Fulham 0-2 Reds: Lazy wins and lazy papers

It was nice to be free of the stress that normally accompanies supporting your team when we went to Fulham and won with ease yesterday in a fairly unimportant, end of the season game for Rafa's men.

Nonetheless it was an important win that virtually guarantees fourth place and Champions League football next season. It is matters in that competition which are most pressing at the moment with Chelsea visiting Anfield on Tuesday.

Yesterday's game offered a chance to the likes of Jermaine Pennant and Peter Crouch to stake their claim for starting spots in the upcoming Chelsea games and stake their claim they did with a goal each in a pretty easy win over a tepid Fulham very much resigned to relegation now.

It was good to see Steve Finnan given a run out. I'm not sure what's happened to the Irishman lately as he's not been playing the big games. He was injured for a while but to the best of my knowledge he's been full fit for a while but not been considered. It's a sharp contrast to his standing in the team in previous seasons. Could it be a sign of a change at right back in the summer?

John Arne Riise had a decent game but I still can't see the Norwegian being here next season. Decent after a considerable spell of abject displays just won't cut it. We know Rafa's ruthless and I can't see him being an different with John Arne however long he's been at the club.

Andriy Voronin showed some decent touches but he clearly just doesn't have what it takes in front of goal. As a fourth striker he's fine but you get the feeling we could get something a bit better in the summer.

I look at someone like Florent Sinama Pongolle doing well with Recreativo in Spain and who always did well for us and it's puzzling. I don't know whether Flo Po would have been happy with a fourth choice role at Anfield but he would have offered considerably more than Voronin has.

The papers clearly had little on this weekend so decided to go with a random Steven Gerrard to Chelsea rumour.

How odd that it comes in the week when we play Chelsea in another massive Champions League semi final. If I were one to dabble in conspiracies it's almost as if they are trying to unsettle our captain, who is doubtful for the game in any case, to hand the advantage to Chelsea whose manager Avram Grant was gushing in his praise of the Reds' skipper.

London press with an anti Liverpool agenda? Surely not....

What George said

Our other esteemed owner George Gillett has this evening said he will never sell his shares to Tom Hicks while criticising his continuing PR campaign.

He says some good things about how Hicks' media binge is poorly timed just a few days before our biggest game of the season against Chelsea at Anfield in the Champions League semi finals.

There is an indication that he has the best interests of the club at heart in looking to sell but his support of Parry (The one thing Liverpool fans probably back Hicks on) will not be to everyone's liking.

I find it hard to make my mind up about Gillett. He has stayed largely silent in all of this and that perhaps is what is both good and bad about it all. The silence is a nice reprieve from Hicks' outbursts but it is also infuriating as it allows the club to be dragged down even further with no sign of any resolution.

At the end of the day though Kopites sing "Yanks Out" and not "Yank Out" for a reason.

All Gillett's statement does is underline why this situation is nowhere near a resolution. Sad times.

Deadlock - Why this situation will go on and on

And so more public mud slinging in the name of Liverpool Football Club in the week when we remembered and mourned the loss of 96 fellow fans 19 years ago. And this won't be the last of it either.

Hicks calls Parry's tenure a disaster, Parry remains defiant and where does that leave Liverpool Football Club? At deadlock, complete and utter.

What is clear is that Tom Hicks does not have the money to buy George Gillett's share and does not have the money to build a stadium or finance building of the team. If he thinks he does and can, he is deluded.

But instead of dealing in reality he will play the PR game in a desperate attempt to get the fans he lost long ago back on his side but he won't manage it. He has lied consistently.

Instead of the shovel going in the ground 90 days after he bought the club with Gillett we are here over a year later still waiting.

He said today it should have been built three years ago and that this is Parry's fault. Unless Parry has millions stashed away somewhere is it not the responsbility of the money men to get the stadium up and running? The delay with the stadium was always about the finance. Hicks (and Gillett) said they had it. They lied.

And the lies continue. Having previously denied even the existence of talks with DIC he acknowledged it today while managing to belittle and criticise them all roughly in the same sentence. Ridiculing that "gal" Amanda Staveley who had worked on DIC's behalf and doing all he can to say that it is they who are actually the bad guys.

They may not be the good guys but we all know who the bad guy is in all this - He's the overweight Texan that was on Sky this morning and on the loop all day telling lies and dragging the great name of this football club through the mud.

Rick Parry is far from criticism in all this and would serve the club's best interests commercially by stepping down but the manner in which Hicks has gone about all this is what is most appalling.

An American football coach once said "The superior man blames himself. The inferior man blames others"

The inferior man just has to go but with both sides so set in their ways, this situation will drag on, dragging our great club with it.

Tom Hicks - Top class dickhead

I sat for a while thinking about the title and in the end decided it was best to go with how I felt. I'm sure I'm not alone.

While we continue to go from strength to strength on the pitch it is a real pity that one of our chairmen (although he might as well be the only one) continues to undermine Rafa, the chief executive, the players, the fans and everyone associated with the football club in the week when we are supposed to be remembering our 96 fellow Reds who we lost at Hillsborough.

He brings new meaning to the word despicable. There is lots to assess in this story since Hicks decided last week to let everyone know he had asked for Rick Parry's resignation and then went on to complete assassinate the character of the man through every medium possible.

Now a lot of Liverpool fans have little time for Parry but he does not deserve this public mauling. This is Liverpool Football Club, for christ sake this is a football club in the first place and these things need to be kept in house at any club.

But it appears the Texan can't help himself as he will continue to destroy the CEO in public and undermine the boss by giving an in depth interview to Sky on Wednesday. A day after the Hillsborough anniversary. Thoughtless doesn't even begin to describe this.

And where does this leave Rafa and his side? Well we showed no signs of being adversely affected by all this against Blackburn yesterday in an accomplished performance but it is clear that Benitez is very unhappy with this situation and is only now learning of Parry's involvement in THAT meeting with Jurgen Klinsmann.

Tom Hicks can back Rafa all he likes but if he continues to undermine him like this he will have no manager to back. Rafa will walk. He walked for far less at Valencia. He clearly loves this club and believes he is very close to something special and so do we.

But its like a in any relationship. You may love someone but if they hurt you it is inevitable that you will walk away. And that is what is so worrying about this whole sordid affair.

Reds 4-2 Arsenal: Now there are no doubts.

What an amazing night.

It ranks up there with the very best European nights we've had at Anfield and unlike recent times it had the goals to go alongside the obvious tension and excitement.

Talking to people who were at the game the Kop was shaking from start to finish as the infectious Fernando Torres song took hold and the bouncing never stopped.

On the pitch we came back from a disasterous start to roar into the lead. Torres goal was one fit to win any game of football and my only regret would be that it did not win this one but it was so important nonetheless.

Emanuel Adebayor must have thought he'd buried us but there is no accounting for the sheer ferocity and determination of Liverpool's attack.

Ryan Babel's contribution puts him on a par with David Fairclough when it comes to being a super sub but with time we hope the Dutchman will be much more than that. But undoubtedly his best performances this season have come from the bench.

Arsene Wenger predictably moaned about the penalty but these things happen in football. We've had our fair share of bad decisions this season as well and over the course of the season they often balance out.

It's just often that they balance out in different ways. Arsenal may get a lucky decision in an (increasingly) meaningless league game before the season is out. Whereas, this season at least, we often tend to get done over by refs in league games against the big four but get our fair share of luck in these types of games.

At the end of the day it was a penalty probably about as much as Kuyt's tug on Hleb was last week only this time the referee chose to award it. Such is football.

But I felt on the balance of play we deserved to win tonight anyway. We were much better after Arsenal rattled us in the opening 20 minutes and only an amazing run from Theo Walcott in which our entire midfield and defence fell to pieces resulted in an equaliser Arsenal barely merited on their second half play.

That I thought would be the end of us. Nowhere near as heartbreaking as Michael Thomas in 1989 but not far off given how little was left in the game.

But the comeback was swift and devastating and was the mark of a side who don't rely on luck but on quality players, the supporters and a remarkable will to win.

And that is what makes this very unique football club so great. As one banner in the stands said tonight - "Scousers Rule The World" We do tonight and hopefully it won't be for the last time this season.

Arsenal 1-1 Reds - Part Two

Two very different line ups but an almost identical game and an identical scoreline. We played better today than we did on Wednesday if I'm honest. In fact our first half lead was deserved but on the balance of play with Arsenal dominating most of the second half this seemed a fair result.

I've lost patience with Andriy Voronin. He has been out for a while and is only just returning to the team but dear god he missed a sitter today and in general looks off the pace and really just not up to the task at the very highest level. He missed sitters like this earlier in the season as well.

We should cut are losses (as much as he needs to cut his hair) and get rid at the end of the season. He cost us nothing so we'll hopefully make a few bob on him but the word on the street is that he's settled in to the city and has bought a house in the area. Houses are sold just as easily as they're bought but this would suggest that he's been told he has a future at the club. But why?

Anyway back to the game and great to see young Damien Plessis get a run out. I've watched the French youngster for the reserves a couple of times and he looks good in the tackle and composed with his passing.

This was all in evidence today and he definitely didn't let the magnitude of the game get to him at all. The performances of him and Emiliano Insua towards the back end of last season has offered us the first taste of Rafa's worldwide recruitment policy and it's looking pretty good so far without going overboard.

Peter Crouch needs to take every opportunity he can get to prove his worth and did so today with a good performance and an excellent goal.

Indeed most who played today needed to take their opportunities given that our team has been so settled of late and so it was good to see Steve Finnan slot effortlessly back into full back and Lucas Leiva give another good account of himself in centre midfield.

The result, whilst a good one for us and definitely not what Arsenal needed, should have little bearing on Tuesdays match and it's outcome given that the two sides will be changed, it's a different stadium, a different atmosphere (a lot louder for starters!) and there is a lot more at stake.

Arsenal 1-1 Reds

It was a typical European performance with a good result that sets things up nicely for next week's return at Anfield.

First of all, I was appalled to hear of Sky Sports presenter Richard Keys' apparent intimation of some sort of helping hand from the referee when he revealed that last night's Dutch referee Pieter Vink lives just 5km from Dirk Kuyt's home town village.

And so apparently this might have influenced him when Kuyt put his arm round Alexandr Hleb in the box with Hungarian falling theatrically to the floor and Arsenal fans and players and Andy Gray demanding a penalty.

Jesus fucking wept, what a bloody non conspiracy theory! And yet some of the national papers felt obliged to report it today. It only heightens my own view that certain sections of the media and particularly Sky seem to have it in for us.

My own view on it is that Kuyt did get a hold of Hleb but it was the kind of incident that could have gone either way and in this case Mr Vink who, as Arsene Wenger commented afterwards, was was just a few yards away from the incident decided there was not enough in it to warrant a spot kick. It was not the "stonewaller" some have been saying it was today, some in the media that is. Surprise, surprise.

Anyway enough ranting against the fourth estate. It was indeed a typical European performance from us. We had the kind of solidity that has been the bedrock of our excellent record in this competition under Benitez.

Martin Skrtel has now undoubtedly proved to have been an excellent discovery from Benitez as he marshalled the backline with some excellent tackling through the game. Praise too for Sami Hyypia and Jamie Carragher who doesn't always look comfortable at full back but always does a job.

Kuyt was man of the match for me. A great opportunist goal after great work from Gerrard and overall he did the stuff he's good at throughout the 90 minutes. Holding the ball up when going forward and putting in the effort when defending.

All the talk is of the possession Arsenal had throughout the second half and there's no doubt they were the better team but all the passing in the world is of little use when you can muster little in terms of attempts on goal. Only Theo Walcott's run and strike early in the second half and Cesc Fabregas' goalward bound toe poke that was bizarrely cleared off the line by his own team mate Nicklas Bendtner (See video and funny music below!) caused us to skip a heart beat.



The second leg will be a nerve wrecking affair and my only real worry is that Arsenal are capable of scoring anywhere as we saw in Milan last month. They also bossed us in the league game at Anfield earlier in the season. This game is perfect for them. They are under pressure, the home team are expected to advance but they excell in these situations.

We must not make the mistake of thinking the tie is over and have to go at them from the off but that can be hard even with all the best intentions. Subconsciously we may be inclined to sit back but that's a dangerous ploy against such a good team. We have to play the game as if we need to win it.

Elsewhere today Javier Mascherano, who I thought had a quiet game last night, was handed a two game league ban and a 15k fine by the men in suits at FA.

Already plenty has been said about this but it's good to hear that the club are considering an appeal based on a lack of consistency.

Mascherano is receiving the punishment that should have been handed out to Ashley Cole and that really is what's all wrong about this unsavory affair.