JRC

Thankfully never veers in to racist stuff, but it definitely affects him, winds him up; and not, as yet, to the extent that he has been more productive in terms of goals or assists. Very lucky not to be carded for that snide lunge at VdV near the end, but loved the way Gomez sneered down at him for trying to pick a fight. And yes, he is a fantastic player that could do really well for us. I can't blame him for going, nor want to diminish his development and achievements since, but the way his departure was manufactured was still pretty s***ty, so carry on booing I say.

The messaging for Sterling's overdramatic penalty claim late on was screwed in the same way. They announced and displayed the VAR Penalty check just as Oliver pointed for a Goal Kick and the game restarted.

Shearer's sotto voce chuckling as Crouch talked through some of Trent's highlights reel on MOTD2 was very telling. He knows he would have given Dixie Dean's record a run if he had Trent feeding him. Ian Wright and Lineker are the same. I think I saw Lineker tweeting something in a heartfelt defense of TAA against some troll yesterday; if he had been on MOTD2 last night he would have been in an orgasmic coma. Not for the first time, allegedly.

I wasn't as nerve-shredded as I expected to be. Allison was imperious if hardly stretched and our defensive style appeared to be NOT to dive in - well done Dejan - but try to reduce their options. Aside from the close up Aguero miss, I didn't feel they had great clear cut chances. Once Gomez came on and Trent moved to wing back, we effectively smothered them out. They are a great offensive team, so bound to make chances, and Aguero would perhaps be expected to do better with the half-chances and openings they had as well as that sitter - but we made Bravo work harder than they did Allison. For all tjeir skills and movement and choreography - they felt a little sterile at times, whilst we turned up the blood and guts a bit, more 2017-18 at times. I think that sterility has been a feature of Pep's teams when not absolutely flying - or in decline. Hopefully it is the latter. 3 losses in 12 might suggest so.

Goal-scoring opportunity isn't it? In one bizarre sense it didn't lead to a chance - the ball was going away from the goal and to relative safety when it hit Trent - but obviously it would have done if they had been given the penalty. It's a nonsense rule, especially as there are those (Castles, for example - I know) arguing it should be used to disallow our goal - it definitely hit Trent's arm, so even if no penalty, that constituted part of the build up to the goal? And that rule may well have been succesfully invoked if the goal hadn't come from a second phase after City cleared it

Sterling was excellent, but he didn't have it all his own way against Trent who won as many, if not more, of their one on one duels as he lost - that was a proper match up between two very good players, and Trent did enough to deny the charge that he can't defend. In a wider context though - Trent was magnificent going forward (as per MOTD2 highlights reel) and Salah had their Full Back on toast; Sterling is NOT just responsible for what happens in the top 30m of the pitch, but is expected to contribute to the whole dynamic of that LH side - so overall, I would say TAA had much the better of their contest. On the handball decision, I think the key factor is the guidance given by Riley this season on the interpretation of the 'unnatural position' and 'silhouette' stuff. It was being referenced on whichever channel Owen, McManaman and Hargreaves were punditing for, and makes it clear that the PL is using a higher bar for handball than Europe, for example (and could justify the non-penalty at Villa, tbh). Not sure that this is the quote they used in that programme, but it contains the essence. “In this country we have always said — and this is the players and managers saying it to us — that arms are part of the game and as long as you are not trying to extend your body to block a shot then there is more scope so that we don’t penalise. “What we don’t want to create is a culture when defenders have to defend with their hands behind their back or where it is acceptable for attackers to try to drill the ball at their hand to win a penalty" They also referenced him saying that a player in motion will have a very different 'natural' position for his arms, and Refs, and VAR should take this into account. What Owen et al then pointed out was that TAA and Aguero were both trying to change direction and move to the deflected ball - and both had their arms in identical, natural positions because of that. Moreover, Trent's upper arm where it hit was still quite close to his body anyway, so the silhouette argument is not well made. So, irrespective of Silva's handball, the Trent call was a subjective Ref's one, Oliver had a clear view and VAR agreed. According to the guidelines our Refs work to, it was almost certainly the right decision. Having called for Riley to be sacked for ages now, I have to say that this approach to handball is a reasonably sensible one and avoids the nonsense, obviously non-deliberate 'ball-to-hand' ones being penalised.

I find Jurgen's mighty Reds have done this to me. I can barely watch some of our supposed direct 'elite' competition now, because they're just not good enough compared to us and City, despite the efforts of the commentators to convince otherwise of the quality on show. But put some honest tryers on, like The Championship or League 1, or even Scottish ffs, and I can enjoy the game for what it is, because there's no pretension to our standards.

Apparently they select 3 consecutive frames that are synchronised - somehow - with the pass, and select the middle one to analyse. What about how accurate the goal line has been drawn, or if it's exactly square with the sidelines? What if the chalk has tipped out over a bump, or the blades of grass have folded over one way or the other as it was painted?- the goal line is absolutely a factor in the 'letter of the law' about onside or offside ("closer to the opponents' goal line"), and could easily be off by the kind of millimetre decisions they are making with the lines being drawn for VAR. The point is that level of accuracy that VAR is claiming to work to is nonsense, really. Review with a camera and a putative 'off-side' line graphic by all means, but not to this ludicrous level of analysis, which is neither justified in terms of the intent of the law, nor impactful on how players will behave, nor technically coherent; if not off-side beyond reasonable doubt from an initial view, default to onside.

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Some balance - Drogba and Sami, or Drogba and Agger, had some fantastic contests. Drogba certainly won the one at Anfield when he was with Marseille - Sami looked shell-shocked afterwards - and some of the Chelsea ones; the time Sami had flu but still played against him didn't turn out well for us, as you might expect; BUT there were plenty of times that we managed him really well - Agger completely nullified him in the 2007 CL Semi-Final at Anfield (as well as scoring the winner), for example. What I liked about those games was that Drogba and Sami especially loved their battles; they would batter each other, but spent any time they weren't active chatting away and laughing even, and always seemed to have the ultimate respect for each other.

It is to our eternal credit as fans that there was an audible orgasmic sigh and ripple of polite applause when he did that, despite him being a manc who once hat-tricked us.

An ESPN journo has been regurgitating the official line about the Firmino decision process, and surprisingly the operators (PGMOL) and vendors (Hawkeye) are blithely smug about the systems infallibility. With spectacular lack of analytic crutique he even tweeted how Hawkeye's self-proclaimed accuracy means they will be looking to enter into commercially beneficial relationships with even more FA around the world, whilst metaphorically waving his hands at anyone pointing out obvious holes in his argument by citing 'perspective' or 'sophisticated imaging technology' with no real comprehension. The margin of error in the technology is by some way the biggest problem with taking an absolutist position on incidents like Saturday's, but the fact that they have chosen the wholly inappropriate, inaccurate and misleading term Centre of Gravity in their calibration process - and are happy for it to be publicised - hardly inspires confidence in their commitment to accuracy and precision.

1985.

Then Google is wrong. We lost to Coventry on the weekend after beating Newcastle. LFChistory.com agrees.

Pretty sure Garth Crooks scored the winner when Spurs won a league match at Anfield for the first time since 1912, before the Klinsmann game.

Allie Renison - Trade specialist and Brexit expert from the IoD

In the early 70's, Arsenal came and beat us 2-0 - night match I think - and Alan Ball simply ran the show to an extent I have never seen before or, possibly, since. My (reasonable) Bluenose FiL claimed he was the best he ever saw play for them, and so far ahead of his team mates it wasn't true. The humour factor of his managerial career tends to obscure how good he was as a player. The list of Keepers who had worldies in front of the Kop is a long one, but Pat Jennings stands out. Who was the no-mark at Charlton who scored a hat trick against us, and nothing else of note ever?

The handball not given at Goodison just now can only add to VAR's clown car status this weekend. Almost like the refs have an agenda.

Lana del Rey Joe Scarborough John Lithgow Dave Gorman Sanjeev Bhaskar

More so than Shankly, who supposedly found that part difficult - the team that lost to Watford in the Cup in 1970 was still built around that which had been dominant in 64-66; whereas Paisley was, by all accounts, the hard b*****d who packed them off as soon as, certainly after that experience. (Of course Shankly and Paisley ripped that team up and then built a fantastic and exciting young team that reached the FA Cup Final and won the League in the next 2 years)

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