Five things we learned this weekend

Balotelli — MCFC hero, not cult hero

IF you believe the rumours, Mario Balotelli spent the weekend driving the Batmobile through the streets of Stockport smearing pensioners with jam and giving £50 notes to dogs. Rumours about Balotelli tend to be like that, verified by a friend of a friend and spread across Twitter like warm butter. It’s a wonder really, given that the truth about Balotelli is often so much more incredible. Who else could have stepped up in the 94th minute of such a crucial game and dummied a penalty into the back of the net? The man has nerves of reinforced titanium. Whether or not he should have still been on the pitch at the time, of course, is another matter entirely. But that’s Balotelli in a nutshell; for good or for ill he inspires more talking points in 25 minutes than most players summon up in a season. He’s not a cult figure anymore, he’s a full-blown, mainstream legend.

Liverpool – all out of excuses