and they ended up with egg on their faces. The Arteta love-in is making me sick. He’s done nothing but because he’s spent time with Guardiola and he’s young and well groomed, people think he’s the bees knees. I actually saw references to an “Arteta masterclass” tonight. You fucking what? They couldn’t get out of their own half. This was utter domination from us but we literally handed them two goals and then squandered chances to bury them. Masterclass? If this was replayed ten times we’d win every one. But we didn’t win this because as I said in the match report it was the tortoise and the hare. We took them too lightly and it bit us in the arse. I mean fucking hell, Virgil doesn’t do that unless he’s relaxed almost to the point of being comatose. Then for Alisson to follow it up with a daft mistake of his own, it just shows that there’s a lack of focus. Not a lack of effort. The players are putting in the shift and they desperately want to win, but they just don’t have quite the same focus they had when the stakes were higher. Even so, you don’t lose to this fucking Arsenal team. Jesus. Also today, the City thing is rumbling on in predictably depressing fashion, with some daft bastards making them out to be some oppressed underdog. I mean fucking hell. Martin Samuel is now being deified by City fans and Evertonians for going after the ‘hateful eight’. Yeah, that’s the name he’s given (no doubt fed to him by City’s press office) to eight of the PL’s top ten clubs who complained about City’s cheating. The only two who didn’t were City themselves, and Sheffield United. So yeah, in Bluto’s eyes City are the good guys in all this, the valiant little guy being held down by the elite. In an entirely unrelated bit of info, did you know that Martin Samuel’s son works for Manchester City? Thursday Jul 16: Yasser Larouci is off this summer. He’s still got a year left so this is a little bit surprising. He won’t sign a new deal because he wants to play, which is fair enough, but it’s also a decision I think he’ll regret. He’s training with the first team so he’s not a million miles away from it and he’s only 19. He should stay and go out on loan. He’s talented but needs a lot of work defensively. The clubs he’s being linked with are clubs that would probably take him on loan too, so I don’t see why he’s in such a rush but whatever, it’s his choice. If he does leave then it would make sense for us to sign another young left back (even if it’s just for the 23s), especially as Adam Lewis is supposed to be going out on loan. Maybe they’ll just promote James Norris, as that kid can play. Meanwhile, I found this really funny. Have a read of these quotes and then try to guess which former player it is. I bet you can't. "Look, if we had got beat, I'd have accepted it. Fair enough, we've gone to Arsenal and we lost. But they didn't beat us, we handed it to them on a platter. They had three shots on our goal and scored two, we had 24 attempts and scored one. "I'm raging. It's about making more history. I get it, 30 years not winning the league and now we've won it, but what, then we get complacent? "Let's go on to win a bit more, let's be a great team like Man City have been over the last two years. They've won the league and everyone's human so they feel they've got nothing to play for now. But it's like, subconsciously, they're in holiday mode and they've just come off the boil a little bit, but they should keep going. "We've won the league and we haven't really been allowed to celebrate it properly so why not create a little bit more?" Honestly, you’ll never guess in a million years. I actually agree with almost all of it, but the reason it’s so funny is because who said it. Someone not in the least bit qualified to be making any kind of criticism of this squad or of players not showing a great attitude. The other thing that’s so funny is referring to the Reds as ‘we’ when he was only here five minutes. In fact, he spent considerably more time at Arsenal, which makes this even more amusing. If you still haven’t guessed, I'll reveal at the end. Friday Jul 17: Oh here we go. The German media are reporting that we’re in talks with Bayern over Thiago after Klopp told the owners he wants him. There’s a big difference in our valuation and Bayern’s and the clubs are far apart. Could be true, but it all reeks of clickbait to me. Say that Klopp wants him but add the caveat that the owners need to back him. So when it doesn’t happen Bild are in the clear as they can just say “we were right, Klopp wanted him but y’know, FSG penny pinchers and that”. My take on it is that these stories coming out of Germany today are most likely bollocks. I’ll say it again, unless Wijnaldum (or Keita or Ox, I guess) is leaving we won’t be signing Thiago. I forgot to mention this the other day when it became official, but Leeds are back in the big time. I wouldn’t say I’m happy about it but I don’t begrudge them it as they’ve had a shitty time of it since Ridsdale almost bankrupted them trying to win the league. Like everyone else, I love Bielsa. He seems like a top fella and I always enjoyed watching Chile when he was the coach. The Premier League is going to be more interesting with him - and Leeds - in it, so welcome back, I guess. Saturday Jul 18: Ok what the fuck is going on here? Arsenal 2 City 0. What kind of sorcery is this? It has to be the lack of fans. There’s no other explanation for Arsenal actually demonstrating a spine like this. Or maybe there is, and maybe it’s not about Arsenal. Maybe City just aren’t that good anymore? There’s a shitload of evidence to back that up now. Nine league defeats and now this. THIS? You just don’t see City losing important games to inferior sides like Arsenal. It doesn’t happen, that’s why they’ve been hoovering up all the domestic cups year on year. What we’ve seen this year is that they’ve vulnerable and can be got at, and no-one knows that more than Arteta. He used his inside knowledge of them to expose their defensive frailties, but not just that, he knew how to stop them too. Ok, Arsenal could easily have conceded a few today and City had their chances, but it wasn’t exactly an onslaught was it? Beating us the other night didn’t really mean anything as we essentially beat ourselves. This was different though. They deserved this and its weirding me out. City remain the biggest threat to us but they need new blood and given their record in the transfer market in recent seasons there’s no guarantee that the massive FFP defying splurge they’re bound to go on this summer will make that much difference. Guardiola has spent over £250m on defenders alone, and they’ve got a shit defence. How has he escaped criticism for that? Think about it. All we ever hear about when it comes to City’s defensive troubles is “well Kompany retired” or “they’d have been ok if Laporte hadn’t gotten injured”. Sorry, but if you spend £265m on defenders you shouldn’t ever concede another goal ever again. Ok, that’s a little over the top but you get my point. Imagine if another manager had spent that much to end up with an even worse defence than before. This bald twat has the wool pulled over so many people’s eyes. He’s obviously a brilliant coach, I won’t dispute that (he may even be the best) but when it comes to buying players his record leaves a lot to be desired. Still, when you have a bottomless pit of cash you can afford mistakes. Sunday Jul 19: Hahaha fucking hell, so much for this United revival. What a farce this was. Maguire scoring an own goal, their much vaunted forward line doing fuck all and De Gea gifting Chelsea two goals. I hope Chelsea win it now as I’d much rather see Lampard having some success than Arteta. On the radio yesterday there was a discussion about why Lampard has been given an easier ride than other managers, including Sarri and Solskjaer. The journalist who was on (didn’t catch his name) said it’s partly because he’s a nice fella who is accommodating with the media and answers whatever questions they put to him. I agree to a point, but it’s not just that though. It’s partly because he had a great playing career and doesn’t have an epic fail on his CV like Solksjaer, and also because he’s known for being a very intelligent fella. He gets the benefit of the doubt because it feels like he should be a good manager, regardless of whether he turns out to be one or not. The other reason he hasn’t had the kind of scrutiny Solskjaer has is because he hasn’t had a terrible run of results. They’ve had loads of bad results but they tend to be spread out rather in one run. Chelsea are just wildly inconsistent but when they’re good they look like they’re on the right road. I reckon (or maybe it's hope?) this is just who they’ll always be under Lampard. Some good, some bad. Same with United under Solksjaer really. Enough quality to sometimes look really good, but neither Lampard or Solskjaer are going to be elite level managers. The De Gea thing is just mad though isn’t it? I was thinking about this after the game. I remember writing that other than Fernando Torres the most staggering fall from a cliff I can remember is Joe Hart. Torres could at least blame injuries for his fall from grace but Hart just went from being a great player to a bum almost overnight. Now he doesn’t even have a club. I feel sorry for him actually as I thought he looked pretty good for Burnley earlier this season. They kept losing but he was their best player. Then they brought Nick Pope back in and started picking up wins, which kind of made Hart look bad even though he wasn't the problem. I tell you something though, I’d much rather have Joe Hart than De Gea these days. This guy is making mistakes at a rate even Jordan Pickford is struggling to match. And it’s been going on for long enough now that it isn’t a run of poor form, it’s just who he is. It’s been the most incredible fall from grace because it doesn’t feel like that long ago he was the only thing keeping United competitive. Now he's arguably the biggest thing holding them back. Along with Maguire. And Pogba. And Solskjaer. Monday Jul 20: With Bournemouth looking like they’re doomed the carcass is already being picked as City are signing Nathan Ake for £35m. Can’t say this concerns me too much. He’s alright like, decent player, but he plays in Laporte’s position and he’s not better than him. Maybe they’ll play him left back? He can’t do any worse than their other options there. Shit, Purple Aki would be an improvement on Zinchenko. There’s some talk that we might be interesting in a Bournemouth player too. That young left back they signed from Bristol City. His name escapes me right now but we wanted him before he went there and he turned us down to get regular football. He didn’t really get it though did he? He’s only played a few games unless I’m mistaken. The young left back at Norwich (Lewis I think) is another who we’ve been linked with. I haven’t watched him closely and don’t have much of an opinion of him, but I’m not going to look down my nose on any player we might choose to take from a relegated side and Gini and Robbo have done alright haven’t they? Shaq too. You can pick up some decent players from the teams that go down. Finally, the mystery player is Jermaine Pennant. …..and that was the week that was

This season TLW has travelled far and wide to get some fascinating opinions from opposition supporters. We last spoke to @chelseaseason writer Karan Dubey ahead of the clash at Stamford Bridge in September and it is fair to say a lot has happened both on and off the pitch since then. There is not often a dull moment at Stamford Bridge and Karan gives his thoughts into Frank Lampard’s first season as Blues manager, the rapid improvement of Christian Pulisic, and how he sees Timo Werner fitting into their line-up He also pays a glowing tribute to the 2019/20 champions. How would you judge Chelsea’s form since the restart? I think we’ve been pretty good, for the most part, since the restart. We’ve had 7 wins and 2 losses across all competitions, which isn’t bad considering we beat Man City, Leicester and an in-form Man United in the process, but those two losses against West Ham and Sheffield United have been embarrassing and avoidable. There has also been a lot of criticism directed at our defence and the goal-keeper, and to be honest, we haven’t been good enough at the back (it would help if we had an Alisson and Van Dijk, even Lamps admitted that much!), but there have been some clear signs of improvements of late. A finish in the top four and an FA Cup trophy, and I will consider this a successful season Who do you believe has been Chelsea’s player of the season and what makes you come to that conclusion? It’s a tough question because there hasn’t been one single player who has stood out week in week out for the whole season. There have been a few who have had their moments; Tammy Abraham is our top goal-scorer and he was brilliant in the first half of the campaign, however, he has been blowing cold since January. Willian and Giroud have been absolutely scintillating since the restart and so has been Christian Pulisic, but have they done enough over the course of the season? I doubt it! So, if I had to go with someone here, I would probably say Mateo Kovacic, for me. The stats might not be on my side, but he’s just as important to our midfield as Jordan Henderson is for Liverpool. I would go as far as saying that he’s our most important player, the one that makes our midfield tick. Believe me, the lad is almost unpressable, rarely makes mistakes in possession, works like a donkey off the ball and can pick out passes from nowhere. I don’t exaggerate when I say that he’s one of the most under-rated players in the League and deserves more recognition. So, yeah, I would go with Kova. Christian Pulisic seems to be a player who has really thrived since the resumption, and what do you make of his steady improvement? Christian Pulisic came to Chelsea with great but unfair expectations. It didn’t help his case that he was seen as an Eden Hazard replacement straightaway. It doesn’t matter how good you are, if you are just arriving in the premier League as a 20-year-old and you are already expected to replace someone like Eden, it’s just an unfair and unrealistic expectation, isn't it? And you could see that in his play at the start of the season. He had a real desire to make things happen, but he was constantly bullied off the ball. It took him a while, and a few injuries (welcome to the Premier League!) before he could start to adapt to this league. I guess the lockdown helped him immensely too, as he came out physically stronger with more mass on his body, which you need in this League as a winger. Pulisic has definitely been one of our most important players since the re- start with the number of goals/assists that he has racked up in the last few weeks. He’s super quick on that left wing, a good dribbler of the ball and can score world-class goals. Sounds familiar? No, he’s not as good as Mane, yet, but there aren’t many in the world who are! Plus he’s still got time on his side to improve further. Hopefully, he can build on his recent performances. One player who has been a consistent player for a number of years is Willian. Do you feel his contract issue will be resolved and if not how much of a hole will he leave in your squad? I talked about under-appreciated talents with Kovacic, but if there’s been one player in Chelsea’s history who has never gotten the recognition he deserves from the fans, it’s probably Willian. I know a lot of Chelsea fans would probably disagree with me here. And to be fair to them, Willian’s goals/assists column has never been as good as you would expect from a Chelsea starter. But the fact of the matter is that the Brazilian has been an undisputed starter for the club for the last 6 years under a plethora of different managers and that doesn’t happen by luck! He’s one of the hardest workers, a full-backs dream as he provides constant help and support on the wing, rarely injured, very unselfish and on his day he can be as good as anyone in the business. Considering his contract situation, it’s clear, he wants a new 3-year-contract, while the club is only ready to offer him two. As a Willian fan, I hope both the parties can meet somewhere in the middle because you don’t realise someone’s true worth until they are gone, and I’m pretty sure that will be the case with Willian. I read somewhere that Liverpool are one of the clubs that are monitoring the situation, in case he’s available. In the worst-case scenario, he would be as good a backup as any to Salah and Mane, best case; he even pushes Salah for starts... While the Brazilian may be a departure in the summer, one highly prized addition is Timo Werner who was linked to a number of Europe’s biggest clubs. How do you think he will complement your other forwards and what does his signing mean for someone like Tammy Abraham who has taken considerable steps forward this season? First of all, I can’t thank you guys enough! I was pretty stoked for the Pulisic transfer, but then you guys did it again with Werner. So, thank you for that! Regarding how he fits in, well, I’ve seen a lot of RB Leipzig matches this season and one thing that became clear to me is that he’s not your out and out striker. Leipzig usually played with 2 guys upfront in a counter-attacking setup with Werner just playing off of the big target man upfront. I guess that's one route Lampard can take with Giroud/Tammy being the target man and Werner playing off of them. In that case, it won’t be detrimental to Tammy’s game-time and they can work together. Being a versatile player, Werner can also start on the left-wing, play as a no.10 and can also be tried as a traditional no. 9 against a possession based team where we are set up for counter-attacks. Could he also play the Firmino role for us? We’ll just have to wait and see. He’s certainly got the talent and skills to fit in any system and we couldn’t be more excited to watch him play for us. While the front third of the pitch seems in good shape, the defence is seemingly another story and something that Frank Lampard has acknowledged needs addressing. Who do you think could be under pressure to keep their spot in the current starting line-up and is there a defender on the market that you would love to see? Defence has definitely been our Achilles heel this season and as much as it has to do with the personnel, a lot of it is also the consequence of the way we play against the so-called smaller teams where we go gung-ho on attack and leave ourselves susceptible to the impending counter-attacks. It’s been our story of the season and the absence of Kante in front of the back four hasn’t really helped us in that regard. Regarding who is under pressure to keep their place, I would say Kepa Arrizabalaga is the one whose time is probably up at the Bridge. Frank Lampard doesn’t seem to trust the Spaniard anymore and he’s the one who will probably face the axe before any of our centre-backs. We’ve been linked to Dean Henderson amongst others, and I think he could be an ideal buy for us and should sort out some of our organisational issues during the corners and the set-pieces. There’s also been a hunt for the left-back with Chelsea being linked to Ben Chillwell. I hope we don't sign him though as I don’t really trust him defensively. We now see a fierce three-way battle for the final two spots in the Champions League. Do you think qualifying for the top four gives Lampard a pass mark or do you think he has earned that already especially with the difficult circumstances he took the job? Jose and Spuds did us a favour with their 3-0 win against Leicester on Sunday night. Man United aren’t as good as everyone (mostly their annoying fans and Gary Neville) seem to think they are, so I think a 3rd place finish is very much achievable, plus an FA Cup trophy too, hopefully. Regarding Lampard’s first year, if you go back to the start of the season, almost none of the pundits gave us a chance to finish in the top 4. I remember guys like Gary Neville blabbering around that we would be lucky to finish in the top 6 while Man United challenges for the League. Good times. Honestly, considering everything (no Hazard, transfer ban, new manager, young squad), I would’ve been happy with a Europa League spot and a deep run in a few of the cup competitions before the start of the season. The fact that we are still fighting for the top 4, have a chance at the FA Cup, (an outside chance against Bayern in the UCL), I would say it has been a really good season for us. Now, if we can just finish it off professionally, (and hopefully, Leicester bins out United on the last day as a bonus) it would be a perfect season! What overall improvements are needed for your club to close the gap on Liverpool and Man City next season? First of all, we would need patience. This is probably the first time in a long, long time that both the fans and the owners are on a similar wavelength as far as the direction of the club is concerned. Roman Abramovich is known for being immensely impatient, and the fanbase has just been a reflection of that sort of attitude. However, it may not have been planned, but we’ve stumbled on to a more stable model by chance. Both the fans and the owners are willing to display patience with the new gaffer even if we miss out on the Champions League spot. I’ve never heard of that kind of sentiment in my life as a Chelsea fan. Usually, we would have already lined up a replacement by now! But, the fact that we are willing to accept a trophyless season or two and build up more organically and steadily compared to the recent years is a good sign for the long-term. Liverpool has already shown us that if you have a world-class manager and a genius Sporting Director, you can achieve great things by displaying patience and can sustain that success for a longer period of time. We are hoping to emulate that with Frank and Petr Cech. Only time will tell if we are successful but it’s a step in the right direction. On closing the gap, we also need to be smarter in the transfer market. Timo Werner and Hakim Ziyech are brilliant signings and so would be Kai Havertz, if we can pull that off. Again, Liverpool didn’t reach the top of the mountain in a single season. We need to back Lamps and trust in the process. Under Jürgen Klopp playing at Anfield had become a more daunting prospect than ever before for opposition sides. While there will be no fans in attendance, it is sure to be a special evening with the presentation of the league trophy. How confident are you of taking something from this important fixture and which player(s) in particular needs to have a big game for you to do that? It’s going to be a very special night for the Liverpool fans and the players on Wednesday. The long wait is finally over and no matter what anyone says, the Premier League trophy is well deserved. In fact, this Liverpool side is probably one of the best sides of all time and while most of the opposition fans hate to accept that fact, the truth is they are going to talk about this team in a decade as one of the very best that ever graced the pitch. Like I said, it’s going to be a special night for you guys, so I’m hoping the players would have had a few beers before the game, hopefully, right? I think not a single player, but collectively, we need to have an immaculate game, if we want to take anything away from this fixture. We would need to defend as a team, don’t let the likes of Mane, Salah and Firmino get on the ball in dangerous positions and have our counters on point. Up front, a lot will depend on Giroud holding the ball, dealing with Van Dijk and bringing the likes of Willian, Pulisic and Mount with his linkups and one-twos. Also Man United play West Ham a couple of hours prior to this game and if the Hammers beat the Mancs (will love to see Gary Neville’s face after that!), we would qualify for the top 4 anyway and we might see a more open game, else, it would be us sitting back, soaking the pressure and playing on the counter. While my mind says it would be a hard-fought 1-1 draw, my heart says do us a favour and lose 2-1. We will even let Harvey Elliott score his first goal!

Chelsea kicked things off for this round of fixtures with an unconvincing 1-0 win over already relegated Norwich. They never looked in danger of conceding but it hardly inspires any confidence they'll hold United off for a Champions League place. Giroud headed the only goal of the game. I said last week he’s never really been given the credit he deserves and he’s very under-rated. Gary Lineker then tweeted it. So if you’re reading this, Gary, feel free to use my “Portuguese Gylfi” line next time you’re talking about that Fernandez twat. Chelsea though. Fucking pricks, they’ve put us in a situation whereby beating them will almost certainly put United in the Champions League next season. I’m genuinely resentful over this. Chelsea should have wrapped this up weeks ago and we could have avoided this unpleasantness. I want us to beat them but it’s going to annoy me if we do because of the consequences. I wonder what will happen to Norwich over the next few weeks as they have some decent young players they might not be able to keep hold of. Aarons, Lewis and Cantwell might all be in demand this summer. Tim Krul is too good for the Championship as well. I’d actually take him over Adrian if he was available on the cheap. Krul is an ideal number two for a top club, assuming he's willing to accept that role. Maybe he just wants to play? He’s a bit of a knobhead like, but then so was Adrian. Speaking of knobheads, Man City beat Bournemouth 2-1 in a surprisingly competitive game. Having gone 2-0 up I’m sure we all expected them to go on and get five again, but Bournemouth gave it a right good go. David Silva put City in front with a quality free-kick. Keeper shouldn’t be getting beat like that though. Wasn’t even in the corner. Stanislas went within a whisker of an equaliser with a free-kick of his own that was tipped onto the post by Ederson. It bounced back off the post, hit his stupid fucking head and hit the post again before bouncing clear. That free-kick incidentally came about when Solanke dribbled past Otamendi and was brought down. You know how they keep stats on who has dribbled past Van Dijk and it’s seen as a badge of honour? They need to do the reverse on Otamendi. Anyone who hasn’t dribbled past that shit cunt needs to be named and shamed. Bournemouth were piling on the pressure now and Solanke and Billing both went close before Jesus jinked his way into the box past a couple of defenders to make it 2-0. King thought he’d pulled a goal back when he tapped in at the back post but the linesman’s flag went up. He looked a mile off at normal speed but the replay showed it was incredibly close. Not close enough though and VAR disallowed it. I’m not just saying this because it’s City but I don’t know how you can determine that this is offside. The freeze-frame isn’t accurate enough to prove one way or another because this was literally millimetres between King’s toe and Stones’ heel. If you were to take that back a frame or two then he’s onside, so this is the problem I have with it. Are they freezing the shot at the moment they *think* Stanislas makes contact with the ball or the moment they *think* it leaves his foot? And either way, you can’t get it right to the exact split second. Tell you what though, it looks like it was going in anyway and King didn’t need to touch it. I'd be pissed off I were Stanislas. Bournemouth were all over them though and that Dan Gosling jabroni had an effort cleared off the line by Gundogan. Then Lee Mason from Manchester awarded City a pen when Jesus went down under a challenge from Cook. To be fair, it looked like a pen at normal speed and it’s only when you look at the slo mo you can see Cook took the ball first. VAR over ruled it and said no pen, which was probably the correct call but still annoyed me anyway because we’ve seen so many terrible decisions not changed, so why overturn this one when it was nowhere as bad a decision as others we see week in week out? Callum Wilson fired just wide as Bournemouth continued to push forward. Brooks eventually got them the goal they deserved late on and Wilson fluffed a good chance in stoppage time to equalise. They look like they’ve finally rediscovered some form but it may have come too late. They had 14 attempts to City’s 8, which takes some doing. Final one on this, you know who I have an irrational hatred of these days? Rodolfo Borrell. I can’t stand the cunt. By all accounts he’s a top fella and was very popular when he ran our Academy, but every time I see him stood next to that baldy bastard on the touchline I instinctively mutter “fuck off you, you fat prick”. It’s the Guardiola effect. I despise Arteta for the same reason. And I’m starting to warm to Mourinho just because he clearly hates Guardiola. Don’t get me wrong, I still want Spurs to lose most weeks but I just don’t have it in me to hate arl Jose these days. I reserve the right to change my mind at any point, but for now he’s alright because he thinks Pep is a cunt. Spurs had a good win this week away at Newcastle and have somehow sneaked up to 7th spot. Son put them ahead only for Richie to lash one in from the corner of the box. Hell of a strike, he should score far more goals than he does as he’s a tidy player. I actually think he once had ‘my boy’ status when he was at Bournemouth but I might be mistaken. Kane headed Spurs back in front almost immediately with his 200th career goal. That’s a seriously impressive number for someone who wasn’t a teenage star like an Owen, Rooney or Fowler. He came from nowhere really and hasn’t stopped scoring - or diving, or slobbering - ever since. He added goal number 201 with a close range header. One of the many things I can’t stand about Kane is his habit of answering questions by starting with “yeah no”. It doesn’t bother me as much as his face, voice, hair, chin or diving, but it does annoy me. Mourinho said afterwards “If I was selfish I would tell you that since I came here we are fourth, but I am not selfish I am Tottenham”. Brilliant, the arl say it without saying it routine. Right up there with the “I’m not the type of guy to say I told you so, but if I were then I’d be saying I told you so”. Kept a straight face too. He’s a funny guy. At least he’s funny when he’s 38 points behind us and not really on our radar. If he ever becomes relevant again he'll no longer be amusing. Wolves have completely imploded lately and blown what looked like a good chance of getting top four. The only team they’ve beaten lately are the Blueshite who have been on their holidays since they drew with us. Jiminez brilliantly volleyed them into the lead at Burnley following an explosive burst from my boy Adama but Burnley levelled in controversial circumstances six minutes into stoppage time. Mike Dean gave handball against Doherty and it defo did hit him on the arm, but the main reason he handled it was because he turned his head away from the boot of Chris Wood who attempted and whiffed at an overhead kick. You simply can’t give a pen for that as it’s dangerous play by Wood. Doherty thought he was going to get booted in the face and he instinctively brought up his arm which caused him to inadvertently handle. Kevin Friend on the VAR backed up his mate though and Wood emphatically buried the pen. Smashed it right in the top corner. Great pen. Wolves got screwed though, not for the first time this season. Thankfully Leicester bounced back from their defeat at Bournemouth with a 2-0 win over Sheffield United. Along with Chelsea they’ve been doing their best to open the top four door for the Mancs so this was an important win to keep them hanging on in there. Brendan is still fucking about with his formation though. Remember what got you there in the first place, don’t get too clever. That loser Ayoze Perez broke the deadlock with a low shot from just inside the box. Vardy the hit the post and then put a chance on a plate for Barnes who shot straight at Henderson. A few minutes he did the same again, and once more Barnes shot straight at the keeper. Vardy then teed up Tielemans who also shot straight at the keeper. By this point if I’m Vardy I’m thinking ‘fuck all these losers I’m not passing anymore”. But Vardy is a bigger man than me and he then created a chance for Demarai Gray, who succeeded where the others had failed and made it 2-0 late on. Chris Wilder was brutally honest afterwards, saying “We never deserved anything. I was delighted it was only 1-0 going into the last ten minutes and it would have been the biggest smash and grab there has ever been if we’d got an equaliser because we never deserved it from the first minute to the 94th”. Biggest smash and grab there’s ever been? It wouldn’t have even been the biggest one of this week. He clearly didn’t see what happened at the Emirates the night before. There was more official assisted success for United this week as they somehow escaped from Selhurst Park with three points despite being outplayed for long spells. Palace were denied a clear penalty when Lindelof clumsily impeded Zaha. Here’s the thing about this. I’m always taking the piss about the amount of penalties Palace get. They get them all the time, but when United come to town suddenly it’s a different story. United then immediately went up the other end and scored through Rashford. Disgraceful scenes. Ayew equalised when he arrived at the back post to meet Zaha’s cross. VAR said otherwise. Another one decided by a toenail, and I refer you what I said earlier about how easily manipulated these things are when it comes to the point of contact with the ball. Pretty sure they could just as easily freeze frame that to show Ayew onside. The whole system is shite and open to manipulation. Martial wrapped it up late on with a lovely goal but yet again all the decisions have gone their way. Have a look at this… But yeah, LiVARpool and all that. Villa are still just about hanging on in there after a draw at Goodison. That’s a game they needed to win as Everton have had the deckchairs out for weeks. They took the lead late on through Konsa and Elghazi should made it safe soon after but missed from two yards out. That proved costly as that bum Walcott headed an equaliser three minutes from time. Could be massive that, as Villa should have won easily. They’ve let in too many goals this season but they have tightened up recently. Their problem is all of the centre forwards they’ve used are shite. They don’t have a goalscorer. Remember when Benteke kept them up virtually singlehandedly for about three years? Maybe he needs to go back there to try and rekindle some kind of form, as he’s been dogshit at Palace. Elsewhere, Maupay put Brighton in front at St Mary’s with a tidy finish but Ings levelled to keep himself in with a shout of the Golden Boot. Lovely goal. Great run and cool finish. He also hit the post and had one disallowed for a close offside call. He’s absolute dynamite at the moment. Finally, I’ve saved the worst until last. West Ham are safe now after a comfortable win over Watford, who are still in a spot of bother. Antonio’s snapshot went through the legs of Foster to set the Hammers on their way. Soucek added the second with a diving header. Like I said last week, this fucker seems to score every week yet I’d barely even heard of him prior to lockdown. Where’ve they been hiding him? Declan Rice hit one in from 25 yards to make it 3-0 but Foster just stood and watched it go in. Unusually poor from him. My boy Troy pulled one back after great play by Doucoure but Watford were well beaten in truth. So it’s two from Villa, Bournemouth and Watford. Ideally I’d prefer Bournemouth to escape but looking at the remaining fixtures I’ll be honest, I haven’t got a clue what’s going to happen. Bournemouth have got Southampton at home and Everton away. Watford have got City at home and Arsenal away. Villa have Arsenal at home and West Ham away. I expect Watford to get no points but they have a three point cushion so they might not need any. One draw probably sees them safe. Goal difference is much of a muchness and is too close to call because a heavy defeat for Watford against City cancels out any edge they have in that department. Villa might win both games you know. Arsenal are shite and will be coming off a mauling by City in the FA Cup semi, while West Ham will be on the beach already now. Watford also play Arsenal but the problem for them is that Arsenal will have nothing to play for which makes them more dangerous, especially at home. Arsenal are the ultimate win when it doesn’t matter and lose when it does team, so that doesn’t bode well for the Hornets. So if you push me for a prediction then Villa will be singing “I’m still standing” while poor old Elton will be singing “Sad Songs” or “I guess that’s why they call it the Blues”.

For Peter Moore, it is all about winning. To win is about making the right decision; it is as simple as that. As the CEO of Liverpool Football Club, the new Champions of the EPL, there is nobody better to comment. Here we explore in detail what impact Moore has had at the club and why his influence might have something to do with their success. The history Moore came to Liverpool in 2017. He previously worked in the video game sector for mega-companies such as Sega, EA Sports and Microsoft. This might seem like an odd background for the CEO of a sporting franchise. However, there are a lot of crossovers in terms of keeping a fanatical base happy under immense pressure. Therefore, his move from gamers to football fans wasn’t a massive deal to the new CEO. You also shouldn’t doubt this British-American’s businessman’s passion for the city. He was born in Liverpool and studied at nearby Keele University. He received his Master’s degree in California before spending some time as a PE teacher in North Wales. Such a unique CV might have you doubting his vision, but he has always been connected with business and sport in some way - therefore business boss at the leading football club in the world seems a fitting place for the man to end up. It is also not surprising that Moore was chosen to run the business side of the club when the owners of Liverpool are the American’s Fenway Sports Group. Moore then becomes the perfect bridge between the passion of being a Liverpudlian and understanding the vision of an American company. His vision for the club It is not surprising that the connection with the fans is of prime concern to Peter Moore. He has spoken at length about how these super-clubs in Europe seem to be becoming more and more detached from the supporters. His experience in the gaming world has taught him that you need to constantly persuade the gamer to part with their money, as they have no obligation to buy. In football, the clubs assume that there is a continued obligation that the fans invest in the club. However, Moore is clear that without transparency and empathy, you will never let the fans into the inner world of the club. It is this lesson that he wants to imprint throughout the Liverpool franchise. He is onto a winner, and he knows it. Liverpool is a unique football club that has an incredibly emotive history. The fans are filled with a passion that rightly gets called fanatical. The fans demand accountability at all levels of the club, from the players to the manager and to those in the top office. He holds this accountability close for every decision he makes for Liverpool Football Club, knowing there is a community looking on who deserves this level of care. His recent moves A recent decision has raised some eyebrows in the footballing world. He has sought to trademark the word “Liverpool” in the context of football products and services. There are two other clubs in the city that might have concerns about this. However, you can see how this would make a sound business decision and bring revenue to the club. It is what has helped Manchester United become one of the richest clubs in the world - it is the power of the brand. However, as Liverpool is a proud city, it was always going to be controversial and might have shown Moore’s first disconnect with his hometown. However, in the process of this unsuccessful application, we saw the talk of the man put into practice. Throughout the process he sought consultation with multiple parties, looking to address the concerns they had. He maintained the transparency and accountability that he stated was so important to him in his leadership. Although engaging with the fans on issues such as this is a huge job, it is essential to his success in the role. He again uses his gaming experience to connect with stakeholders using various platforms. However, he is also happy to be unpopular if necessary. He pointed out that there are times when you have to make decisions that are right for the long-term health of the club. These, in the short-term, might be unpopular to fans and it is then Moore’s role to take the hits. He knows the passion of the fans and he realises that this will hit hard at times. However, his continued commitment to communication will carry him through these difficulties. One cog Peter Moore has been a part of the increased success of a club. However, he is realistically just one cog in a machine that is running smoothly right now. The sporting director Michael Edwards deserves a lot of credit at doing some astonishing business for the club. He had sold well and then bought as his head coach requested. We then should look to Klopp who has been instrumental in raising the hopes and the strong sense of belief in the Kop. Peter Moore accepts the crucial part that Edwards and Klopp have played in the club’s success. As he noted himself, it is his role to make sure they have the resources they need to continue to be as successful as they have been in the past. He also pointed to the more than 800 people who work for the club who don’t kick a football. He, therefore, fully accepts he is part of an incredible team. And maybe, this is why he is so successful.

You know that story about the tortoise and the hare? Well this was it played out in the form of a football match. Literally the only way Arsenal could win this game is if we took them too lightly and allowed it to happen, and sure enough we did. They couldn’t beat us any other way. That’s just a stone cold fact. The gulf between us and Arsenal is the biggest it’s been in my lifetime. This is arguably the best side we’ve ever had and it’s without the question the worst Arsenal side I've seen. I’m actually offended that we lost to them. I’m steaming about it in fact. It’s partly about the points record, but it’s mostly that we lost to an Arsenal side that I couldn’t possibly have a lower opinion of. They’re a fucking disgrace. A cowardly, spineless, and yet somehow irrationally deluded and smug, disgrace. If there’s one team I can’t stand losing to it’s this Arsenal side because I’ve got less respect for them than I have any other side in the league. Arsenal have had some great sides in the past and as a club I've always respected them. Now though I actually get wound up by how shit and gutless they are. I don't even take pleasure from them losing these days, I just get irrationally pissed off by what they've become. They’re pathetic, weak and spineless and we should never be losing to them in a million years. Some of our players clearly felt the same way. How else can you explain Virgil and Alisson taking the liberties they did? Others did too only they weren’t punished as severely. Like I said, classic tale of “the Tortoise and the Hare”. Arsenal only got near our goal three times all night, and two of those only happened because we passed the ball straight to them in our own box. They created next to nothing of their own and were so inferior it was embarrassing. Not as embarrassing as actually losing to these wastrels though. Look, I know it doesn’t matter and that next week when Hendo is lifting the trophy this result will be an irrelevant footnote on a glorious season. I get it, and if this game doesn’t bother you that’s sound. I respect your right to not give a shit and I hope you respect mine to be annoyed as fuck about it. Fucking Arsenal? Jesus Christ lads. There was always a danger that results would suffer once the title was won and maybe I was naive to think any different. It’s happened before - Graeme Souness doesn’t seem to be able to go five minutes without mentioning it - and it isn’t about a lack of effort. You can see in all the games we’ve had since the restart that the effort and commitment is there. There’s no slacking off and you can tell that the lads desperately want to win every game and are pissed off when they don’t. Effort isn’t the problem, but focus definitely is. Stupid little errors have crept in that simply weren’t there when we were still trying to secure the title. Souness describes it as losing “one or two percent” and that no matter how much the team he played in wanted to win they were powerless to do anything about it. That’s what we’re seeing now and while it’s completely understandable it’s still a real shame that the season is petering out like this. It’s like a long distance runner who knows the race is already won. Does he sprint for the line and get the world record, or slow down because he’s won and knows no-one can catch him? We could have been the greatest champions this country has ever seen. Now we won’t be. The City ‘Centurions’ were in a similar situation to us but they didn’t let points slip at the end, they kept grinding away amassing as many points as they could. That’s why they can claim to be the best ever (despite the big asterisk due to the arl illegal spending) and we can’t. Well, we can, but there’s not really any statistical basis in it really. Not now. We could have kept sprinting flat out to the finish line but instead we stopped to wave at friends and family, to sign a few autographs and to chat up the hot girl standing my the finish line. And while we were doing that the fucking Arsenal tortoise crawled past us. I’m not taking this one very well at all because it’s Arsenal. After the Burnley result I was pissed off for the players, not pissed off with them. Against Burnley they were unlucky and I felt bad for them. Against Arsenal they got exactly what they deserved, which seems a strange thing to say when you see the massive disparity in possession and shots. Statistically we battered Arsenal and if you didn’t see the game you’d think that we were just massively unlucky and it was a freak result. It was a freak result but we were anything but unlucky. We got what this rank complacency deserved. It all started so well too. We were in complete control and Arsenal looked scared stiff. We took the lead when Robbo crossed for Mané to finish. Those two were our best players on the night and couldn’t have done much more than they did. Everything was fine up until the drinks break though. For the third time since the restart we gave up a goal almost immediately after one of these breaks. Focus, you see. I can’t believe Virg did that you know. But then on the other hand I sort of can. The only weakness he has is that the game is often so easy for him that he can get a little too relaxed occasionally. This was beyond relaxed, he was almost comatose when he played that backpass. What made it even worse was his desperate appealing for a free-kick. Yeah Pepe did pull him a little and that might have impacted the pass, but even if the VAR feed was hooked up to my living room and the ref asked my opinion, even I wouldn’t have given a free-kick for that. There is nothing in this world that will convince me that Virgil would have done that if we were still chasing the title. As I keep saying, it’s not that the lads aren’t putting in the effort or that they aren’t desperate to win, but they’ve just mentally switched off a fraction and at this level that is fatal, even against bums like Arsenal. Alisson’s mistake soon after wasn’t anything like as glaring as Virgil’s, but in some ways it was even worse. Having seen us give away such a sloppy goal everybody’s senses should have been heightened and their concentration levels off the scale. So for Alisson to then do what he did is really fucking irresponsible. Fabinho also presented the ball to Arsenal in our final third too but he got away with it. What the fuck was going on? You know what we missed here?Hendo. He’s the one that keeps everyone on point and his absence was glaring. On the touchline as all of this was unfolding Klopp looked like he wanted to kill someone. Him and me both. I was hoping he’d get stuck right into them at half time because for one of only a handful of occasions in recent years they genuinely needed a rocket up them. Who knows whether he did or not, but if he did the second half performance certainly didn’t reflect it. The stupid mistakes were gone but by that point the damage had been done. The horse had bolted. Now it was up to the forwards to show their worth and help out the lads at the back. Predictably they failed to do it. I say predictably because my faith in our forward line has just steadily diminished over the course of the season. We’ve gone from a team that a couple of years ago could score at will but who conceded too many to one that’s generally very secure at the back but doesn’t score anywhere near as many as before. We used to be involved in far too many shoot outs but we usually just about edged them because of the firepower we have. Now when the defence has a rare off day the forwards don’t bail them out much. We've done brilliantly these last two years but what can I say, I'm greedy and I want the prolific goalscoring of a couple of years back to accompany the maturity and resilience we now have. I’m largely exonerating Sadio from these all too frequent concerns I’m airing about the forwards as he’s been on a steady upwards curve since he arrived. He gets better every year and he’s gone from being the number three to the number one and it’s not even close anymore. He's great. Salah’s finishing is so up and down though that he can go from Ian Rush to Stuart Barlow in the blink of an eye. He was shite against Arsenal. Just fucking shite. There’s no other way of putting it. As for Bobby, he was what he’s been far too many times this season. Ineffective. He was subbed yet again. Feels like that happens every week now. Firmino actually looks better when he doesn’t play because when he isn’t there we definitely miss him. That’s more down to the lack of quality in those who replace him than it is about what he’s been bringing to the side though. It’s easy to defend Bobby because of all the little things he does that aren’t always appreciated. I get that, I’m fully aware of his worth to the team and I’ve often said I wouldn’t swap him for any number nine in the world. This season’s Bobby though, yeah there’s quite a few I’d swap him for. Here’s the thing. All those great unselfish things he does with and without the ball that allow his fellow forwards to shine? They’re great and I love him for it. Guess what though, he was doing them two years ago while also scoring 26 goals himself. I want that Bobby back, but maybe that was his equivalent of Salah’s 44 goals season and that it doesn’t reflect who either of them actually are? I hope not, but look at the numbers since and it’s definitely trending that way. Even without the numbers you can see it with your own eyes anyway. Both of them need a bounce back year, which I realise sounds an incredibly spoilt and entitled thing to say considering the season the team has had. I’m not wrong though. They set ridiculously high standards for themselves and they are now failing to live up to them. If we are to sustain the success we’ve had these last couple of years then we’re going to need more from Salah and Firmino than we’ve had this season, because the number of narrow margin victories we’ve had isn’t sustainable in the long term. We dominate most games but we often don't have the goals to show for it. That’s just obvious to me, we need more from those two, especially as it seems clear that we won’t be shaking things up by adding a fourth forward to the mix. Competition brings out the best in people but the front three have none and it’s beginning to show. It’s not just them though. We need more from players like Ox, not to mention Origi and Minamino. Ox got the start in this game and did absolutely nothing to suggest he should be in the side for the next game. I like Ox, we all do, he’s a top lad and he’s had bad luck with injuries. We need to see more from him though. This was a real chance for him to do something and lay down a marker for a place. Instead he did very little and was rightly subbed for Keita, who in turn did nothing. I’m genuinely now thinking that Jones should be ahead of both of them. Am I kidding myself there? Put it this way, I have far more faith and confidence in Jones getting us a goal or making something happen than I do in either Ox or Naby. Arsenal’s defence is as weak as a new born kitten yet I knew early in that second half there was no way we were scoring again. You could just tell. We might have gotten something from a set-piece but I knew we weren’t going to break them down because it was obvious that we were running out of ideas. It was basically just get it to Trent and let him cross it. I had no issue with Klopp taking off Firmino and Salah as I’d had it with both of them by that point. The problem is when you see Origi loping on with his stupid blonde hair you know he’s going to do fuck all. I think it’s clear now that Divock's power was in the dreadlocks. Without them he’s been shite. Tell me I'm wrong? Minamino was kind of spritely and was more involved than Bobby, but he doesn’t inspire any confidence either. I’m hoping for him to do something but I’m never expecting it. That being said he deserves a chance to show what he can do and personally I’d be playing him in Firmino’s role in the final two games as we need to see what he is. He had a penalty shout when he was bundled into by Tierney but I wouldn’t have given that as there wasn’t much in it. He needs to be stronger and he’d have been able to take the chance. I’m trying to think of a defeat that has pissed me off more than this one and I’d have to go back a long time. It’s my own fault as I set myself up for this disappointment due to the complete and utter contempt I’ve got for this Arsenal team. Defeat here was always going to hit me harder than most. It’s not a hatred based on rivalry, it’s based entirely on how offended I am by what Arsenal have become. They fold like a deck of cards any time they face anyone decent and the points they pick up invariably come from beating up on the weak and out of form. They’re a playground bully. I despise how pitiful and meek they have become while still maintaining the arrogance they had when they were good and I see losing to them as probably the most unacceptable thing we can do. I’d have been less angry if we’d lost at Norwich. Losing to this Arsenal team is just completely unacceptable to me, especially when it’s the double whammy of screwing up the chance to beat the points record. Some of you never cared about the record to begin with so there’s no sense of disappointment there. I understand that. At the beginning of the season it wasn’t on my radar either. All that mattered to me was winning the title and anything else was just a nice little extra. When you get into the position we did though, with results that had exceeded literally anything we’d seen before in this country (at one stage it exceeded anything that’s been done in the five major European leagues), you realise that there is an opportunity to do something that will live on for generations. I honestly don’t think we’ll ever get the chance to do this again. We were on course for well over a hundred points up until a couple of weeks ago and now the best we can do is 99, which in itself is still great obviously. You have to seize these opportunities though because chances are you’ll never have it again. Let me tell you a little story. About three years ago I was playing golf and was one under par after 14 holes. Now you have to understand that I’m not actually that good and this was just one of those rare times when everything fell into place. I couldn’t even enjoy how I was playing because the pressure I’d put on myself was fucking huge. I knew I’d probably never be in this position ever again. The chance to finish a round under par? I’d dreamed of it since I first started playing but I’d never gotten remotely close to it. The 15th hole was a tough bastard (in this analogy you can say it’s the away game at the Etihad the other week) and I knew there was a good chance I’d drop something there. And I did. A bogey put me back to level par. But still, if I finished strongly I could still be under par which would be incredible. I’d have killed for three pars and an even par round because I knew it was a once in a lifetime chance. I blew it though. I got through 16 and 17 unscathed and then dropped a shot on the last. It was still the best round I’ve ever had (and ever will have, although I do still live in hope) and I’m proud of what I did. But because of how it ended I still have a slight sense of disappointment. That’s how I’m feeling now about this season. Great, the best I’ve ever seen and overall I’m over the moon about it. But it could have been something for the ages and now it won’t be because we were two over for the last four holes. I’m not arsed about rival fans celebrating us not getting to 100 points. That’s embarrassing for them more than anything if that’s all they have to cling to. I didn’t want to break the record to rub their noses in it, I wanted us to break the record so that these lads would go down in history as the greatest champions ever. I’m not sad for me that they didn’t do it. I’m sad for them. And also angry at them for LOSING TO FUCKING ARSENAL! As for what happens next, I’m past caring now. I’m now in the place some of you were from the moment the title was won. If you didn’t care about records then the season was over as soon as the title was secured. I did care about records and now in the space of three days we’ve blown two of them. So yeah I don’t give a fuck about the last two games now. I have zero interest in them as it means nothing anymore. In fact a tiny part of me will actually be annoyed now if we win them both and end up on 99 points. I want to see Jones, Elliott, Minamino and Williams. Klopp did the right thing by trying to honour the competition and take every game as seriously as if we were still going for the title. He’s picked his strongest team for the most part but they aren’t getting the results so let’s have a look at some players with next season in mind now. Star man is Robbo by the way. Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson; Fabinho, Wijnaldum (Origi), Oxlade-Chamberlain (Keita); Salah (Shaqiri), Firmino (Minamino), Mané:

An interesting round of fixtures this one as there were developments at the bottom and also in the fight for the top four places. I say fight but it's more like three drunks swinging at eachother and falling over. United look the least shitfaced currently, unfortunately as Chelsea appear to have joined Leicester in doing their bit to help them get into the Champions League places. If Leicester and United had won their games this week then Chelsea would have been 5th, which is unthinkable really when they looked nailed on for third not so long ago. They lost 3-0 at Bramall Lane and even allowed David McGoldrick to score. TWICE. McBurnie got the other one and it could have been more as Mousset missed a sitter late on. What a season the Blades have had. It took them a little while to get going after the restart but they’ve hit their stride again now. They’re seventh and only five points from the top four. Those two points they were robbed of at Villa Park the other week look huge now, as they’d have been right up there without that scandalous “hawkeye not working” bollocks. Chelsea are just wildly inconsistent. There’s a lot to like about some of their play and they’ve got some terrific individual players, but they’re basically Arsenal in the latter years of Wenger. Good to watch but soft as shite. I’m annoyed at their incompetence because it now means that if we beat them at Anfield it might just secure a top four spot for United and it sticks in the throat to be doing them any favours. Knocking Chelsea out of the top four would be some consolation though I guess. At the opposite end of the table Watford are still right in the thick of the relegation trouble despite coming from behind to beat Newcastle 2-1. Gayle put the Geordies ahead but two penalties from my boy Troy gave the Hornets a huge three points. Newcastle can pin this loss on the keeper though, who dived out of the way of both penalties. Even I know that Deeney puts his penalties right down the middle with as much power as he can manage, and I don’t have a goalkeeper coach and a team of video analysis nerds advising me. Dubravka either hasn’t done his homework or he was scared of the ball, because he went the full ‘Brad Jones playing dodgeball at Old Trafford’ there. Watford’s fate is still to be decided but Norwich have finally had their relegation officially confirmed after they were ran over by a freight train named Michail Antonio. The big man scored all four goals in an easy win for the Hammers at Carrow Road. I like Antonio, always have. He’s an under-rated player and he’s basically the reason West Ham are likely to stay up. Had he not been injured for so long earlier in the season they wouldn’t be in this situation at all as he’s as important to West Ham as any one player is to any team in the league. Elsewhere, Man City had another one of those runaway wins where they piled it onto a beaten opponent. I couldn’t be arsed watching the highlights so I just forwarded to the next game. I saw what the score was and don’t need to know anything else as we’ve seen this so many times over the last few years. That’s one area in which they’re fucking miles better than we are. We get to 2-0 and it will usually stay like that or end up 2-1 or 3-1. City get to 2-0 then it invariably ends up 5-0. If City were an NFL team they’d still be throwing hail marys and kicking field goals in the dying seconds of blowout wins. If they were in the NBA they’d be up by 20 and still jacking up three point shots at the buzzer instead of allowing the clock to run out. “Running up the score” they call it over there and it’s massively frowned upon. I’m not sure why as I don’t see anything wrong with it myself. Why wouldn’t you try to keep scoring and entertaining your fans? It’s one of the many things about American sports culture that baffles me. So I’m not criticising City for the way they pile it on teams late on when the game is already won because it’s probably the only thing about them I actually admire. I wish we were more like that. Having whalloped Newcastle in midweek they did the same to Brighton. Training session footy in empty stadiums clearly suits them right down to the ground. Helps when you’ve spent years cheating to give yourself an advantage over all of your opponents of course. Onto Sunday now and the North London derby. Jesus Christ, Spurs are fucking boring now aren’t they? Playing in front of no fans is definitely helping them as their fans surely wouldn’t be happy watching this negative, defensive Mourinho-ball. That said, I’m sure they won’t complain too much on this occasion as they got the better of Arsenal despite falling behind to a belting goal by Lacazette. The lead only lasted a couple of minutes as Kolasinic inexplicably played a perfect through ball for Son to run past Luiz and level the score. Alderweireld won it late with a header from a corner. There’s a lot I’d like to say about Arsenal right now but I know better than to do that on the day we’re playing them. So for now, I’ll leave it at that. Moving on, and Villa had taken only two points from the last thirty available but they recorded a massive win over Palace to just about stay within touching distance of safety. Sakho put Palace ahead only for it to be disallowed for handball. Ridiculous that, the ball clearly came off his shoulder / back but it’s not the first time we’ve seen goals chalked off for that this season. The rule has been changed for next year I think but Villa got away with one there. They took advantage of the let off when Trezeguet arrived at the back post to put them in front just before half time and then bagged a second after the break. Tempers had been frayed all day with Zaha and Mings going at eachother and Sakho getting involved too. All three were booked and then it went off again at full time with Benteke getting sent off for flicking out a boot at someone. Soft cunt, if you’re going to get suspended then at least make it count. That was just pathetic and Hodgson was rightly seething with him. I said last week how post lock down footy is really difficult to predict as some of the results have been mad. This week’s crazy result came at Bournemouth, where Nice Guy Eddie’s men came from a goal down to completely smash Leicester. No-one saw this coming, especially as Leicester were well on top and controlling the game after Vardy’s early opener and Bournemouth losing their best player to injury in the first half. Nathan Ake looks done for the season judging by how he limped off, but his final involvement was fucking huge as his desperate full length block denied Vardy a certain goal and kept the score at 0-1. Leicester were cruising but then Schmeichel blasted a goal kick straight at Ndidi and the ball fell nicely for Callum Wilson, who was brought down by Ndidi. Stanislas nonchalantly converted the penalty and the game completely changed after that. Solanke finally broke his cherry with a shot that squirmed under Schmeichel, but it was what happened in the aftermath of that that really buried Leicester as Soyuncu was red carded for booting Wilson. The ref had no choice but I can understand why Soyuncu did it. Wilson shoved him into the back of the net and he’s just reacted by kicking him. By the letter of the law it’s a red but if it was me I’d have just booked them both as it doesn’t seem fair to punish Soyuncu more heavily than Wilson there. The retaliator always gets it worse than the instigator though. Here’s a question for you. What’s Soyuncu’s first name? Anyone know? I didn’t have a clue until the graphic came up on MOTD after he’d been sent off. For the record it’s ‘Caglar’ but I guarantee I’ll have forgotten that by next week. Soon it was 3-1 when Evans deflected a Stanislas shot past Schmeichel and then Solanke made it 4-1 with a really nicely taken goal. He wouldn’t have scored that if he hadn’t have relieved the pressure on himself with the earlier goal. I’m genuinely pleased for Solanke, and not just because it might persuade Howe that sending millions our way for unwanted youngsters isn’t such a terrible idea after all. No, I’m just happy for Dom because he looked alright when he was with us (bit of a pre-season Pele though, which I admit suckered me into thinking he was better than he was). He was not good enough to make it here but he wasn’t shit. Since he went there though he’s become something of a running joke so I’m glad that he’s been able to get the monkey off his back now. Hopefully he can score a few more in the next few games and send West Ham down. *checks fixtures* They’ve got City next, so I won’t holiday breath. Leicester are wobbling big time now and Brendan has gone the full 2015 Rodgers. You know when he’s floundering because he starts fucking about with three at the back and just making weird decisions. He’s gonna let United sneak into the top four, the fucking dickhead. Wolves got back on track after two successive defeats with a comfortable win over a disinterested Everton. Some lad called Podence won the penalty that Jimenez converted to put Wolves ahead. He looked good and he was wearing number ten, so how come I’ve never seen him before? Where have they been hiding him? Probably in a lock up somewhere having smuggled him into the country illegally, the player trafficking twats. Dendoncker made it 2-0 and yet another clanger from Pickford looked like it had given Wolves a third, but he just about managed to prevent it going over the line. He’s horrendous. There’s shades of David James about him. Fucks up and then grins like a moron. Jota made it 3-0 when he latched onto what might be the pass of the season by Neves and rifled in a low shot. Sensational goal that. My boy Adama was only on the bench again but it turns out he dislocated his shoulder in the last game so that’s why. Isn’t that injury usually a few weeks on the sidelines? Did he just pop it back in like Riggs in Lethal Weapon? He came on and missed an open goal from six yards when he hit the bar. Embarrassing, but not as embarrassing as Everton’s performance. Ancelotti looked like he was fuming with them afterwards, saying its ok to not play well but you need to show a good attitude and “this is the problem we have”. Heads are gonna roll there I think. There’s a simple solution really. Get Paul McKenna in and trick the players into thinking they’re playing us every week. Job done. Finally, next year’s newly crowned Champions were held to a 2-2 draw at home by Southampton. The Saints went ahead when Pogba lost the ball on the edge of his own box and Redmond crossed for Armstrong to score. Pogba does that a lot but he’s got a boss rating on FIFA and has crazy haircuts so that makes him the world’s best midfielder. Sorry, second best. I forgot about “Portuguese Gylfi” there for a sec. Rashford drew United level and Martial put them ahead with a nice individual goal. Southampton’s defending was shite though. They’re probably two decent centre backs away from being a useful side. At this point United were in the top four but the Saints didn’t lay down and deservedly - and hilariously - equalised through Obafemi in the sixth minute of stoppage time. Couple of interesting stats to finish off. Since Southampton lost 9-0 at home to Leicester they’ve actually picked up more points than them now. And when United sacked Moyes he had 57 points from 34 games. Solskjaer has 59 having played one game more.

Tuesday Jul 7: There’s some talk today that the club are looking at ways of getting fans back into Anfield asap. I expect this to happen sooner rather than later as there are countries around Europe that are playing in front of reduced crowds. I’m desperate to go the game again but don’t know if I’d go yet to be honest. Currently I’m fine as I’ve had the virus and have the antibodies, but no-one seems to know how long those antibodies will keep you protected. I caught the thing at the Atletico match and passed it on to my wife and daughter. Not sure I can really justify going back and putting us all at risk again until we know it’s 100% safe. Realistically there’s no way it can be 100% safe as there are so many variables involved. It has to happen though because clubs need the money. Even the big clubs can’t go on indefinitely like this, but the smaller ones simply have to get fans back in or they’ll go under. Such a fucked up situation this and it’s scary really when you think about it. I mean what’s to stop something like this happening again, only next time it might be an even more severe virus. My Dad has already decided he’s giving it up so the days of us going the game together are over now. I don’t blame him and at least he’s going out with us on top, but it’s pretty fucking upsetting really. All because some dirty bastard ate some bat soup. If you believe that’s what caused it of course. I’m not convinced but ultimately what the fuck do I know about it? Joe Public will never know what caused it. All I know is the people in power throughout the world are generally all unscrupulous, untrustworthy cunts so with that in mind I wouldn’t rule anything out. Anyway, back to footy and Klopp is asked about Brewster’s future and whether he’ll be a part of the squad next season. Typically he gave nothing away and said that any decision would be discussed with Brewster first rather than in a press conference. He’d done alright at Swansea but is he anywhere near at a level where he’s a viable option for our front three? Not for me, Clive. Put it this way, he’s no Mason Greenwood is he? That’s not to say he won’t be a top player in the future but he’s definitely not the prodigy that he was billed as a couple of years ago. I think he’ll be loaned out again but if we were to sell Origi then maybe he’d be kept around. The only thing is, you couldn’t play him wide as it wouldn’t be fair. He’s a centre forward, pure and simple. Mind you, it hasn’t stopped Klopp from shoehorning Divock out there has it? Also today, PSG are said be willing to pay £100m for Rashford. It’s probably bollocks but don’t be surprised to see PSG, City and Chelsea throwing the cash around this summer like Harry and Lloyd in Dumb and Dumber when they got the briefcase open. Wednesday Jul 8: Brighton 1 L 3 Bit of a weird game this. We started like an express train and it looked like we might run away with it. Then it just sort of fizzled out and Brighton got on top. When they equalised it wasn’t a shock. They could have equalised too but Burn fluffed his lines. We tend to be good at weathering the storms though and we cam through it comfortably enough in the end. Keita’s performance was a delight. Very encouraging. Mo was brilliant too. Mixed night for Neco though. I thought he played well but he was left isolated with the lively Lamptey (my boy) too often and a couple of times he got done. The yellow card was really harsh but as soon as that happened he was always getting subbed as Klopp often errs on the side of caution in these situations, and rightly so. Still, he did alright and it's encouraging that he can be an option on the left as well as the right. Didn't look good for Hendo though. Worrying seeing him go off like that, and apparently the dressing room was really subdued afterwards. Klopp said he went in and was saying to them that it's hard winning away from home and they should be enjoying it. Then he saw Hendo and realised why the lads were so down. Thursday Jul 9: Ah bollocks. Hendo is out for the season and maybe the start of the next one. What that means for the shuffle remains to be seen but you’d have to think it’s in serious doubt now. If it’s not one thing it’s another. It’s almost like the football gods are saying ‘fine, you’ve won the title but we’ll be fucked if we’re letting you enjoy it”. Games behind closed doors, no parade, no proper celebrations and now no shuffle? Just fuck off. Meanwhile, Houllier has some big words of praise for Keita and compares him with…. *deep breath* Steven Gerrard. “Keita was playing for a ‘championship’ team in France,” Houllier told the Liverpool Echo. “They were struggling but he was playing everyone off the park. Like when I saw Steven Gerrard; he was practically everywhere and his maturity was impressive, even under pressure. I recommended Salzburg buy him and they followed me. “He has a good attitude. Once he fits in the [ Liverpool ] team, he will stay there.” Actually I’m not sure if he’s praising Keita there or just begging up his own talent spotting. GH loves telling everyone he discovered Gerrard doesn’t he? I’m more on board with Carragher’s take on Keita to be honest: “Keita’s statistics show a top player, but I don’t feel like I see that with my eyes”. Friday Jul 10: John Stones says that Man City believe they’re still the best team in the country. To quote a washed up musician with a arg Paul Weller haircut, this is too funny. They’re 23 points behind us. TWENTY THREE!!! Even if you still believe you’re the best you can’t say it when you’re 23 points behind the Champions as it makes you look like a deluded tit. Honestly, I can’t even put into words how stupid a thing that was to say. but I’ll try! I played golf last night and I played like absolute shit. Genuinely awful. I shot 95. That’s 23 over par, which is ironic because it’s also the number of points City are behind us. What Stones said is the equivalent of me saying I’m a boss golfer. I could have said it two years ago when I shot 73 on Kirkby, and Stones could have said what he said two years ago when they got 100 points and finished miles ahead of everyone else. To say it now, when you’re the Premier League equivalent of me shooting 23 over par? Well it’s just embarrassing, but then that’s Man City isn’t it? I guess it’s easier for Stones to tell himself that though. After all, a big reason they are no longer the best is because they are hugely vulnerable in the position he plays in, yet he can’t even get in the team and this week he was linked with a move back to Everton. Not sure there’s any chance of that considering “money can’t buy you Stones”. Any excuse to post this…. Saturday Jul 11: L 1 Burnley 1. For fuck’s sake. I really wanted that perfect home record and losing it like this feels so frustrating. I’ve just got a real sense of injustice after this. It’s partly our own fault for not taking our chances, but I’m mostly pissed off at the ref and VAR for not giving that clear pen. It’s just a fucking farce. Every week we’re seeing ridiculously bad decisions that aren’t corrected by VAR. I can’t stand it and would like it fucked off, but my view on it has changed over the course of the season. Initially I just hated it because I didn’t want it. I didn’t like the delays and the way it could take the emotion out of celebrating goals because you’re worried it’s going to be chalked off. As it’s turned out, that’s not really been the worst thing about it and I’ve almost got used to it. The reason it’s so shit is because while the technology is great it’s got fucking clowns using it. Refs often aren’t making decisions because they have the safety net of VAR. Sometimes they are making them and they’re thinking “its ok because if I’m wrong VAR will sort it”. Yeah, in theory that’s sound, except VAR isn’t sorting shit because most of the time the gimp in Stockley Park won’t over-rule the ref on the field. In the last few days alone there have been four or five astonishingly bad decisions that either haven’t been overturned or have been allowed to stand. The Robbo penalty today wasn’t even the worst of them. So yeah I still hate VAR and want it scrapped, but my reasons for it are different. I actually now think it could be a good thing in theory, but in reality it’s shit because you’ve still got the same fucking morons making bad calls even when they have the benefit of 40 different camera angles and slow motion replays. I’ve heard some pundits saying that ex players should be involved in the decision making process. No thanks, I’ve seen enough of Shearer and Murphy talking absolute bollocks about penalty decisions to know that won’t work. Besides, who would decide which ex players are covering which games? Knowing our luck we’d have Michael Ball and Paul Scholes making the decisions on our games. So the perfect record is gone and the reaction to it hasn’t been great. A lot of whining and complaining on social media. I’m as pissed off about the result as anyone (except maybe Robbo and Trent based on their ranting at full time!) and there’s nothing wrong with being upset we didn’t win. Keep it in perspective though for fucks sake. It’s fine to want to win every game and to be in a bad mood when we don’t. I’ve got the proper hump here and will have for a few days, but there’s a difference between being pissed off for the players and being pissed off with them. How anyone can be pissed off with a group of lads that ended our 30 year wait for the title is beyond me. That’s social media for you though I suppose. They’re like forums on steroids. Also today, Jack Charlton died. I always liked him until I found out he was into blood sports and enjoyed seeing hounds tear apart defenceless wild animals. So while I’m certainly not glad he’s dead, I can’t say I’m arsed either, which is a shame as I had a lot of time for him once. Any time I hear his name mentioned the first thing I always think of is a story my Dad always tells about going to Elland Road in the 70s. My Dad’s sister lives up there so my Dad was up there visiting one weekend when the Reds were playing Leeds. Him and my uncle went to the game but they were in with the Leeds fans. So anyway, my Dad being my Dad opens his big mouth doesn’t he, calling the Leeds centre half a “big yard dog”. Next thing this big hand is on his shoulder and some bruiser Leeds fan is asking my Dad to repeat what he just said. “I said he’s a big yard dog”. The guy gives my Dad one last chance to take it back and my Dad asks him “who was the greatest centre half ever?” The guy replies “Jackie Charlton”. My Dad says “that’s right. He was brilliant. So who’s this fella you’ve got now?”. The guy pauses for a second and then goes “he’s a yard dog”. They watched the rest of the game together and had a great time. Moral of the story is my Dad’s mouth can often land him in trouble but it can usually get him out of it too. Sunday Jul 12: Still pissed off about yesterday. It’s easier dropping points when we’ve been shite because you can rationalise that. It’s a different kind of pissed off. I was pissed off when we lost at Watford but equally I knew we got exactly what we deserved that day. We didn’t deserve to drop points yesterday but if you’re not clinical that can happen. Bigger picture wise it brings up a slight concern. Not because of yesterday as such, that can happen to anyone. City lost at Southampton the other day despite absolutely peppering the Saints goal and generally playing very well. That’s football sometimes. The concern I have is that we’ve won a shitload of close games this year (and last, actually) and so many of them could easily have turned out like yesterday. On the one hand it’s great how resolute this team is and how they’ve become a winning machine. On the other, I do think we make life more difficult for ourselves than need be because we aren’t as clinical as we were a couple of year ago. I’d like to think that the front three could recapture that magic from 2018 but it’s beginning to look like that was the exception rather than the norm. The norm is still pretty fucking boss like, but the combined goal tally is dropping year on year now so maybe it needs freshening up? I don’t want anyone replaced but a new face to shake up the status quo and raise everyone’s game can’t do any harm, can it? Unfortunately the pot is empty so I’m not expecting us to address is this summer. It’s disappointing but I can live with it, mainly because I always said that when we finally win the league I’ll be so grateful and so relieved that whatever happens the season after is fine. I’d love this to continue but if it doesn’t then so be it. The 30 year wait is over and a massive weight has been lifted from us. Now the spotlight will be on other teams who haven’t won it in a while. Like Arsenal. They look like they’re well on their way to a 30 year wait and then some. Meanwhile, Wilf Zaha revealed a series of vile racist messages sent to him on instagram before Palace played Villa today. Sickening shit it was, and it turns out it was from a fucking 12 year old kid. Jesus Christ, where does that come from? The kid was arrested but who puts that kind of shit in a child’s head? He didn’t come up with it on his own, so he’s had that instilled in him somewhere. Can’t shake the feeling that he really shouldn’t be the only one getting nicked here. David McGoldrick from Sheffield United shared a similar abusive message that was sent to him, and a number of black players have said that this happens regularly. Stopping the cunts from thinking the way they do isn’t easy, but banning them from platforms that are allowing them to spew their hate should be. Yet when people reported the Zaha abuse to instagram they were told that it wasn’t a serious enough breach of their rules to justify removing the account. Incredible. I genuinely don’t understand how that can happen and someone from instagram should be made to publicly answer for it. Tell us why that isn’t a serious enough breach of policy, because I’m sure we’d all love to know. Personally I’d love to hear someone try and justify it because there is literally no way you can without saying that racially abusing people is no big deal. Social media platforms really need to get their shit together as they’re enabling this shit. Monday Jul 13: Man City's ban is overturned. Of course it is. I knew that a couple of days ago when a journo with strong connections to City was running his mouth on Twitter saying he’d ‘heard’ that the result was going to be favourable. How did he hear that? Because City obviously knew they’d won and they couldn’t wait to brief people. What’s interesting to me is that even though they are guilty as sin and the evidence against them couldn’t have been stronger, City said all along this would get thrown out and they were right. Ultimately they’ve either paid someone off or they just have better lawyers than UEFA. Possibly both. They were not found not guilty because they were guilty. As far as I can recall they never even bothered trying to deny the claims against them, they just cried ‘persecution’ and moaned that they were hacked. This is a tough one to fix now. UEFA actually tried to do the right thing and punish them but they were over-ruled by a body with more power than them (I talking about CAS, not City, although that’s true as well). So UEFA are pretty much powerless to ever do anything about FFP now. What does it mean for FFP? What is there to stop City just going out this summer and inventing a new sponsorship deal with a billion pounds and completely rebuilding their defence? The other clubs will complain and ask UEFA to do something but what can they do now? This will have cost them a fortune and for what? They were made to look like City’s bitches. I’ll tell you what UEFA should do though. Something that is within their power. They should appoint a ‘friendly’ ref to ensure that City lose any time they get to the knockout stages, starting with the 2nd leg against Madrid. Normally I wouldn’t condone that but if City are going to cheat the system and flaunt it then why shouldn’t UEFA respond in kind? Personally I’d let Raul referee that game with Casillas and Figo running the line. The VAR feed should go directly to the HQ of UEFA’s top brass, let them handle those decisions…. “We’ve got a possible penalty for Man City, can you take a look at it please” What this has shown though is that you can cheat as much as like and you don’t need to cover it up particularly well because if you can delay it five years then they can’t do anything about it. This is basically what I did to get out of a speeding fine about twelve years ago. I was told by a mate that if it drags on for six months they can’t do anything and it goes away. So I delayed it using various methods that he suggested and sure enough six months passed and it went away. I wasn’t fined and I escaped the three points on my licence, but it didn’t mean I wasn’t speeding. Just like this doesn’t mean City didn’t cheat. From what I hear they’ve closed that speeding loophole now so it no longer works. Don’t bet on UEFA being able to do the same though. Money talks. Always has, always will. …..and that was the week that was

So much hard work and so many great performances had gone into that 100% home record so for it to end like this leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. We should have won this game by a landslide. The performance was good - brilliant in spells - but the finishing was shite and that - coupled with some terrible officiating - is why we aren’t going to end the season with a perfect home record (and the points record might now be beyond us too). In the grand scheme of things it doesn’t matter. We’ve ended the 30 year wait for the title and we’ve done it in spectacular fashion. I’m not pointing fingers at anyone or reading too much into us drawing a football match you’d expect to win, I’m just disappointed at not winning the game. I’ve got a proper cob on over it actually. Not with the team or any individuals, far from it. I’m just upset we didn’t win. I think the best way to describe it is that I’m not pissed off with the players, I’m pissed off for them. Not as pissed off as they are though. There’s no easing off from these boys at all, they’re even more desperate to keep winning than some fans are. I loved seeing Trent and Robbo fuming at that incompetent ref at full time. They won the title weeks ago but they’re absolutely seething at the officials because we dropped two points. It’s great. It just made me feel even more proud of them. I see how much it hurt them dropping two points and it just gives me confidence that they’ll be going all out to win the last three games. I’ve got mates who are just not arsed about anything that has happened since we won the title. They’re not bothered about records or anything like that, and that’s fine. Each to their own. I am bothered though. I want every record that’s out there because this team deserves them. I wanted them to win all 19 home games and I honestly thought they would. For it to end like this doesn’t sit well with me as it felt like daylight robbery. Partly by Burnley, but mostly by the officials. The non-award of a penalty when Robbo was brought down was genuinely scandalous. “He touched the ball so it’s not a pen”. Nah, fuck off. That’s absolute bollocks. The lad was at full stretch having mis-controlled it and Robbo had dispossessed him. Penalty all day. I don’t care if he got the tiniest touch on the ball, it makes no difference in that instance as he didn’t get enough on it to take it away from Robbo. He may as well have not touched it for all the difference it made. The ball was right there for Robbo and if he hadn’t been wiped out then he was in. It’s bad that neither ref or lineman saw it (not sure what side the linesman was on, if he was on the opposite side then he gets a pass but if he was facing it then he should be sacked) but it’s worse that VAR didn’t intervene. There’s just no fucking point to that shit and I want it gone. The technology itself is great in theory, it’s the soft cunts interpreting what they see that’s the problem. It was supposed to ensure that we got more correct decisions. Instead we’ve got gimps in Stockley Park ruling out goals for offside decisions the width of a gnat’s pube, yet they’re allowing bullshit penalty decisions (or non-decisions) to stand every week. I’m sick of it, it’s a complete farce. They continue to fuck things up and the Premier League then has to say “yeah that decision was wrong, sorry” but the next week we get even worse mistakes. Yet we’ve still got fucking dickheads out there suggesting that VAR was brought in to help the REDS! Remind me again, which team is it that’s been awarded 18 penalties this season? I’ll give you a clue. It isn’t us. You could easily make a video compilation of 20 clear penalties we didn’t get this year. Van Dijk is manhandled on virtually every set-piece while Salah is frequently hauled to the ground in the box. We hardly ever get penalties these days which makes what we’ve done this season even more remarkable. Burnley’s goal also owed much to the officials who awarded them a free-kick for a non-existent offside. Sure, we then need to do a better job of defending the set-piece, but if the linesman hadn’t fucked up then we wouldn’t even be discussing it. Klopp was angry all day because he felt that Burnley were being allowed to foul Alisson on every set-piece. I think for the most part they were just clever in the way they managed to get in his way without actually fouling him, but yeah there were some occasions when the foul couldn’t have been more obvious. Yet the ref let everything go. Klopp’s angst probably goes back to that disgraceful decision last season to allow a Burnley goal direct from a corner when Alisson was mugged by one of their players. Usually you only need to fart near a keeper and refs are giving free-kicks, so how come that doesn’t seem to apply to Burnley with Alisson? Mostly they just stood their ground and refused to let Alisson have a clear run at it, which is fine, but there were others when it was just a blatant foul. The most obvious one was seconds before they hit the bar late on. Their lad just blatantly shoved Alisson as he went for the ball and for the ref to miss that is inexplicable. I wonder what would have happened if that shot had been a couple of inches lower and gone in? Would VAR have overturned it or would we have gotten some nonsense about it being a different phase of play or not a clear and obvious error? Frankly with the way it’s gone all season there’s no way of knowing. The officials played a big part in us not winning this game but not as big a part as Mo. The Salah of two seasons ago would have scored enough goals in this game to have hauled back Vardy in the race for the Golden Boot. I was full of praise for him the other night at Brighton and I said that he was looking so sharp that I felt like he could still finish as the top scorer in the league. Yeah, me and my big mouth again. His finishing was risible. The effort that Pope made the spectacular save from in the first half was a good one, but every other chance he had he wasted. He can be so infuriating at times. His record is sensational and stands up to comparison with pretty much anyone other than Messi and Ronaldo, yet he misses so many fucking chances it can have you pulling your hair out. He missed two great opportunities in the second half while Firmino was denied by the post. Bobby’s performance was good but he just can’t buy a goal these days can he? Draws like this are probably easier for a manager to deal with because the performance is good. Klopp often says he can’t control the result so the most important thing for him is always the performance, because more often than not a good performance leads to a win anyway. Not all the time though, as we just saw. Still, Klopp will be far more relaxed about this draw than the one at Goodison for example, when we were dogshit and barely managed a shot. As a fan though these might be even harder to take because it’s so frustrating when you play well and don’t get what the performance merits. When we play badly and don’t deserve anything it’s easier to rationalise that. It’s the sense of injustice that a game like this brings that really sticks in the throat. I honestly thought we played really well. The first half especially was quality. Really enjoyable to watch. We played at a good tempo, passed it around well and the movement up front stretched Burnley to breaking point on several occasions. Curtis was great on his first start. He was popping up all over the pitch and on another day would have scored a couple of goals. He had one effort saved and another deflected wide, but the important thing is he was involved in everything, arriving in the penalty area and getting on the end of things. Neco did well too, and it’s really nice to have those two as genuine first team options now. They might not be ready to dislodge the first choice players in their positions, but if we needed to start either of them for any length of time we know they can do the job. Hopefully we’ll see Elliott and Hoever also come through over the coming months. So yeah, we played well in that first half and we scored a great goal. Fabinho produced one of his trademark diagonal passes that he drops over the head of the full back and Robbo came flying in to send a glorious header curling past the keeper into the far corner. Brilliant goal that. The only reason we didn’t get more was because Nick Pope kept making saves, the massive pain in the arse. He made a really good one to claw away a volley from Salah, then he denied Mo again with his foot. He also made a comfortable stop to deny Jones before producing the best of the lot when he flew to his right and prevented a powerful Mané drive from finding the top corner. We created so many chances in that half that I was slightly perturbed that it was only 1-0. But we’ve been in this situation so many times this season (and last) and have nearly always gotten the result. Either we extend the lead or hold onto it. This time we did neither. I didn’t think the second half was as good as the first but it was fine. We were in control, still creating chances and there was nothing to worry about until they scored out of nothing. The other night when we conceded at Brighton it had been coming as we were on the back foot. This wasn’t like that. The Burnley goal came completely against the run of play and came from nowhere. It was immediately after the drinks break when we’d made two chances. Jones and Williams made way for Keita and Trent, and within seconds our lead was gone. An incorrect offside call gave Burnley a free-kick in their own half which they launched up to Tarkowski who headed it across the box but behind everyone. No danger there, except Rodriguez reacted quickest and then lashed one into the bottom corner from the edge of the box. Great finish to be fair. Alisson had no chance. It was a kick in the teeth because we should have already been out of sight. This is what can happen when you aren’t clinical though. I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve written about how important the second goal is because irrespective of how dominant you are and how much in control you are, at 1-0 all it takes it a set-piece or a mistake and just like that you’re level. It’s rare that we’ve suffered that fate in recent seasons but if any team is ever going to do that it’s Burnley. No matter how much you’re hammering them they don’t let it bother them. They don;’t change, they don’t panic. They just dig in, stick to what they do and they try to make the most of any set-pieces they get. This was classic Burnley. I’m not going to say anything negative about them or how they play. I don’t have a problem with it. They’re doing a hell of a job on far more limited resources than most other clubs. Fair play to them and great credit to Sean Dyche. They owe a big thank you to that fucking ref though. It was heartening to see just how much the players wanted to get that winning goal. They pushed and pushed for it and they created good chances. They just didn’t take them, which has been a problem all season. If you can call it a ‘problem’ when we’ve only failed to win five games from 35. So now we’ve got three games left and we need to win all of them if we’re to break the points record. Motivation won’t be a problem, we can see that. The lads want to get that record but my gut feeling is that we’ll probably slip up in one of the remaining games as we’ve just been a fraction off in front of goal since we came back. And before that too really. Put it this way, if the 2018 version of this front three had been playing this season I genuinely don’t think we’d have dropped a single point, except maybe at the Etihad. Even then though, if we’d been clinical at 0-0 it’s a different game. Still, we’ve done alright haven’t we? Star man is Robbo who was well and truly back to his best after a ropey couple of weeks. Fabinho was excellent too, while the two kids deserve credit for how they played. I though Gomez was improved too as he’s not looked great recently but this was much better. Next up is Arsenal, the big fucking wasters. Not beating Burnley was frustrating but if we don’t give Arsenal the kind of beating we should be giving them that’s going to be a whole different level of irritation. Come on, lads, let’s fucking smash these lightweight, mentally weak fucking shithouses all over the Emirates. Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson; Fabinho, Jones (Keita), Wijnaldum (Oxlade-Chamberlain); Salah, Firmino, Mané: