Give me a while to calm myself. Did that really happen yesterday?
The short and sweet answer is "Yes, it happened and deservedly so." While I've fallen off the Benitez bandwagon several times in recent months, he's finally shown he can get it done against those big clubs that traditionally embarrass and humiliate us. His tactics were king. His players were heroic.
I need to lie down again. I will go through this game later, much to your disdain. After all, I get the overwhelming impression that people are a lot more tolerant of Liverpool when they're losing and continually finishing fourth. This year, it's different. Maybe second!
MOTD highlights below the jump. My gushing rhetoric will follow later on.
Seriously, we just beat Chelsea. At home. First time in 86 games that anyone has done that.
Watch Chelsea v Liverpool in News Online | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
Monday, October 27, 2008
Phew
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29 comments:
yeah, well - we were the ones who did it the last time!
Bah, congrats. Seriously, that was very fun to watch.
Your lot even made my little Spurs heart jump for for joy. Most fun I've had watching a soccer match in quite some time.
Congrats, you Reds. Seriously; that just ended the enmity I had for 'Pool and Rafa after the Barry throwdown.
i'm sure that 4 goal Villa romp didn't hurt, either.
so when does the PR deadspin feature get retitled 'ifs and buts were candies and nuts'?
enough of this 76 minutes bullshit, if this were any other team the media would be talking about how clutch they are. if it were united they would be heroes. but since its liverpool its a bad thing that they keep winning late.
fucking blow me
Georger - you are aware that PR is our very own Precious Roy of UF, right?
Behave yourself.
thats why i asked it here
its just irritating
Attic-
yeah, that helped a little. Especially seeing Emule do nothing and Gabby tear up Wigan (then again- Figueroa and Shamble or Laursen and Cuellar, who would YOU rather have in central defense?), likely assuring that Gabby gets his own three lions shirt to trade for a qualifier opponent of his choosing.
Really Mike? Because Arsenal left it until after the 76th against West Ham and I didn't think they were clutch at all. I was thinking, "Shit, the Gunners are going to find a way to drop points against a lesser side again."
I'm actually happy for Liverpool. Shit I blog with the least impartial Liverpool fans I've ever come across.
Like I said on DS... Lighten up, Scousers. You're in first.
and at least im being consistent, i complained about the red card stuff last week that was used to discredit their victories. not liking them is fine but not giving credit where credit is due because they would be sitting sixteenth if the games were 76 minutes long? come on.
though i did appreciate the robbery bit, that never gets old and never ceases to amaze when it happens every few weeks
i think i may be a bit tense because im bracing for inevitable letdown coming wednesday
"Shit I blog with the least impartial Liverpool fans I've ever come across."
That's me! He's talking about me!
im looking at the comments on deadspin and i must acknowledge that i am not, in fact, wanderingbear, though it may seem that way.
i would never use 'mea culpa' and 'shoddy'
do disagree that the game was boring. it reminded me alot of the arsenal game at anfield last year when gerrard scored early and they just sat back and arsenal peppered the offensive half. granted chelsea didnt get shots in it was still some exciting play in my opinion.
Do people really have that hard of a time understanding English? A) Congrats you are in first B) Be careful because being 2-0 against 2 of the Top 4 doesn't necessarily translate into a title. 3) Liverpool v. Chelsea is still kind of boring.
I'm sure that the outcome alone puts me at odds with many people around here re: number 3. But there were really only 5 scoring chances in that match.
Kalou, Malouda, and Anelka is never going to break down a good defense. So even with an early goal that should have opened the game up, that never happened (I will add that, line-ups aside, Rafa totally outmanaged Scolari).
I'm actually deriving a weird sadistic pleasure from the comments on DS. And I wasn't trying to piss Scousers off (although, fuck, I knew I should have written about Atletico) but shit, be a little more defensive, people. You'd think a team with 17 (or is it 18) titles would act like they know what it's like to be in first.
well know ive never claimed to understand english, im making it up as i go.
the point made by someone on there is valid though, that it has been the points from these games that have been holding them back the past few years. and the knock on benitez was that he couldnt win against the other teams, certainly not on the road. plus that they couldnt win without torres and gerrard.
granted its moot when pompey takes away a point this week
I think the lack of league titles for 20 years definitely lends itself to an inferiority complex.
At this point, we're bordering on Red Sox fandom circa 2003. Rabid defense of our team no matter what the context, lingering resentment at not having won in years and years etc., translated into vitriol at anyone who dare speaketh of the matter.
That said, we've won a few things besides the league, although we don't know what it's like to be in first, not any more.
Bear in mind a lot of the US-born LFC fans never experienced league titles like I did. They're coming into this knowing that not winning the league has become our largest bete noire.
It's been a while since "we" tasted first. Of course some people are going to be aggrieved when that first-ness is in any way challenged (although you really didn't even challenge it!).
okay this guy sums it up a lot better , although i dont like his decision to not throw in any 'fucking blow me'
A few years back as Mourinho marched to his second title, Chelsea were the masters of snatching wins and draws from the jaws of defeat in those final 15 minutes. "Mark of a Champion" the London papers cried out.
Last season, Manchester United outscored their opponents in the final 15 minutes by some obscene total to be hailed by the prawn sandwich brigade as having the right mentality to be champions.
So when Liverpool do it, we get some lame guardian quote about if the games ended in the 76th minute yadda yadda...
Why not go further. If the games ended at halftime, the reds would be on something like 6 points.
Point being, and this is coming from somebody who has watched ever single minute of every single Liverpool match this season (Stoke and Aston Villa were brutal) that like those Chelsea and United teams of the recent past, and yes the Arsenal teams in their championship years, Liverpool are getting the job done. They are beating down opponents until their skill and fitness eventually give them their reward.
The press can say what they want...but the fact remains we haven't played our best football yet and we've managed to beat our derby rivals away, United at home and end Chelsea's 86 game win streak. Beyond that, we've managed to hold Aston Villa (currently in 5th) to a draw away from home (a decent result considering what they've done) and we went into the Eastlands and the Stadium of Light and took a full 6 points.
It's too early to count our chickens, but THAT is the stuff title challenges are built on.
only exception being i had to listen to the villa and stoke games on the radio, and oh my god that was brutal.
Isn't being a fan and impartial mutually exclusive?
The points from these games?
Are you talking about the guy who said, "Well if we take 6 points away from United and another 3 from Chelsea and give them to us..."
Sure almost any year a 12 to 15 point swing would get you from 3rd or 4th to 1st (and that's an even dumber 'what if' than the 76 minute 'what if'—one is illustrating that Liverpool has flirted with danger the other is rewriting history), but even if you win those games then you drop points at Sheffield (not possible this year) you undo all of the good you did by beating United.
God, is this what it's going to be like when the Cowboys win a playoff game?
Mike: No.... when Chelsea was winning or drawing on 92nd minute goals from Drogba a coupl of years ago, I was screaming how fucking lucky they were, as were most non-Chelsea fans.
Same thing with United last season. Fuck, I'm still pissed about how lucky they were to get that 95th minute corner (and Tevex goal) against Tottenham when the ref signaled 4 minutes of stoppage time... And that was against Tottenham. I fucking hate Tottenham. Fuck that United team got every lucky break possible last season.
Why are Reds now being revisionists to make themselves look like something other teams weren't to being with?
no im not trying to say they would have won the league and we should retroactively give them the trophy (if anyone is willing to do that, i wont complain); im saying though that picking up points in games against the teams that will be there at the end is what can keep you in it until the end.
they will no doubt drop points to west ham or spurs or pompey, and in a season where they lose at home to united and draw on the road to chelsea, that can be crippling. however when you are beating chelsea and united you can get a slim enough advantage that a string of two or three bad games wont knock you out of it by the new year like last years december swoon did
PR, I'm just sitting gleefully in the corner appreciating life, love, and the beauty of the universe. No downside for me. Certainly caution moving forward, but fuck... it's a gorgeous day today.
Kalou, Malouda, and Anelka is never going to break down a good defense.
WHY DO YOU HATE THE FRENCH?
theres a difference between the fans and the media. i think, and i know im not alone on this, that there is a fairly decent anti-liverpool pro-united bias in the media and things like this (the guardian, soccernet always saying 'so and so saves reds blushes ... so and so rescues sorry reds') just further show that.
though it definitely is after so so so many year of domestic failure and the media being able to pile on, when they are finally doing well for the moment and the focus is on how they are winning late, its just a bit irritating
and when i say the media im talking about newspapers and soccer sites, not blogs. no shot at blogs, i just see it as a separate category
Kid- because nobody likes Anelka. Not even most French.
@Keith - I like Anelka.
No, wait. No I don't - he's a sulking douche.
also, i apologize, i did misread the bit in the last paragraph about not being able to luck your way into where they are.
in all likelihood they are this years arsenal. hopefully they arent this years 06/07 pompey though.
NY Kid: Yeah, totally not intentional, but maybe subconscious. Ever since Titi left Arsenal...
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