Gooner Woe, Maxi Steals the Show.

What a game last weekend.

It had everything. Good football(Arsenal), magnificent defending and counter-attacking(Us). Controvery on the pitch, injuries, teenagers throw into the heat of battle,loads of injury-time drama and of course a Manager spat! Brilliant!This is why we watch they Premier League. It may not be the most technical of football, but it gives so much more in other ways. You can shove your pedestrian Serie A nonsense and your basketball-esque La Liga. I will take the PL everyday.

So unsuprisingly Fab Aurelio broke down again and young Jack Robinson was thrown in. I did fear the worst, I have watched Jack a few times for the Reserves and the Youth team. He looks decent at that level. Coming on to face Walcott and company is a different matter. I have to say I was extremely impressed. He was ably assisted by Lucas and Spearing and Meirles when required. But England's mercurial winger did very little against him. When Carra went off after a clash of heads with Flanaghan, I again feared the worst.

They put us under pressure without creating too much. They were most dangerous against us when they played the early diagnals from fullback into the channels. They did this successfully against Blackpool the week before but failed to use it enough really. It is just me or has the pace Arsenal play at dropped significantly? There doesnt seem to be the same urgency from them that used to typify their play. Its still pretty to watch but the end product is dropping off. Only Gooner who stood out for me was Djourou, he hardly lost a header against Carroll all day and always seemed to be in the right place.

If there was one player who didn't deserve to finish on the losing team it was little Jay Spearing. He was everywhere, tackling, closing down intercepting, covering, passing intelligently. I am glad to see he is finally getting a extended run. He gives 110% everyweek. It was therefore a bitter blow that he conceded a pen deep into injury time. At that point you think its all over but Lucas wins a free kick on the edge of the box. Arsenal then take 2 minutes to sort out a wall after already taking another 2 after they scored. Is it any wonder Mr Mariner added the best part of 4 miutes on top of the initial 8? Eboue proved why he is generally on the fringes at Arsenal with his rash bundling over of Lucas for Kuyt to calmly slot home.

Eboue has always been a strange part of the Arseal squad, very rarely 1st choice,the wrong side of 30 and hardly technically gifted. I doubt he would be the right back at any of the teams in the top half or so of the PL. Wenger would normally have moved him on by now. Perhaps he has pictures of Wenger with animals or indeed watching replays and actually seeing what happened!

That brings me onto his reaction to us equalising, I have generally had a lot of respect for the myopic Wenger throughout his time at Arsenal. Mostly because he winds Sith Lord Ferguson up no end. His unsportsmanlike attitude to defeats and indeed he unwillingness to offer Dalglish a hand shake at the end shows the arrogance and ignorance of the man. For Kenny to dismissively wave him away with a 'Piss Off' tells you all you need to know. Wenger and his team are uravelling. They subsuquently threw a comfortable 3-1 lead away against Spurs on Wednesday night in another magnificent game and with it their chance to win the league. They are a squad which lacks leadership and characters.

So onto yesterday and our 7 year hoodoo against Birmingham. We certainly put that one to bed. 5-0, a hat-trick for Maxi and another sound set of performance from the 3 yougsters Robinson,Flanaghan and Spearing. I do like the Kuyt/Suarez partnership, it seems more mobile than when we play Carroll. Both are happy to drop off and work the channels, that allows Maxi and Meireles to go beyond them and join the attack. I think long term if Carroll is going to start every week we need a couple of wingers to really exploit his attributes.

Newcastle next, time to avenge the 3-1 reverse at St James'. I would stick with what we have for that game. If Carroll is fit then leave him on the bench, he can always come on as a sub and would you really want to expose him to the abuse he will get. Lets see if we can get anyone else fit before then, although Johnson and Kelly know they have some serious competiton for the fullback roles now!

We are closing in on Spurs and if can win all our remaining games I think we will nick 5th. A remarkable achievement considering where we were in mid October (19th with 6 points). Spurs have a tough run-in and hopefully they will do their usual and capitulate under pressure.

And for Christsakes give Kenny the job!!!!!

YNWA

Blue Monday ???

What a great performance on Monday I thought I was watching Liverpool. But there I was being entertained, jumping out of my seat and high 5-ing my housemate and generally enjoying myself. But that cant be right can it??? We didnt get anything like that under Uncle Woy and only occasionally under Rafa the FSW.

Amazing game we were first to everything we didnt let them settle and the game was over long before halftime. I cant think of a single player who wouldnt have got at least 8/10. Lucas and Spearing were imperious in the middle of the park. Opitimised by 2 incidents in the 2nd half, Lucas winning his 300th header against Dzeko and Jay Spearing booting lumps out of Yaya Toure on the edge of the City box!! Brilliant.

Suarez and Carroll seems to be developing a good understanding, despite my comments on my last posting. That why I do this and Kenny runs the team! Dirk was at his duracell-bunny best. Raul was steady probably the only player who didnt stand out. Aurelio lasted 90 minutes, a miracle which I have reported to the Vatican!!

And what about 'Flanno'??? Young John Flanaghan was excellent his best moment was tracking the petulant malcontent that is Mario Balotelli and bundling him to the floor when he tried to sneak in on the blindside.

We were helped by Mancini's ineptitude and the general malaise in the City camp. Playing 4-4-2 for them was a mistake,changing a team that just won 5-1 at Sunderland was a mistake and not switching Adam Johnson over to Flanaghan's side of the pitch was bizarre especialy after they were 3-0 down.Did they really have anything to lose??? No-one in the PL want him running that them never mind a young lad on debut.

I think there will be a lot of players who leave City in the summer. What is the point of going to a big club and not playing? There are players who will gladly takes the wages and not bother but others have pride.Can you really see the likes of Johnson,Milner,Silva,Richards staying if they arent playing regularly. I think these guys will leave and be willing to take a cut in wages if required. Could you imagine what Adam Johnson would be like in our team.

We are a really conundrum within an enigma this year. We have played well against all the top 5 this year. Narrow defeat to Spurs (thanks Soty), a valiant fightback after being 3-0 down against ManUre. A plucky home draw with 10 men against the Gooners at home on the opening day. 6 points of Chelski, ManUre and City dismissed in our last 2home games.

Yet this same group of players couldnt muster a point against Blackpool, have lost to West Ham,West Brom and Wolves and could only manage 2 draws against Wigan. Be glad to see the back of all these 'W's!!! It is odd. Even since Kenny has come back we have still shown a flaw when playing the donkeys down the bottom. Still I think on the whole things are looking up.

We really need to decide if Kenny is going to stay beyond the end of the season. We should be starting to look at new players and they will all want to know who the gaffer is going to be. Personally I am still not sure if he a long term answer but do we really need another management change? I would give him a rolling 1 year deal. That would work for everyone, we arent overcommiting and he can still leave a legend.

Turning to Sunday I still think we have to lose. I know that is ridiculous but we were in the same situation last year when we played Chelski. On that occasion thankfully Stevie G saw Drogba make a great run and couldnt help but pass it to him!!

We need a similar thing on Sunday. If we beat the Gooner's the Legions of Doom will have won the League for the 19th time.Un-fucking-thinkable!

I still cant believe as I type this that when we won our 18th in 1990, they would ever get close to us, never mind pass us. The really gallig thing about it is they have been rubbish this season along with most of the other big clubs but they are still up there. Its too depressing for words.

They are also looking good in Europe after completing another bye against Chelski and now meet Schalke. Led by 375 year old Raul! Another bye. Only they can get to the Final of the Champions League and not have played a single team with any European pedigree.

Let hope Barcelona beat them 7-0 in the final. Viva Messi Viva!

I digress, I digress, I digress. If we play anything like the way we did on Monday night Arsenal are in for a hiding of note. Sqaullaci and young Koschelny are not going to be able to cope with Carroll and Suarez. They had enough trouble with Carl Taylor-Fletcher and DJ Campbell last week! Midfield I think we are match only Walcott and Van Persie worry me, oh yes, and that pesky little Rusky who like to score against us, Andre of the Arse Shavin! But really I think we will win on Sunday. I hope Kenny accepts the case of wine with good grace from Sith Lord Ferguson when it arrives from the Theatre of Delusions!

Of course I cannot sign off this blog without mentioning the harrowing, haunting and heart-breaking events of the 15/04/89. A day that will never be forgotten by Reds fans the world over. Tomorrow we mark the 22nd anniversary of Hillborough where 96 followers of the greatest team in the world died because of police incompotence and inaction.

I remember the day clearly, I had just finished playing football with my dad and we returned home and switched on the telly. We had stopped to get some beers and my dad's best friend and another guy from my class at school were there. We had missed the the first 15 minutes of the game. Which by that time had come to a halt. Bruce was trying to open gates and pull people up and over the fence. We watched in horror as peoples faces turn blue. It was terrible. There seems little assistance from the authorities at the time. Disgusting really.

But not as heinous as the headline published here in the UK by that bastion of journalism know as the Sun. This 'paper' caters to peoples whose IQ's are comparable to that of an ameba. THE TRUTH it screamed!!! All the Liverpool fans were drunk and they charged into the central pens and were to blame for killing their own. Irresponsible, unsubstiated and inflamitory was what it was. That particular newspaper still battles to sell in Liverpool to this day. They would never have dared publish that if it happened to any London club or indeed ManUre, but as all scousers are scum to them it was fair game to print this nonsense.

I have read the real truth by by Phil Scraton - 'Hillborough The Truth' I tell you it is the most disturbing book I have ever read. I could barely read 10 pages at a time without sobbing my eyes out or getting so angry that I wanted to punch someone. That was in 2002. I can only imagine the anger and pain still felt by the relatives of the 96. They still await justice. How David Duckenfield and Bernard Murray sleep at night (if they are still with us) is beyond me.

We shall never forget the 96.

YNWA

Horrorshow at the Hawthorns

Well Well Well, we should have see that one coming, if anyone knows how to beat us it would be Uncle Woy. After all he oversaw so many limp and lifeless performances in his short pitiful time in charge.

I have to me honest I could not bring myself to watch the game in full on LFC TV, I think the Match of the day highlights were traumatic enough. Lets be honest if it wasnt for Pepe Reina we would have lost 6-1. He made a string of excellent saves and had we drawn he would probably have been man of the match.

Our gameplan was not helped by first Glenn Johnson (Thank you England) and then Dan Agger (Mange tak Danemark) going off injured after 22 minutes.The curse of the leftback continues.

Oh and a special thanks to Sepp Blatter for sticking more unwanted fixtures in our calander. I hope Bin Hamman wins the 'transparent' FIFA election. Another 4 years of Blatter will ruin football completely.

From the lowlights shown we kept lumping long balls at Carroll ala Braga and we got the same result nothing.I do like repeating myself, cant play big lump if you have no wingers to cross the ball.FACT!

I think we looked better with a 4-2-3-1 with Suarez on his own with Dirk and Meireles supporting. 4-4-2 with Meireles stuck out wide and Carroll upfront doesn't work at the moment for me. Yes we have paid £35 mill for Carroll but at the moment Suarez looks the one more likely to hurt the opposition so we should be tailoring our formation to suit him.

As to the 2 penalties, Soty can have no complaints on the 1st one and he again put Reina in a vulnerable position for the second one. Soty is fast adding himself to my clearout list for the summer.

So 7 games to play Man City and Arsenal next and we really need to lose those 2 games in the hope that someone will finish ahead of the Legions of Doom. Knowing us though we will win both game 2-0 and then lose to Birmingham,Newcastle and Fulham in the next 3 so helping ManUre to win the title.

The alternative doesnt bear thinking about. The way things are panning out a treble looks good for them after Schalke trounced Inter tonight. If they beat Chelski they will have a bye in the semi. For the God-fearing among you that should prove He doesnt exist as the alternative means that he is in fact a Man U fan which is much much much worse!

As for us qualifying for Europe next season we just need Spurs to continue their collapse and win all 7 remaining games. 'Simples' as our favourite meerkat would say. I really think 6th is as good as we can do and hope City or ManUre win the cup. No Europe would put a serious dent in our recruitment policy over the summer, no established player would come and so we would be left with squad players from other clubs to choose from. Not great.

I am not going to attempt to guess what Kenny wiill do as far as selection goes for Sunday. My own efforts at this have proved woefully inaccurate so far since he took over. We still havent shaken off our inability to perform away from home, we seem tentative and scared. If we do score first, we go into our shell ala Benitez, its not the Liverpool way and not what we expect.

So putting the remainder of this pathetic wrist-slitting season aside who should go and who should stay? First the keepers

Reina- despite horrible rumours that ManUre want him, that cant happen. It sends the completely wrong message out and gives them one of the best keepers in the world. Let then go and find their own! They have everything else!

Defence we should keep - Darby,Carra,Skrtel,Kelly,Wilson,Johnson(leftback or right winger).
Midfield - Lucas,Spearing,Shelvey,Meireles,Gerrard,Pacheco,Aquilani
Strikers - Suarez,Carroll,Kuyt, Ngog (but he needs to go on loan)

The rest as far as I am concerned can go, reasons below. Hell we still have El Zhar and Degen on our books!

Left Back - Konchesky and Insua arent good enough and Aurelio is always broken.
Centrebacks - Soty is too rash under pressure (Spurs and West Brom to name but 2) and Agger like Fab is always broken.
Rightback - Degen, why oh why did we ever buy this clown????
Midfield - Jovanovic not good enough. Maxi not really offering anything going forward simply a disciplined midfielder. Joe Cole, waste of time, money and effort. We have young Pacheco who will be ten times the player Cole thinks he is! Poulsen completely useless. If you offered him to Forest Green Rovers they wouldnt take him! El Zhar - Pigmy Morrocans are not what is required in the Premier League.

So that leaves us requiring at least 1 left back preferably 2. 1 or 2 centrebacks, 4 wingers and possibly another striker. I cant see us generating too much income from the dross we have to sell. Mr Comolli will certaily have to start and earn his crust.

My wishlist follows bearing in mind the '8 homegrown' rule I have highlighted those in the keepers who qualify. We dont have to name those that are under 21 (So Darby,Pacheco and Shelvey may remain un-named in the 25 man squad) So that would leave us with only 6 players who qualify.

Leftback - Baines - more rumblings at Everton that Moyes will have to sell as Mr Kenwright has nothing to give.

Centreback - Cahill at Bolton, Shawcross at Stoke and Roger Johnson at Birmingham come to mind. If we want a footballing centrehalf we will need to look abroad. Cant see any obvious candidates in the PL at the moment. One of these three would be good, 2 would be great.

Wingers - N'Zogbia,Podolski,Etherington,Eagles. There are plenty options here, I would like to see 2 or 3 of these type of players brought in. Add in the likes of Ecclestone,Amoo,Ince and Sterling and we have a good healthy crop of exciting players who can change a game.

Strikers - If Ngog is going out on loan, suggest a swop with Leicester, we get Connor Wickham for a season they have Ngog we get 1st option to buy Wickham.
I also wouldnt mind a cheeky bid to Chelsea for Daniel Sturridge, big, strong, quick and shot like a rocket, we could always give them Joe Cole back!!!

YNWA