TERRACE TALK: Reaction from the weekend's top Premiership action
It was not an auspicious start to the day.
Outside Anfield a bird shat on my shirt; that is going to be an awfully difficult superstition to keep up but, as yer man might say, “Whatever works, baby”. The voodoo dolls and rabbits’ paws and, what is it now, the 90-day beard will all have to continue as this extraordinary Liverpool run of 2014 goes on. Summoning instant ornithological excrement from the air may require some ingenuity.
With no other distractions all week, even United’s European exit having a dull inevitability about it, tension was cranked up to 11 and given the approach of the Hillsborough anniversary Liverpool supporters’ emotions were being pulled through the ringer before a ball was kicked.
Talk of “doing it for the 96” always makes fans queasy, but any questions about them always puts Liverpool officials and players on the spot. “We’ll be respectful but professional” probably isn’t going to cut it, while going overboard as Brendan inevitably did about the “people in the sky” just seems crude. There is bound to be guilt when you hope the players won’t be subdued by the mood when mid-April comes around.
There were also the mind games of pass-the-pressure, when everyone says “you’re the stressed ones”/“no, it’s you, not us”. Pellegrini called it right and said both clubs would feel it, and he should know; Pardew obscenely mocked his age but there’s only six years separating them. Mind you, I’m covering all the mirrors because I probably resemble the City boss now like a mad priest in 1970s’ Italian horror film chic.
Nerves were so shredded people even thought City were acting out that Kompany injury scenario, presumably to make Brendan pick his kitchen sink team; Suarez, Sturridge, Sterling and Coutinho. Yeah, like he needed convincing…
So perhaps it worked, but it was a mistake making Liverpool attack the Kop first. Everything this team does can be gauged in the opening 10 minutes, but something magical was needed to beat this City side.
I’ve witnessed Dalglish, Barnes, Fowler and Suarez in their pomp but never saw them double-dummy two players and pass into an empty net like Sterling did. That set the tone and pumped up the volume. City, a fairly inoffensive bunch on the whole, were booed incessantly.
There was a fear of corners, but most assumed City would be taking them. It’s usually our role in these matches to be forewarned but disarmed; Hart kept Gerrard at bay but he couldn’t keep Skrtel out a minute later. Two up, and Toure already off.
There could be only one result now, surely?
Well, this is Liverpool 2014 and easy rides are verboten. Warnings at the end of the first half weren’t heeded, and Silva was given free rein. Since he was the only City player to turn up at full pelt, some sort of marking job might have seemed in order. He should actually have won it.
Liverpool a two-man team? Suarez and especially Sturridge checked out early again and in the end it was an ironic Kompany error that decided the game.
Coutinho, such a microbe on our travels, has been an Anfield giant and this was his greatest moment in a red shirt.
There were 20 minutes of living dangerously, particularly a stray Skrtel arm and Jordan’s red, but whatever it takes to get over the line got done.
How fatal a blow this was remains to be seen and might only have let Chelsea in, but as the final whistle blew fans and players cared not.
The PSG game demonstrated the very best of the Chelsea team and supporters. We knew we could overturn that 3-1 deficit. It wasn’t just bravado. We knew.
Even as time was running out, I could sense a goal was coming although not many would have guessed that Ba would be the hero of the hour. We seem to be able to get ourselves motivated for the big games but we still seem to approach the easier games with a mix of complacency and fear, which was what we saw at Swansea. Even the early dismissal didn’t relax the team into playing the way they are capable of. Instead we enjoyed plenty of possession with little else.
If ever a game demonstrated how blunt we are up front, then the Swansea game was it. 26 shots with only three on target. That’s taking nothing away from Demba Ba as he has sat patiently on the bench and stood up when called upon but we can’t forget this was against a struggling 10-man Swansea.
The title is now a three-horse race and the momentum is undeniably with Liverpool. You can say what you like about this game or that but over a season the league table doesn’t lie so whoever eventually wins it will have earned it.
I have to admit to being envious at how Liverpool attack teams at 100 miles an hour from the off and keep that pressure on throughout. We are capable of that but we just don’t seem to do it very often. That said, if we do manage to somehow claim that title, you can bet your bottom dollar that there will be a queue as far as the eye can see waiting to tell you we didn’t deserve it.
I’m not quite sure what to expect in our crucial game at Anfield and what Jose will do tactically. When we played City up at the Etihad, the general consensus was a home win, yet we comprehensively and meticulously took them apart. But then we lose games to Palace and Villa you will find only the bravest Chelsea fan willing to call this.
Of course before we can even think of that game, we need to face Sunderland at home and play the first leg of a Champions League semi-final, No pressure lads. Inevitably, Mourinho was fined in the week for his behaviour at the Villa game which once again demonstrates why the FA attracts so little respect from those who watch the game.
There were a number of people on the pitch that day who shouldn’t have been or said or did things they shouldn’t have, but only one individual gets charged and fined. In his last tenure at Chelsea, the FA used the club and manager as their personal ATM when dealing with disciplinary matters yet similar misdemeanours from Mourinho’s counterparts were ignored. Jose is said to be furious and who can blame him? Meanwhile Foy’s appalling display does unpunished. No wonder Mourinho refused to speak to the press after the Swansea game. No doubt that’ll merit another donation to the FA Christmas party.
But the FA’s brand of adjudication looks positively benign when compared to Uefa. Chelsea have been threatened with sanctions should they try and enforce a clause in their contract with Atletico Madrid in relation to keeper Thibaut Courtois. The clause states that the Spanish side would have to pay Chelsea (no one seems quite sure of the amount — but it’s in the millions) if they want the Belgian to play against us, money it is said they cannot afford. Now Uefa have stated this is not enforceable so why was it permitted to go in the contract in the first place? The governing body’s statement cited the “integrity of sporting competition is fundamental”. I agree but surely integrity would be more in doubt should a player actually take part and be able to affect the outcome of a game rather than not play and so not affect it at all? Or am I missing something?
Chelsea have publicly stated there was no question of Courtois being permitted to play but are believed to be privately furious. I’m not surprised. Atletico have had the services of the highest-rated goalkeeper in the world thanks to Chelsea, a goalkeeper who has been fundamental in their successful season. Now they are weeping and moaning about the unfairness of it all and effectively biting the hand that feeds them.
How’s that gratitude for you?
What happens if Courtois makes a series of horrendous gaffs in the semi-final effectively handing us a bye into the final and returns to Chelsea in the summer? How would the integrity of the competition be viewed then? Even using the words integrity and Uefa in the same sentence reduces me to a fit of giggles. Bring it on anyway, that and your Scandinavian refs. We’ve seen it before.
But first things first. Carry on in our attempt to upset all those “neutrals” by doing our damnedest to beat Liverpool and City to the title.
Admittedly, the period when we were playing our Champions League home games at Wembley helped, but back in the day, we were such frequent visitors that my car could virtually find its own way there.
By contrast, it attests to how times have changed that my customary, traffic dodging back doubles almost got me lost on Saturday. Then again, I was willingly distracted by the gloriously shrill radio coverage of the incredibly tense denouement of all the Premier League games taking place. The hooplah surrounding the ever-more costly ‘death or glory’ stakes of top table survival ensure that the climax to the season is that much more engrossing.
Not to mention the increasingly frequent distortions that have ensured this campaign is more confounding than ever. It’s hard to believe that the same Everton side who humiliated us at Goodison, could make such a meal of achieving three points from their trip to Wearside. Nevertheless this was sufficient to leave us languishing in fifth, trailing the Toffees by two points and thereby ramping up the pressure on Arsène and the lads in advance of kick-off against the Latics.
Yet this season’s array of inconsistencies are no more unfathomable than our manager’s decision to gamble on the gangly Sanogo in the second of our two most significant encounters thus far. Far from including the uncoordinated fumblings of poor Yaya as the answer to all our prayers, this felt more like playing his unknown joker, as the last desperate card in our shallow pack.
As much as I appreciate the financial motivation for staging these matches at Wembley and the fact that this affords all the fans of the four remaining clubs in the FA Cup a welcome opportunity for a glamorous day out, there is something so anodyne about these semi-finals that they invariably end up producing the sort of agonisingly uninspiring football of two teams constrained by the fear of losing, compared to the sort of unforgettably scintillating “Wembley or bust” fare at all those neutral venues of yesteryear. Then again you couldn’t say that about Hull and Sheffield United yesterday.
Should we vanquish Hull in the final, bizarrely we’ll finally see the back of our barren nine-year spell, without even venturing out of North London.
In advance of Saturday’s game, I fancied we might find a way to scrabble past Uwe Rosler’s obdurate hurdle, only for our over-familiarity with failure to result in us falling at the last come May 17. To prevent such pessimistic predictions prevailing, or if the final is not to place quite such a stressful toll on my old ticker, it will require that the Ox is not the sole Arsenal player willing to assume responsibility.
But at the end of the day the result is all that matters and the celebrations following Santi’s decisive penalty were no less euphoric on account of the dour 120 minutes of football that preceded the spot-kicks.
Obviously we’d all love to see our silverware drought brought to a conclusion in fine style. Yet while I recall Patrick Vieira winning the FA Cup from the penalty spot with his last kick of a ball in an Arsenal shirt in 2005, it’s not the passing of time that’s completely erased any memory of being totally outplayed by United for most of a marvellous Cardiff afternoon.
Albeit as Saturday’s woefully passive performance progressed. Gooners all around me were venting their frustrations, fast running out of patience with our manager. Even if all Arsène has achieved with our progress to the final is to paper over the cracks that have put such a strain on even his most devoted followers, I still can’t entertain the notion of his illustrious sojourn ending on such a sour note.
Hopefully this result will have a positive impact on the mood in the Arsenal camp and the return of the likes of Ramsey, Özil and Koscielny will provide the footballing Polyfilla necessary to turn our miserable form around.
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