That might be what the big-headed alter-ego of Kenny Dalglish would have said upon waking this morning. And who could disagree with him? What a fantastic result a 3-1 win at home to the league leaders is for him and his squad. True, a back line of Rafael, Smalling, Brown and Evra looked more hopelessly at sea than firmly United, but a win is a win, and a win is also a loss that bodes well for Arsenal.
I’ll come to that in a second though because my opinion, like that pouring off of the blogs of any right-minded authors today, is that there should have been two red cards at Anfield and one later on at Molineux. Now I’ll admit that when Nani was teary-eyed I was of the opinion that the boy who cried wolf had pulled out his finest performance yet. But it should be obvious that Carragher’s made a reckless ill-intentioned tackle in a place where he’s no need to go to ground, with the clear goal of – as Ray Wilkins said on Sky – “sorting him out”. It was horrific, and the gash that it left could quite easily have been joined by some broken bone.
Rafael’s tackle shortly after was just as terrible, and though he was kicked out at by Maxi just before he lunged into it (with Lucas?) is no excuse for a tackle which was luckily avoided along with potential injury. You can always defend the ref and say:
“Oh , at full speed it’s hard to judge.”
But the ref is there to make those decisions. And if he can’t give him the means (video technology) to do so at a convenient juncture. And if not, the FA should be overturning this bloody ridiculous ‘it was dealt with’ gubbins that is seriously impacting the game we love.
On a lighter note, full credit to Dirk Kuyt for a solid hat-trick, and Luis Suarez looks a very special player indeed. He’s still an idiot/evil genius in my books for the handball against Ghana at the WC, but what a fantastically skillful player he is. Both Liverpool and the Premiership as a whole are more entertaining with him on our island, and it seems Chelsea got the bum-deal with a Torres who doesn’t yet fit in at Chelsea.
Of course, it means that United have again (like against Wolves) proven that this title race is still wide open. You can call it being let back in or being let off the hook if you like, but in football every team has to get results to progress, and at the end of the season if Arsenal have accumulated more points they’ll be champs. If not they won’t be.
On a tangent, personal highlights for me of this weekend’s footy were the Anfield faithful singing “Happy Birthday to you” to Kenny Dalglish, Wolves having a right go at Spurs and getting a well-deserved point, and West Ham’s continued resurgence (good for them). Birmingham? Well they might be Carling Cup champs, but they’re not even the current champs of the W.Midlands after losing to the Baggies, and should they be relegated then I should think Carling’s Cup will matter a fair bit less. Not completely, and fair play to them once again. But it only feels truly good to be crowned while your subject are happy.
Just ask Kenny.
All the skill 