Chalk another off. Still in our hands with ten games to go and we've got through a game that almost everybody was writing off when the teams were announced. We should have won and as much as the officials cheated us out of a blatant penalty at the very end, we cheated ourselves out of three points by missing a number of clear cut chances.
But it showed two things - one, we're a F***ing great team who everybody is shaking at the thought of playing. Two, Man City are nowhere near as invincible as some make out. We played them off the park. We made them change their tactic and forced them into knocking it long, rather than playing out from the back. We kept their stars players quiet for large parts of it.
Our line up wasn't the problem either with the result. Nor was playing who we played in Prague. As I said, we had more than enough chances to win that game comfortably. And Luis Diaz wasn't the only one guilty of spurning chances.
Of course though some talk will be about the officials because yet again against a "top four" rival, we've come on the wrong end of a huge decision. Chelsea on the opening day we have a blatant handball turned down against us, against United we had a blatant handball turned down against us, against Arsenal we had a blatant handball turned against us, Spurs - well we all know what happend on that game, against Newcastle Van Dijk is wrongly sent off and now yesterday. These are the games that determine who finishes in the top four or even win the League and these are the games where the huge decisions are clearly going against us. There's no gurantee we score the penalties we should have been awarded but it's a safe bet that if we had been given them we'd be a lot better off than just joint top.
But top we are. Despite the system doing their best to ensure we don't win the League, we are top and that's because we've got a F***ing squad brimming with quality and fight. We've also got the greatest manager in the world.
Kelleher - another good performance from the stand in keeper. Couldn't do much with the goal. I really like how he's happy to go long with his passing rather than force ourselves to play it short and come under pressure. There's no harm in playing like Wimbledon every now and then. It gets us up the pitch and gives us a chance to win the second ball (if Nunez doesn't win the header) in more dangerous areas.
Bradley - thought he was outstanding again as a defender. Maybe had a couple of chances that he could/should have shot at the other end of the park but from a defensive point of view - top quality. Was surprised to see him brought off really because I thought he was one of our best performers.
Quansah - was almost written off when the game started because Haaland was just gonna bully him and Bradley. Guess what - he F***ing didn't. Jarell had him in his pocket all game. Superb from the young lad. And we can add this performance to the ever increasing games he's played where we've got a lad we can trust to perform.
Van Dijk - like Quansah next to him, he was immense. Honestly wouldn't know Haaland was playing other than one run at Virg, where the skipper just made the ugly c**t do whatever Virg wanted him to. Clearly back to his very best.
Gomez - had a poor first half, got done a few times and couldn't even bring them down properly. Got better as the game went on though. Wouldn't of been surprised to see him subbed instead of Bradley but I'm not Jürgen.
Mac Allister - starting to cement himself into our best XI now. Not just for his goal but his all round play. Looks like we've got ourselves another deadly taker from the spot though in the mould of Milner. And we all know he should have won us a pen in the dying seconds of the game but you can't cater for cheats - guess we should have known that after Bernado Silva avoided a yellow card for shoving Mac in the back twenty minutes after the ball had been played.
Endo - I remember saying a few months back that this lad wasn't brought into be world class and he never would be but F**k me he's getting close to it. Absolutely brilliant yesterday. You won't find many games where De Bruyne is kept as quiet as he was by Endo. Love this man.
Szoboszlai - had a quiet start to the game but as soon as he had that header that he should have done a lot better with he came alive and started running the show.
Elliott - plenty of hard work again from Harvey but not much in terms of input in the final third - bar that one cross from Dom. He'll graft all day for us though and that alone will give him some support from the fans.
Nunez - frustrating from Darwin yesterday as he just kept going offside with no reason to. Also missed a chance from point blank range, though I think it was more of a good save from Ortega than a miss from Nunez. Great awareness to win the pen though. And as always, he keeps the opposition occupied.
Diaz - one of those days for Lucho unfortunately, where all the big chances fell to him and he couldn't take them. He had one not long ago but did end up scoring eventually (can't remember the game) but yesterday he just couldn't get the ball in the net. And it cost us, more so than the last minute decision in my opinion. But I still love him and think he's easily our best left winger.
Robertson - didn't do a great deal other than that wonderful ball in for the Nunez chance. His set piece delivery wasn't the best either, think every one of them was met by a City head first.
Salah - would of loved him to start but he didn't and when he did come on made a mess of almost anything. Poor delivery in the box, caught offside far too easily and ultimately looked like a lad who was just coming from injury.
Gakpo - had one good driving run through the middle of the park but very little else.
Overall, it's a game that was given to City by most beforehand and afterwards it's them celebrating a point and us fuming that we've dropped two because we F***ing twatted that small time club.
A little bit more luck, or just one finish to go our way, and we're dancing around. As it is, it's Liverpool and we're not keen on doing things the easy way so it should be expected that we'd slip up somewhere. But win our next game and we're back top with just nine games to go.
Couldn't be any prouder of the fight and passion shown by the lads yesterday.
Keep doing what we're doing Reds and we win the F***ing lot - starting by knocking that other bunch of cu*ts from Manchester out the FA Cup next Sunday.
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