Manchester United 0-3 Liverpool: United Pay the Penalty

Before the game even started, this was one of the best derbies for Liverpool in a very long time. Unlike so many Old Trafford clashes of old, Liverpool went into this game not only ahead of their rivals, but also as genuine title contenders. To add to the pre-game joy, Chelsea had lost their game the day before, meaning the title race had blown open even wider. The chance was there for Liverpool to close the gap down to just four points (with a game in hand over leaders Chelsea, and City and Chelsea still to come to Anfield), and they took it in style.

Right from the start, Liverpool looked by far the superior team. Rodgers had dropped Coutinho from the starting 11 in place of Sterling, who played alongside Henderson and, crucially, Allen. The effects were easy to see. We had a phenomenal level of midfield control, passing the ball around excellently. It wasn’t just in possession when we were excellent either- we pressed United into mistakes when they were on the ball, never letting them breathe. Suarez and Sturridge combined well (as usual), with Sturridge getting a few decent chances early on. He wasn’t able to take them though- it took a penalty to eventually get the goal we so clearly deserved. It was won by Suarez: he controlled the ball excellently, then took a great touch past Rafael, who’s wild, flailing arm clearly collided with the ball. Having been booked just minutes before he should clearly have been off for this, but in the grand scheme of things Liverpool didn’t have too much to complain about. Gerrard took the penalty excellently, putting it right into the corner.

United reacted very poorly to going behind, failing to muster any sort of threatening response. They lacked creativity going forward, and were generally just sloppy. This was a theme that continued throughout the game- to be frank, they looked very much worthy of the mid-table label that Liverpool fans are gleefully applying to them. They managed to get into the break with the lead still at just 1, but it didn’t last long into the second half. It was another penalty and, like the first one, United could have no argument. Phil Jones clumsily knocked Joe Allen to the ground, leaving referee Mark Clattenburg with an easy decision. Gerrard converted the subsequent penalty with typical coolness, going to the right again and slotting it into the very bottom corner.

In fairness to United, they rallied a little at this point. It was still far from inspiring, but they did at least attempt to launch a couple of attacks on the Liverpool goal. Van Persie had the biggest chance to reduce the deficit to one, but he headed tamely wide from six yards out. Things then went rapidly downhill for them- Sturridge outpaced Vidic, who then rashly lunged in, getting nowhere near the ball. There was little contact, but you simply can’t go in like that, especially not in the box when on a yellow card. He was sent off, and Gerrard had the chance to complete a hat-trick of penalties. He tried to go to his left this time- it sent De Gea the wrong way but it was also slightly inaccurate, and it struck the post.

 It was basically the only foot he put wrong all game; he was excellent. I was very much critical of him after his first couple of games in a deeper role and questioned whether he’d ever be able to adapt, but he has certainly proved me wrong over the second half of the season. He has been immense- his tackling and positioning have improved no end, and he doesn’t always resort to long passes. Though we still need to get a proper defensive midfielder in the summer, it has to be said that the need is a lot less urgent than it seemed to be before Gerrard adapted to the role.

Gerrard should have had the chance to redeem himself for his missed spot kick just minutes later. Apparently conceding three penalties isn’t enough to get United players to catch on to the idea of not fouling players in box; Sturridge had his legs blatantly taken out by Michael Carrick. Clattenburg strangely decided not to give it- maybe he just felt bad for United at this point! Liverpool, on the other hand, were showing no mercy. Suarez flicked the ball excellently over Phil Jones on 82 minutes and then volleyed the ball powerfully at goal, forcing an exquisite save from David De Gea. The respite was only very temporary though- Suarez got clean through on De Gea again after excellently controlling a mis-hit shot from Sturridge and this time managed to beat the Spanish keeper, curling it perfectly over his outstretched leg and into the corner.

Basically all of the team played well, but I think that the midfield three of Allen, Henderson and Sterling deserve special praise. They dominated United all day, passing it amongst themselves and then effortlessly speeding up the play by making incisive runs and passes. All three of them were very willing to press, leading to Liverpool winning the ball back high up the pitch on multiple occasions. The only player who was not quite at his best was Daniel Sturridge- he missed a few good chances, and seemed to have reverted to his old, more selfish style. Hopefully it’s just a blip, and he’s back to his supreme best for the Cardiff game.

To sum up, this victory over our huge rivals was very sweet, made all the more so by the respective positions of us and them. With Chelsea slipping up against Villa and with our form showing no sign of slipping, a real feeling of belief that we can do this is building. Now we just need to keep pumping out victories, and hope that City slip up somewhere along the line!

-James Martin

Follow me on Twitter @JamesMartin013

Southampton 0-3 Liverpool: Persecution of the Saints

Yesterday (Saturday 1^st March), Liverpool travelled to St Mary’s to face Southampton, a team who they have had huge trouble beating in recent times. Fortunately, despite playing nowhere near their best, they were able to overcome their problems, eventually emerging 3-0 victors.

This game saw one notable change to the starting 11- Rodgers opted to play Joe Allen in place of Raheem Sterling. On the one hand this was harsh on the 19-year-old, who has been in excellent form. However, Liverpool have lacked control of the game away from home this season, so an extra man central was a good idea. It proved effective- Liverpool dominated the early exchanges, creating a couple of pretty good chances. Nothing came of this pressure until the 16^th minute, when Luis Suarez got back in amongst the goals after capitalising on a defensive error from the usually solid Southampton back line.

The Saints responded well, with Adam Lallana proving instrumental in their attacks. Sometimes he plays wide, but yesterday he operated in the number 10 role and was extremely effective. He combined exceptionally well with Jay Rodriguez and Ricky Lambert on multiple occasions, and nearly equalised for Southampton after a lovely little move- his effort struck the post. They kept up a relatively strong amount of pressure on the Liverpool goal all the way through to half time, but couldn’t get anything to show for it.

The second half showed signs of continuing where the first left off- Liverpool had to absorb a fair bit of pressure from the home side. However, 57 minutes in, Rodgers made a substitution that culminated in the killing off of the match. He brought on Raheem Sterling for the uncharacteristically ineffectual Philippe Coutinho; a change many fans had been clamouring for at half time. Just over a minute after coming on, and with his very first touch of the ball, he put Liverpool two up, firing home from a nice pass from Suarez. From here on in Liverpool cruised. Southampton looked demoralised, and Liverpool could have scored three or four in the second half. In the dying moments they did manage to add a third- Suarez embarrassed Jose Fonte with a series of silky skills, and was eventually clattered by him, resulting in a stonewall penalty. Gerrard stepped up to take it, and, as per usual, finished it emphatically. This was arguably his best penalty of the season- it flew right into the top corner, leaving Boruc (who had dived the right way) completely helpless.

After the game, Rodgers said that this game was, in its own way, just as impressive as the 5-1 thrashing of Arsenal. I am inclined to agree with him. It’s an age-old saying that to win when not at your best is the mark of champions. Liverpool didn’t just win; they produced a score-line of 3-0! With only 10 games remaining and Liverpool sitting in 2^nd, just 4 points off the top, people are finally being forced to take our title challenge seriously. We are the form side- since the halfway point in the season, no team has a better record than ours. Our main title contenders, Man City and Chelsea, are still to come to Anfield: this is the best shot we’ve had at the title in years. If Suarez and Sturridge can keep up their scintillating form (if they were a team in their own right, they would be 6^th top scorers in the Premier League), there is no way you could justify counting us out of the race.

To conclude, these are exciting times for Liverpool, both fans and club alike. At the start of the season it is almost inconceivable that, with so few games to play in the season, there would be talk of winning the division championship. Even if we don’t manage to secure the title this year, we can be thrilled with the huge progress we’ve made and content ourselves with the all-but-confirmed consolation of a Champions League spot. That is not to say that we shouldn’t dare to believe- we have a great team with a great manager, and with a bit of luck we could yet go all the way. Do it for Stevie!

-James Martin

Follow me on Twitter @JamesMartin013

Liverpool 4-3 Swansea: Post-Match Thoughts

One day, I’ll sit back after a Liverpool game feeling relaxed and calm. Yesterday was not that day. As per usual the reds produced a goal fest, eventually coming out 4-3 victors over Swansea City.

As usual, Liverpool came out of the traps very quickly. Swansea were overwhelmed by the speed and precision of our attacks, and consequently we were 2-0 up after just 20 minutes courtesy of goals from Daniel Sturridge and Jordan Henderson. The first, coming in the 3^rd minute, was the result of an exquisite pass by Raheem Sterling. He curled it with the outside of his right foot, and it fell beautifully into the path of Daniel Sturridge. He never looked like missing- indeed, Suarez was celebrating before the shot had even been taken! Sturridge rounded the keeper and slotted the ball home. For the second, Sturridge turned provider. He showed some nice skill out wide and then passed the ball to the feet of Henderson. The 23-year old then placed the ball perfectly into the top corner; Vorm could only watch on in despair.

So far, so typical of Liverpool. Sadly, the turning of the tide was also horribly predictable. The selling of Shelvey to Swansea was clearly a good bit of business on our part (see my views from the time here: http://jamesmartinblogs.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/shelvey-to-swansea-good-deal.html) , but he was always going to come back to haunt us. So it proved, as he started the Swans’ comeback with a one-touch curler into the top corner from outside the box. It was a spectacular goal, and he showed some class by not celebrating it. This class was matched by the Kop, who applauded him. In an ever more cynical game, it was extremely nice to see from both Jonjo and the fans. The next goal was nowhere near as classy, but just as predictable. A defensive error from (you guessed it) Martin Skrtel left Mignolet helpless to stop Bony’s shot.

All of this took place within the first half an hour, so fans were left trying to catch their breath! However, Sturridge wasn’t letting us take a breather for long. After a beautiful chipped ball into the box from Suarez, he headed home emphatically from close range to give Liverpool their lead back. They took this lead into the break, but once the game got back underway it didn’t stay intact for long! Skrtel has been making us anxious all season by wrestling with attackers, and on this occasion he was penalised. It was a little harsh, but within the rules of the game Liverpool didn’t have too much cause for complaint. Bony took the penalty, and though Mignolet went the right way he couldn’t quite get a hand to it. This made it 3-3. Shortly after this, Brendan Rodgers opted to take off attacking threat Raheem Sterling for midfielder Joe Allen. As we needed a goal and Sterling has been in such fine form of late it did seem a little odd, but after the Texeira switch when we were at 2-2 against Fulham and needed a goal I have resolved never to doubt Rodgers’ wisdom in substitutions again! He once again proved why he is the Liverpool manager and I’m not, as Allen brought us a lot more midfield control, which in turn led to creation of more attacks. In the 74^th minute this brought us the goal we needed. Suarez scuffed his shot and it deflected into the path of Henderson. He saw his first shot saved, but made no mistake on the rebound.

After this, in quite un-Liverpool style, the reds had little trouble holding on to the lead. This hard-fought win is very important- after the game had finished Tottenham suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Norwich, leaving us 6 points clear of 5^th place. Our Champions League place is consequently looking pretty secure, so now we can switch our focus more to the teams above us. With 11 games still to go the title is by no means out of reach for us, though it will have to be a close to perfect run-in. Still, if we can keep grinding out results such as these, then anything is possible!

-James Martin

Follow me on Twitter @JamesMartin013

Liverpool 5-1 Arsenal: Are we Title Contenders?

Yesterday, Liverpool pulled off yet another huge win at Anfield. This one was perhaps the most impressive yet- the home side smashed 5 past the then league leaders Arsenal, and could have had 10 or 11! The win moves them to within 4 points of Manchester City, and just 6 off top spot. The result has left many suggesting that Liverpool are genuine title contenders.

This claim is, at least, nowhere near as ridiculous-sounding as it would have been at the start of the season. The very fact that this article can be written is a sign of how far the club has come in such a short space of time. However, realistically, it is unlikely that Liverpool will win the league this season. Their home form is astonishingly good- they have won 11 games at Anfield, drawn 1 and lost 1. This leaves their home points tally second to only Chelsea’s. Where things start to fall down is form on the road- Liverpool have picked up just 16 points on their travels, the same amount as 12^th placed Aston Villa. Unless our away form picks up, it is hard to see a scenario in which we are topping the table come the end of the season.

That said, when you look at the standard of play Liverpool have shown they are capable of, it is extremely hard to rule them out altogether. Arsenal, who as I just said are usually so good away from home, got absolutely ripped to shreds in yesterday’s match. Liverpool came out quickly and ferociously- within the first minute they had taken the lead through a Skrtel header. Inside 10 minutes the lead was doubled; Liverpool’s intensity did not slip for a moment, and Arsenal simply couldn’t deal with it. Skrtel provided it again, heading the ball extremely well right into the top corner. Sterling got the 3^rd just minutes later- he got on the end of an excellent ball by Suarez and poked it home. Before the 20 minute mark had been reached the game was as good as over- Coutinho produced one of the passes of the season for Daniel Sturridge, who finished extremely well. Early in the second half Sterling scored the 5^th and final Liverpool goal, beating Szczesny on the second attempt.

When the team play like this, it is hard to imagine them not winning the title! Coutinho was excellent throughout the game- his passing and dribbling were second to none. It appears he is finally fully back to his pre-injury form. Despite not scoring for once, Suarez was also in inspired form. Sturridge was excellent as usual, once again getting on the score sheet. Sterling’s electric pace caused the Arsenal defence many problems. The defence was also generally solid when called upon, something that hasn’t been the case all the time this season for Liverpool. If we can find a way to carry this form into our away games, then you would be a very foolish man to rule us out of the title race.

Sadly though, the fact is that we don’t play like that every game. The side that took apart the league leaders so effortlessly had been held to a 1-1 draw at 18^th placed West Brom the week before. Consistency is something that Liverpool are really struggling to find- it seems that they perform better against the bigger teams, and take it too easy against what should be easy opposition. We have an advantage over our rivals this season in that we are not in the Champions League- we should be making the most of this by ensuring that our intensity stays at the very highest level in every game we play.

There is also the issue of stupid errors- we saw one in the draw to West Brom when Kolo Toure gifted Anichibe the equalising goal, and we saw one from Gerrard yesterday. Although the latter was completely inconsequential in the grand scheme of the match, it was still an example of the kind of rashness that makes our potential push for 1^st much more of an uphill struggle. His sliding tackle in the box was needless- he was never going to get there, and he left the referee with one of the easiest penalty decisions he’ll ever have to make. This is the sort of thing that must go from Liverpool’s game sooner rather than later.

To sum up, we certainly have the potential in our squad to compete for the title, but whether or nor we will is another story altogether. The away form isn’t currently good enough for us to mount any sort of serious assault on 1^st place, and we will need to find a way of winning more often against the ‘smaller’ teams. Brendan Rodgers put it very nicely in the post-match interview: the Premier League this season can be considered a four-horse race, but Liverpool are just a foal.

-James Martin

Follow me on Twitter @JamesMartin013

West Brom 1-1 Liverpool: Post-Match Analysis

Yesterday, Liverpool were hosted by West Bromwich Albion at the Hawthorns. Despite looking in control for large periods of the match, Liverpool were unable to hold their 1-0 lead, and ended up taking just one point away from the game after drawing1-1.

Liverpool didn’t start quite as brightly as usual. West Brom were clearly fearful of getting hit on the counter-attack, so didn’t commit many men forward. This made it tough for either side to create any chances, leading to a cagey opening 20 minutes. Eventually though, Liverpool’s supreme attack was able to break the deadlock- Luis Suarez produced a lovely cross after some great trickery on the edge of the box, resulting in a simple tap-in for Daniel Sturridge.

This opened the game up a little. Our failure to strengthen in defence in January means that our back line is still very vulnerable, and the Baggies proved this. They produced multiple half-chances, and though they didn’t really test Mignolet in the first half it wasn’t for a lack of trying. The trend continued after the break, with both sides looking like they had the potential to score. Suarez came close to the doubling LFC’s lead, denied only by a good 1-on-1 save by Ben Foster. Gareth McAuley also came very close for Albion; his headed effort was kept out thanks to one of the saves of the season from Simon Mignolet. Just as Liverpool seemed to be getting into their rhythm and shutting West Brom out of the game, disaster struck.  Kolo Toure, who was only in the team due to an injury to Mamadou Sakho, attempted a ridiculous pass across his own back line. Presumably he didn’t see Anichibe lurking nearby, as his pass went straight to him. Anichibe was then left with the task of smashing the ball emphatically past Mignolet, which, to be fair to him, he did very well.

This defensive error is by no means an isolated incident. Throughout the season, the defence has looked very shaky, and it has undeniably been costing us points. We were all gutted when Liverpool failed to sign Konoplyanka on deadline day, but the more worrying issue is this: why were we trying to sign a winger? Other than Sakho, all of our centre-backs are sub-standard. Flanagan has proved himself to be better than we first thought this season, but he is by no means a player one would associate with a Champions League club. Cissokho has been dire all season, although to be fair to him he actually performed quite well against West Brom. In short, we need an overhaul of the defence, and whether it is the fault of FSG, Rodgers or Ayre, we aren’t getting it. The current squad is by no means beyond finishing in the top 4, but our lack of defensive signings has certainly made it harder. If we can still reach it, hopefully a positive multiplier effect will ensue- better players will want to join us as we have Champions League football, so our team will improve, resulting in us doing even better. On the other hand, if we don’t manage to get in the top 4, we risk losing our key player, Suarez, without whom we will really struggle.

Anyway, back to the match. After the shambolic concession of the equaliser, Liverpool, as one would have expected, pushed harder in attack. Sadly though, they lacked their usual attacking potency. Sturridge was operating in a wider role than usual, which made him quite a lot less effective, and by his standards Suarez was having a bad game. Sterling was our best attacking player, but even his pace and quick feet weren’t really able to create anything threatening. Matters weren’t helped by the amount of times West Brom fouled our players to prevent a promising attack. In spite of our efforts to force the issue and get a winner, the game finished 1-1.

Overall, the result is a really disappointing one. Fortunately Tottenham also dropped points at Hull and Manchester United were beaten by Stoke, so the loss didn’t allow our rivals for 4^th place (other than Everton) to gain on us too much. We are also still only 3 points adrift of Chelsea, who today go to City. It is clearly by no means a season-ruining result, but the players will need to be at their best even in the ‘smaller’ games if we want to maintain a proper challenge for 4^th place or higher with the squad we have.

-James Martin

Follow me on Twitter @JamesMartin013

Fourmiddable- Liverpool Thrash Everton

Last night, one of the most eagerly anticipated fixtures of Liverpool’s season was played out. It’s always a good occasion when the reds take on their local rivals, but in recent times it hasn’t got quite as sweet as this. Liverpool dominated throughout the game against a limp-looking Everton side, and came out 4-0 victors!

Liverpool started brightly. Both sides looked very much up for it right from the outset, as is nearly always the case in the derby. Nobody had very much time on the ball, and the game was consequently extremely fast-paced. It was Liverpool who took the lead from a corner on 21 minutes. The captain, Steven Gerrard, headed the ball powerfully into the back of the net from a Luis Suarez delivery. Though the header was excellent, James McCarthy (who was stationed on the near post) should have done better at getting the ball away. From here on in, the win never really looked in doubt. The threat which Everton had initially posed rapidly faded away, and in their desperation to launch some decent attacks their defence fell apart. Daniel Sturridge capitalised fully on this, with goals on 33 and 35 minutes to put the reds out of sight. The first was simple but classy- Sturridge ran through a huge gap left in the Everton defence and was picked out beautifully by Coutinho (who, incidentally, had an extremely good game). He then slotted very coolly past Howard. His second goal was sublime- again he found himself clean through, this time after getting on the end of a long clearance from Kolo Toure. Tim Howard charged out to meet him, but could only watch helplessly as the ball flew over his head and dropped perfectly into the net.

The second half only saw one more goal, but it could have been a lot more. In many ways, Everton can be thankful that they only let in four! Suarez managed to get on the score-sheet, getting to the ball in front of Jagielka and, somewhat inevitably, beating Howard in the one-on-one. Soon after this Liverpool won a penalty, after Howard came out and took the man instead of the ball. Sturridge, on a hat-trick, stepped up to take it. Unfortunately he blasted it over the bar- he looked absolutely devastated, but the fact that we were already four up must have been of some consolation! Still, it was good to see how gutted he was; it points towards the hunger for goals he has that has seen him rise to 3^rd top scorer this season despite missing many games through injury. The miss seemed to knock his judgement- later on, determined to get his hat-trick, he went for goal and put it over rather than playing a square ball to Suarez for a simple tap-in. Rodgers subsequently subbed him, much to his displeasure. On the whole though this mini-saga didn’t cast much of a shadow over the result: a 4-0 win over Everton is never going to be disappointing!

But why was it so one-sided? The injury sustained by Lukaku in the aftermath of the first goal almost certainly had something to do with it. Up until the goal, although Liverpool had created a few more chances than Everton, the game had been relatively even. Lukaku’s physicality combined with the pace of Kevin Mirallas is a threat against any team, so against our defence it was particularly worrying! Had Lukaku not been forced off it seems highly unlikely that Everton would have failed to score. As it is Roberto Martinez was forced to bring on Steven Naismith, who failed to produce any noteworthy chance all game.

That said, nothing should be taken away from Liverpool. In attack they were excellent- my man of the match was Coutinho, who finally seemed to click back into the form he was showing before his injury. Sturridge and Suarez were also excellent as usual, and Sterling, though not quite perhaps as prominent as he has been in the last two or three games, still played a very big part going forward. Defensively there was very little to do, but Mignolet made a few decent saves when called upon.

To sum up, it was a very good all-round performance. The team generally worked together in a slick, fluent manner, and the counter-attacking football on show was supreme. It will certainly fill the players with confidence, which will hopefully see us get onto a nice run of form. It also cements our place in the top 4,  which is a place we will surely be come the end of the season if we keep putting in performances such as these.

-James Martin

Follow me on Twitter @JamesMartin013

Stoke 3-5 Liverpool- SAS Storm the Brittania

Phew. After a thrilling contest yesterday against Stoke, Liverpool finally prevailed as victors. Though the win was certainly significant (a win away at Stoke is a tough result to get at the best of times), the most poignant aspect of the match was perhaps the return of Daniel Sturridge from injury. As the title suggests, he immediately managed to pick up where he left off with strike partner Luis Suarez, scoring one and excellently assisting another.

The game started quite well for Liverpool. Though Stoke looked half-decent going forward, they also looked very shaky defensively. Their problems were compounded after just 5 minutes when Aly Cissokho’s wild shot took a wicked deflection off Ryan Shawcross and into the back of the net. It was a comedy goal, but Liverpool were worthy of their lead. Stoke continued to be uncharacteristically shoddy at the back, a problem which the second goal they conceded summed up perfectly. Pieters failed to deal with a bouncing ball, heading it into the path of Suarez. The Uruguayan was then left with the simple (for him at any rate) task of getting to the ball before the hesitant Shawcross and smashing the ball into the net past Butland.

Unfortunately, the tide began to turn at this point. Our ex-players came back to haunt us- Peter Crouch scored the first goal for Stoke, beating Toure easily to score the Potters’ first headed goal of the season. 6 minutes later Charlie Adam scored a most unlikely equaliser, emphatically shooting the ball through Skrtel’s legs into the corner of the net from outside the area.

I’ll take this opportunity to moan about Gerrard. For this game Rodgers deployed him in a very holding, defensive role- as such it was not unreasonable to expect him to do some actual defending! Admittedly he made a couple of decent tackles, but mostly he was drifting forward in order to play ridiculous, usually inaccurate long balls up the field. Those determined to make excuses for Gerrard are saying that he “took one for the team” by playing out of position- this would all be very well if he had in fact fulfilled the role he was entrusted with. The sad fact is he’s too slow and frankly too much of a blunt instrument to work in the Liverpool that Rodgers has created. Don’t get me wrong, I love Gerrard as much as the next Liverpool fan, but his time has come. Playing him in new positions won’t solve the problem- if he’s playing in a defensive role and we fail to hold a comfortable 2 goal lead against Stoke, it’s clear there’s an issue! For me he was the worst player out there in this game, and that’s saying something considering we had Cissokho and Johnson playing!

Right, back to the match. Sorry about that. Anyway, the second half saw Liverpool come out strongly. There was worry that we might have been deflated by two goals conceded late in the first half, but if anything it seemed to fire us up. Indeed, we re-took the lead just 6 minutes after the restart, Gerrard finally making a positive contribution by scoring extremely coolly from the spot after Sterling was knocked to the ground. Some are accusing him of diving, but it was definitely a foul. Admittedly it was very soft and they aren’t normally given in the area, but by the letter of the law it was indeed a penalty. Nothing much of note happened then until the 66^th minute, which marked the very welcome return of Daniel Sturridge. He came on to replace Philippe Coutinho, who had played decently but sadly once again failed to reproduce the form he first showed on his arrival at Liverpool. He was an injection of life into our attack, and really reminded everyone how much we’ve missed him. Just 5 minutes into his return, he ran past two players then played an absolutely exquisite pass into the path of Suarez, who did what he does best, curling the ball beyond Butland with a first-time shot.

So, 19 minutes to play and 4-2 up against a side who prior to this game had scored just 19 goals all season (less than one per game). Surely this was in the bag? Apparently not! Liverpool decided to give us all a scare by conceding yet again, this time to Jon Walters. Mignolet was at fault for this one- he saw the ball late, but still should have been able to prevent it from rolling tamely past him into the net. Thankfully, Sturridge was on hand to put our minds at rest. Suarez played in a nice ball, and Sturridge saw his effort smartly saved by Butland. He then managed to keep the ball in play superbly, before cutting back in and firing the ball powerfully into the back of the net.

In conclusion, although it was an absolute rollercoaster of a game, I can have no qualms with the result. A win against Stoke is something any team can be pleased with, and the return of our deadly partnership of Suarez and Sturridge is certainly a huge boost. If they both stay fit top 4 is practically a given- they are currently one of the best, if not the best outright, strike partnerships in the world. However, the game did further highlight our need for some squad strengthening- it is clear that we need a new defensive midfielder, as well as (ideally) two new full backs and another centre back. Still, it does not do to dwell on the negatives, especially after a win that fires us into the top 4, and on the whole I am feeling very positive going forward.

-James Martin

Follow me on Twitter @JamesMartin013