Credit to the Hammers, they showed up to play (their way) in the first half. It was never gonna be a beauty of a match. Champions find a way to grind out a result in this kind of game.
I forgot to put in my earlier post, these are the kind of games you have to win if you are gonna win anything. Well done
My initial thought was that Taylor's award of the second penalty was to mitigate for his blatant mistake for letting West Ham's goal stand. However, second viewing shows it was a penalty. Getting the ball first does not mean the follow through is not a penalty.
Hats off to the lads, another 3 points. With City & Chelski to come to Anfield, and City still to play the Bitters across the park... Game on!
It wasn't pretty but a grinding 3 pts it was. These are the matches that soon-to-be-crowned champions take. The Captain was epic and you could see the hunger in his eyes. He knows that this could be his last opportunity at BPL glory. Off-day for SAS but they're allowed. Sterling and Flanno were excellent. Defense was solid. The switch for Lucas was gutsy but really paid off. I was looking for Lucas to bag a goal. Maybe he is an AM afterall? Glad to see Downers bungling up things for another team. His crosses found no-one. And the Geordie looked more frustrated than ever. Ha! Take that, Sam! Only 5 more wins to go!
We've been spoiled this year in terms of the football quality that we've forgotten that things don't always go your way. True champions will prevail when that happens.
One step closer... Nervy game, but they pulled it out...We've got to play better next week against City...BR will have the machine primed...hope the boys bring their scoring boots...
another game won where sturridge and suarez weren't firing on all cylinders. that's actually good news. not enough credit given to lucas for his pass on the penalty call. and it looked like rodgers identified a weakness and send flanno into the box a few times. gerrard hit him with a nice pass on a similar run earlier. it finally worked. city next week possibly for all the marbles. looks like i picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.
Things that must keep happening... * Tips starts the match thread. * Tips gives a match prediction. * Tips does the commentary. * I do not subscribe or post to the match thread before the final whistle. I really thought this was the match we'd lose, but te squad players stepped up BIG TIME. On to the next cup final.
I personally thought. Carroll's punch was criminal. That wasn't even remotely close to a footballing play and could have injured Mingolet.
Stay with Sakho - he didn't put a foot wrong all match. Stay with Lucas - he created more in 45 minutes than Allen had in his previous few starts, stick with Lucas. Let's not forget, we bought him because he was a box-to-box player, not a DM.
Yes, it was a foul. Just watched it again and Carroll gets a lot more of Simon's arm than when I saw it the first time. And we're in violent agreement that the Belgian still has to do better there.
Stevie was excellent today. Sam's tactics were to back off us and allow us to possess the ball deep. Stevie was still able to pick out some excellent passes to unlock the defense. His ball to Suarez to win the first penalty was fantastic. And his composure from the penalty spot this year has been superb. When the goalkeeper guesses correctly he still can't get near the ball.
That's what I saw. I didn't think the shot to the head caused him to drop the ball as much as pulling down his arm. Can't believe he had a talk with the AR and didn't give us the call. I'd love to hear the explanation. West Ham came to play and beat us to the ball much too often in the first have. We need to step it up a notch against MC