The Smiling Assassin

Some crisis, wasn’t it?

I mean we lost two games in a week. That really is shocking. Almost as bad as The Chavs losing a game and THEM going into a crisis. But that would never happen, would it?

That’s the wonderful thing about the British press these days. One club is never more than a defeat away from being in a crisis. I’ve joked with friends before that the media is getting so bad in this country that it wont be long before one player makes a bad pass that he’ll be described as being in a bad run of form and when he follows that up three minutes later with an assist, he’ll be described as being in the best form of his life and should be give international honours. Sadly, I don’t think we are far off that being the reality.

Watching Jimmy Hill’s Sunday Supplement is a) not a healthy thing to do and b) gives you a good idea of what I’m talking about. Seeing mostly fat, know nothing journalists in their fifties who last saw their feet twenty years ago, let alone kicked a ball with them is as depressing an experience as any football fan can tolerate on a sunday morning, short of being a fan of The Chavs of course.

I wouldn’t mind if they were consistent either but almost all of them (and I don’t just mean Jimmy Hill’s “experts” either) all, by and large, simply piss into whichever direction the wind is blowing. It’s a depressing state of affairs, mainly because it’s lazy writing. Having been an avid reader of World Soccer for the last 6 years, I’ve become acustomed to a certain degree of intelligence from my football writing and punditry; using facts and informed opinion to make clever, intelligent comments about the game and not only that but STICKING to that opinion and not just simply “changing direction” whenever the wind starts blowing in an unfavourable direction.

Where I’m going with this, I’m not entirely sure. I suppose having put up with years of lazy journalism regarding stories about the Reds, I’ve become annoyed at the attitudes of journalists. Presumably, if (and at the moment it’s still a big if) we manage to win the title, we’ll be described by the great unwashed of the British press as being the luckiest champions in football history. And no doubt accused by The S*n as having stolen the trophy and pissed on our rivals on the way out. I suppose I bring this up after having read some of the reports of our game on Saturday.

While the Chelski side we beat on Saturday was harldy their strongest XI, we still beat them fair and square. No Luck; No line calls; no Andy Gray inspecting the “Virtual Replay” to check whether the ball had crossed the line; just excellent, excellent football. Particularly after the “crisis” of the Arse-A-Nal week, which wont be remembered as Benitez’s finest week in football but was nowhere near as bad as some made out. But I’ve digressed as usual. For some journalists to claim that we didn’t deserve the win because it wasn’t the “real Chelsea” is absurd. Presumably when they beat us at Anfield two years ago, that wasn’t deserved beacuse it wasn’t the real Liverpool (though I seem to remember Fatboy Lampard breaking Xavi’s ankle helped quite a bit that day). It’s the old cliche that, ironically, Fleet Street journalists like to trot out but you can only play the teams that are put out against you. And if that team happens to be severely weakened, then so be it. That’s life. Or perhaps for fittingly for Maureenho, that’s the Real World for you.

Chelski were clearly out of sorts though and boy wasn’t it a joy to watch. From Ferreira’s defending to the Drogba and Bollock scene stealing performance towards the end, it was a delight to watch.

Still, that was last week. We now have a nice little break that, as I predicted last time out, should give us a boost over the next few weeks. A difficult game against West Ham negated by the fact that the players will have had ten days off and will be fresh and fit for the games ahead. Everton, Newcastle, Barca and Sheff. Utd. in February, with a ten day gap between the Newcastle and Barca games. Somehow going out of both cup competitions doesnt seem quite so bad now. And remember, Rafa has won at least one trophy every season for the last four seasons.

Frankly, I’d hazard a guess at him stretching that to five, personally.