Betalogue

A beautiful goal, and 89 minutes of profound boredom. That was the gist of Liverpool’s trip to Stamford Bridge, which ended in a 0-1 victory that was sweet revenge for the home loss to Chelsea earlier in the season.

The problem is not with Liverpool fielding a defensive side and protecting their lead instead of trying to create anything. The problem is that, on days like this, it looks like it’s the only way for them to achieve anything. Kewell looks very ordinary. Diouf is an infuriating player, always huffing and puffing with the ball only to lose it as soon as he attempts a pass, and then compensating for his own failure by inflicting bad tackles and working up the opponents. It’s a wonder he doesn’t get sent off more often, or earlier. Michael Owen is still on the bench.

Chelsea too were unable to create anything, which explains the final score line. Oh well. I guess that’s what happens when you pay too much for your players. But if you were looking for a game that failed to live up to its billing or people’s desperate expectations, this is the one.

Meanwhile, Aston Villa’s victory over Portsmouth the day before was at least entertaining. It wasn’t great football, but it kept you interested. Aston Villa for third place, I say!

For Arsenal, it’s beginning to look dangerously close to the season of too many draws. Sure, Manchester United will probably drop points too sooner or later, but so will everybody else. Maybe Arsène Wenger could borrow a page or two from Gérard Houillier’s book. Just maybe. And just one or two.

This entry was posted by Pierre Igot on Thursday, January 8th, 2004 at 3:44 am and is filed under Football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.