Well it had to end sometime, and so it has against a side that until a week ago didnāt know whether they were coming or going.
That said Liverpool probably have only themselves to blame for letting a game in which they were pretty much in charge of slip away and turn to dust and result in the end of a marvelous run of unbeaten gamesā¦
There was a spell when Liverpool were dominating and were consistently just inches wide of the mark, with the likes of Gerrard and goal scorer Kuyt coming so close to adding to Pools initial lead that at that point I said to friend who I was watching the game with āI hope they are not been profligate with these chances and donāt come to regret not taking themāā¦well, first in went the Carra OG for the equalizer (that one will be stinging Mr. True Red himself for a while me thinks), then the icing in the form of the at-the-death winner, and Tottenham had completed their feat and become Liverpool in disguise.
The margins for any team looking to win this championship will, come May prove to be very slight indeed. It will basically come down to the team with the least amount of cock-ups over the long stretch, and letās face it- this is one heck of a mighty cock-up!
We have let Chelsea back in, and while itās all well and good that we did the impossible by beating them in their own backyard, of what point is it throwing a game away; two games latter to a team that provide us (or at least should do so) of the meat and veg of three valuable points?
Unlike most I am not interested in this sit on the fence notion of, ābeen happy if Liverpool at least challenge for the title while not expecting them to go on and win itāā¦ bollocks to that! I crave the title. It has been far too long, and we have been also-rans in the Premiership so many times it, letās admit it pretty much physically hurts!
But getting some perspective back, the bounce back to earth after a string of mind bogglingly good results should remind all involved with the club, should any actually need reminding, that the hard work to continue in cementing and building on the foundations already laid for this season would come to nothing were we not able to chalk this down to an extremely bad day at the office and look forward to bouncing back emphatically.
We cannot afford any further blunders, and frankly with the glee with which Chelsea and Man U fans greeted this result, no one will give a rats ass come May that we topped the table for a few weeks and āgave it a right goā, and got one or two sweaty palms going from the main title contenders. Most especially Man U who, were they to win in May would finally equal the first division titles of this incredible club. (Donāt know about you, but the thought simply makes my stomach churn).
But if one were looking for positives, the first that springs to mind is that improvements are sure to come, and the evidence on the table thus far shows that with the likes of Torres almost ready to re-enter the fray, this team still looks pretty damn close to been the finished article in terms of been a championship winning side.
I just hope the sky high confidence the players have built for themselves and a fair few number of us, isnāt so shattered by the next Premiership match day that we start doubting the players or worse still that they start doubting themselvesā¦hey, call me foolish, but I donāt somehow think that will happen