Wednesday, October 05, 2005

What's the Big Deal?

There's no one more irritating than a ignorant, insensitive, i-think-i'm-a-EPL-expert who tries to remind you that Liverpool were 'thrashed' 1-4 by Chelsea at Anfield on Sunday.

It gets worse when they make those comments and tell you they
1. Didn't watch the game
2. Made that on the basis of a couple of newspaper headlines.

Sure, the scoreline suggests that, and nothing I say can alter the facts.
Outplayed, outclassed, outmanoeuvred, beaten - those terms I can accept.

But save the doomsday prognostics and the 'thrash-ish' adjectives for the dustbin - that's where they belong.

Firstly - the context.
In case you haven't realised, the match was one of 38 league games in a season, not a major Cup final or semi-final or the title decider.
It's more than 2 months to Christmas, the fat lady hasn't finished her song and the football hasn't turned square.

Secondly - the manner.
Save for the second Chelsea goal, the others were the result of Liverpool defensive errors (esp the penalty) and the Reds chasing the game when 1-2 down, and not Chelsea's class.
Gerrard's goal was class, as was the build-up to Duff's effort.
Chelsea didn't brush the Reds aside or crush them. They just won. Fullstop.

Thirdly - Wednesday.
Liverpool outfought and dominated their Champions League home tie against the Blues last week. Should have beaten them 1-0 or 2-0 if not for bad refereeing.

Lastly - the fans.
That was one department in which the Reds won on Sunday.
My personal highlight of the game was hearing the Liverpool supporters singing the club anthem You'll Never Walk Alone in the 88th min with the scoreboard reading 1-4.
These are the people I want to be cheering alongside, not the fairweather, Glenn Ong-ish kind of fans who switch teams as often as they change their underwear.

Someone please tell me who's the team with 18 English League titles and 5 European Cups? Who's the most successful English club of all-time?

And who's the team that has spent over 200 million quid on players in 2 years?

Nuff said.

posted by Al @ 12:25 am