Finally. A few ghosts were vanquished today. Three points deserved. A tactical chess match that the student won. Today the reserves beat the first team. Actually, in some ways we looked like the first team. In a season of important matches this is just one – and as we saw last season (and is all previous ones) you can’t win the league in October. We know the City juggernaut will be resurrected and have it’s annual resurrection in February in time for their crushing run-in. We can though savor today and wallow in the warm embrace of finally beating the best team in the league.
Though in that first period of the game it didn’t seem like it would finish this way. They had two or three clear chances to take the lead. As Arteta always says, it’s a game of fine margins and, in games such as these, you have to take your chances. And they didn’t. How Ake missed is beyond me; to not even get it on target either. We had Rice to thank for clearing off the line as well. And then there was Raya giving us all palpitations.
The line-up was interesting. T0 play with a base of two holding players with Rice pushing up. Without the glorious Saka we knew it would be more challenging. Missing both our wingers took away our ability to work through them in our wide areas. Jesus worked really hard but it was clear and understandable that he did not have the same understanding with White.
Both Trossard and Eddie were somewhat anonymous though Trossard’s ability to switch the ball was noticeable. Eddie was frustrating most of the game. He does not quite close them down in a press and he does not quite link up the play fast enough. Whereas City knew how to press as a team so much more effectively. We found it hard to build out from our defense. They denied passing lanes and put pressure on Raya. Unfortunately for a player renowned for his distribution today just begged the question as to why Ramsdale does not play.
What does Raya have to do to lose his place? If this is Arteta’s idea of what a rotation means then I then I can only assume that he’s English is not as good as I had thought. Whether it was his long passing or short passing he created uncertainty in our defense. Maybe he has compromising pictures of Arteta, or maybe he’s in a relationship with the goalkeeping coach because based on the last few league games, Ramsdale deserves to be our starting goalkeeper.
Rice was immense today. His ability to thrust himself into tackles and break up play is something that we’ve not had for along time. His leadership and work rate elevate this team. He is one of the main reasons we have progressed as a team this year. And in big games he certainly imposes himself. He was the best midfielder out there. Because of Jorghino, he played more on the left but also pushed up more. He had more of a license. I liked Jorghino today. He’s limited in his speed and physicality but played an important role today.
And behind them Saliba and Gabriel had Haaland under complete control. Haaland was anonymous today because of them. Saliba out muscled him and Gabriel out fought him. And thankfully Raya did not have a shot to save all game. With White on the right and then a non-inverted Zinny on the left this defense looked assured an in control. It was interesting that neither teams full-backs inverted in the first half – there was no space in the congested midfield.
The game changed though at half-time. Once Martinelli appeared the tempo and directness of our game changed. In the first half there were periods where City, unsurprisingly, dominated possession. But once Trossard was replaced with Martinelli, we began to control the game. Odegaard was more involved and Jesus continued to threaten down our right. But it was only with Martinelli did we finally have a presence on the left.
This game was finally won by our substitutions and lost by theirs. With Grealish and Phillips on the bench they opted to bring on Nunes, Stones and Daku with only the later having an impact. Whereas, in addition to Martinelli, Partey, Have-that and Tommy were the key players in our goal. Have-that was more energetic than Eddie, working back and tackling with more energy. And, of course, his layoff from Tommy’s header set up Martinelli.
Partey demonstrated what Jorghino was lacking. An ability to play more direct, more vertical. That extra poise makes the difference. Having Rice and Partey alongside each other protects the defense and yet can create more. So it was good to see Partey back. And Have-that should take more confidence from his cameo today. And what was Tommy doing up in their penalty area?
Even after that goal City did not seem to threaten too much. I can’t remember any real clear cut chances they had or saves Raya was required to make. They clearly missed KDB and Rodri more than we missed Saka and half of Martinelli.
Phiilips must be drawing a nice fat pay check because clearly Pep has no faith in him. Playing Lewis in the Rodi position and then bringing on Stones. But of course, Southgate will still pick Phillips along with Maguire but ignore White. But thankfully Southgate won’t be able to use White or Saka during this tedious International waste of time break.
As enjoyable and tactical and watchable this game was – and as brilliant as the outcome – we do have to address one issue. Of all the refs around I’ve always liked Michael Oliver. He’s one of the best. Of course, that bar is pretty low these days. I just don’t understand how, after booking Jorghino, he then booked Kovacic for a foul that was closer to being a red card than a yellow. It’s funny how at the start of last season they were the senior teammates on LAChelsea and yet today they were the protagonists on the two best teams in the EPL.
That initial Kovacic challenge was much closer to the one that got Curtis Jones sent off against that lot last week. And then soon after, from yet another wayward Raya pass; this time into Rice, Kovacic dives in, studs up with another late tackle that is as a yellow a card as you could see. And yet Oliver declined to produce the card. There is no way Kovacic should have stayed on the pitch. And yet, somehow, he did. This made no sense. But then, as we saw last week, little about refereeing does make sense. Having said that, I thought Oliver was good again today. Certainly better than Hooper and the other morons in the VAR booth.
And lets revisit last week. As stupid and fucked up as the VAR review was we could all see for ourselves with the naked eye. And then we could hear it later on the VAR recording, I worry that everyone has focused on the mistakes of Darren England and allowed him to be the scapegoat. The core issues though is not him but the incompetence of the PGMOL. If this needed proof then how they handled this cock-up was a clear demonstration of their ineptitude. Their solution, among other things, was to remove English from refereeing any Liverpool game this year. How does this even make sense? What kind of precedent does this set? English is not good enough to ref Liverpool games but he is the other 19 teams? And what about if he refs a Sp*rs game? How does this help English or anyone. Either say he’s not good enough to ref any EPL game or leave him alone. Now certain refs can be kept away from certain teams? How does that work? And why for one year? All it does this does is demonstrate the fact that we are beholden to the union of refs that is the PGMOL. We have the best players in the best league in the world with the worst refs. Why can’t we have European refs rather than being limited to English ones? We are not limited to just English payers any more so why just English refs?
I don’t mind them going to UAE to ref games. But why can’t European refs come and ref our games? Again, this is all down to the PGMOL who have a vice like grip on our game. Why? Who allows this to happen? The clubs? The FA? I don’t really know. All I know is that the PGMOL has taken the available technology and fucked it up. Why can’t we have automated offside technology. I know that would not solve the basic lack of communication skills that VAR displayed. But again, while everyone is focusing on English, the PGMOL escape answering for the drop in ref standards; are not held accountable for tarnishing the best league in the world. What happens at the end of the season if Liverpool lose out on the title or Europe by one point? Apart from making me exceptionally happy, I’m sure it will throw up yet more conspiracy theories from Liverpool fans. It’s not a conspiracy – they are too stupid and dumb to be smart enough to conspire (the refs not the Liverpool fans) – it’s just a plain-old cock-up in a quintessentially English way.
But back to the game. We deserved this victory today. We matched them tactically. Neutralized most of their threats. And as the second half wore on began to control and dominate the game. This team has grown up and evolved. There was a balance there – again, in the second half – that bodes well for the future. As good as the result was, as we saw last season, there’s long way to go. If we had lost Rice like they had lost Rodri it would have been a different outcome. He is our difference maker this year. That was money well spent. Today was a pleasure. This team is still young. We will make mistakes and will miss our chances (like they did today). But we continue to move in the right direction. We have to protect Saka, Rice and Martinelli. Oh, and Saliba. But with Tommy on the bench along with Have-that. And Timber in the recovery room we finally have a squad to compete. And today will have given us some more belief. Maybe not for this year but certainly for next.
Now we can wallow in our accomplishment for 2 weeks. And hopefully that gives Saka enough time to recover. To have him back along with Partey will help stabilize this team and add that creative spark that we missed in the first half. So, enjoy your next two stressless weeks away from actual football and then we can start to look forward to our next match at LAChelsea. That will be challenging. But we’ve shown we can rise to these challenges now. As long as Darren English, PGMOL and VAR are not involved.
-LB7