Morning all.
Liverpool battered Man City yesterday afternoon in every department bar the scoreline. With better finishing, the game could have been over in the first half. Yes, Liverpool looked very very good but let’s not forget they were playing against a City team who haven’t won a game for a few weeks and are really out of form. They’ve been so bad I wouldn’t have been surprised if it had been Leeds Utd beating them yesterday.
Don’t get me wrong, Liverpool aren’t top of both the Premier League and Champions League through luck, although they do have more than their fair share of that, they’re there because they keep on winning.
The reality is though, they earned three points in what was possibly one of the easiest contests they’ll face for the rest of the season.
Every other club might as well give up chasing them for the league title because apparently, yesterday they took another step towards winning the league according to Sky Sports. Have they forgotten it’s December?
A 9 point lead has been chased down before. Not often admittedly but it’s been done. I’ve nicked this table from The Sporting News.
| Season | Eventual Champion | Eventual Runners-Up | Points Gap |
| 1995-96 | Manchester United | Newcastle | 12 |
| 1997-98 | Arsenal | Manchester United | 11 |
| 2013-14 | Manchester City | Liverpool | 9 |
| 2002-03 | Manchester United | Arsenal | 9 |
| 2011-12 | Manchester City | Manchester United | 8 |
The best of the above was 1997/98. It was Arsene Wenger’s first Premier League title and Arsenals first for a while. At one stage, in December funny enough, we were 13 points behind the then leaders Manchester Utd. Fergie was being his arrogant self by dismissing our chances of catching them, or something like than but instead, he should have focussed on his own team. 15 wins and 3 draws later, Tony Adams had his hands on the big trophy. It was defeats to Coventry, Southampton and Leicester City which Fergie clearly didn’t see coming and Arsenal took advantage.
Arsenal, Chelsea and even Man City shouldn’t be written off just yet. I suspect Brighton and Nottingham Forest still believe they have a small chance too.
Arsenal have two big fixtures this week, Man Utd at The Emirates on Wednesday night before a Sunday lunchtime fixture against Fulham at Craven Cottage.
More on Utd tomorrow after Mikel Arteta’s press conference but what we do known is that neither Kobbie Mainoo or Lisandro Martínez will play as they’re both suspended.
Catch up later..
Afternoon Rico and the esteemed members of the House.
I didn’t see the Scouser vs Cittie game as I was working yesterday but I followed it online.
The media are in their element, we all know that they love Liverpool, not Everton funnily enough just the Heysel boys.
So be prepared for an inescapable mass of sickening verbiage from the MSM between now and the end of the season as they have a collective climax over the prospective success of their Scouse darlings.
It’s enough to make you want to throw up…
In the words of a wise man I once knew: ‘I can’t stand them’
When I saw your headline Rico, I hoped it would mean both Gabriel and Calafiori would be fit for Wednesday’s game. The fact that Mainoo is not available is good but not as good as Martinez also being suspended, he’s a nasty player ever ready with a sneaky hit off the ball and behind the ref’s back.
We will need to play at a high pace early on, to run the legs off their aging midfield and defence.
Late on here today, I took a bus ride into Norwich ( free with my bus pass) to visit the library and for a delicious bacon roll and a freshly brewed cup of tea at Reggie’s tea stall on the market.
Quite a crowd outside the Forum, where a small group of musicians and a children’s choir were performing.
Very Christmassy.
Afternoon Kev.
Anyone but us eh, that’s the media agenda.
Hope that will come on Wednesday Cicero. We need them…
Nice to see Martinez is out , he is one of those that trades on leaving his foot in and is always likely to injure someone. His Argentinian nickname “”‘El Carnicero'”” kind of sums him up.
After a couple of games it’s obvious that the players wanted Ten Haag out and had downed tools so with new new manager bounce suddenly this becomes a major banana skin .
FA Cup 3rd round draw tonight @ 7.00 a home draw against a lower division team please.
I’m amazed they gave Ten Hag a new contract. Talk about not reading the room although a few Utd fans I know thought he was the right man.
Fingers crossed Limey..
A home tie v Man City would be good. 😜