Got to stop these last gasp deals.Gunner go belly up sooner or later.
When?
Scoring in the last minute counts the same as scoring in the first minute. It doesn't matter when they come, as long as they do. If that means scoring in Kloppotime, that's fair enough.
Playing players who are 85-90% fit is risky and with our crowded schedule may be the Boss should have a little more faith and indeed flexibility in selecting Ox, Nabby and Origi.
I thought when Naby ran the show at Palace early last season, he would be an ideal replacement for Can. Sadly it just hasn't happened. The language barrier doesn't help him either. He looks a fish out of water on the pitch, when he's fit enough to play on it, totally reliant on Sadio for info and guidance.
Divock is good for a rescue job, but beyond that, he just doesn't cut it unfortunately. The thing is, we're told that Salah is fit to play these games, but evidently he isn't yet. We need him next week.
As for Sadio himself, he was on a yellow for a long time and with Moss around, he could have gone if he got a challenge wrong in the centre circle in the second half, with catastrophic implications for next week. Moss is notoriously fond of dishing out red cards when we're in town. Thankfully, he waved play on, and the rest is history.
I actually thought that that VAR was computer controlled, I had no idea you had some referee with a clear bias against Liverpool just drawing random lines until he finds one that makes a Liverpool goal offside!
In case it's forgotten, the original decision was offside. So if we didn't have VAR, the original decision would stand anyway and it couldn't be checked.
Atkinson didn't draw the line. I understand there's 3 people at the VAR hub. The VAR, his assistant VAR, and a replay operator for the pitchside screen. The lines are drawn by the assistant afaik. Atkinson then interprets the info on the screen and informs the ref what the verdict is. We won the game anyway, so it doesn't matter now in the grand scheme of things. Unlike 12 months ago when a perfectly valid goal at Arsenal was ruled out and we only got one point, which was the gap at the end of the season.
We have 4 more points now than we had then. It always looked like a long afternoon, which it was. It also looked like one of those days when the ball just wouldn't go in, for love nor money. But it did, and when you don't put men on posts when defending corners, you can't complain when the ball sails into the unguarded net.
Next week, it will be a different game. We are unbeaten in 46 home games, and 16 years at home against City. I'm sure we'll come out ready to get stuck into that ragball defence, and send out a strong statement to those who still question us. Getting ahead of myself I know, but I reckon a 9 point lead, (with the prospect of a 12 point margin before they play again) should give them plenty to reflect on during the break.