Is it all too easy to jump on the Liverpool bandwagon?

Settling down to watch Sky Sports’ ‘esteemed’ panel discuss
the week’s hottest topics, I was fairly surprised to not only hear such
monopoly of one issue, but also such a one dimensional point of view.

With Stoke v. Liverpool kicking off in about an hours time, I
suppose it was probably inevitable that the Reading defeat, and the deeper
underlying issues surrounding there horrible season, was the mornings no.1 issue; but perhaps for the first time ever in
Sky Sports’ history, all four of them – Cottee, Merson, Nicholas and, yep, even
Thompson – agreed on the subject in hand.

Liverpool’s season, especially after failing horribly (as we
did, mid) in the opening round of the FA Cup – they’re last remaining glimmer
of hope with regards to silverware – was well and truly over. As for they’re
fat Spanish waiter? The exact same fate was decided.

It goes without saying that we are ALL loving Liverpool’s
mighty fall from the dizzy heights of coming second in the league – some just
can’t handle the pressure, others win it 10 times in 16 seasons – but I was
genuinely surprised with this undisputed attitude by these so called experts.
They all know the unpredictability attached to this ridiculously eclectic
League, with some, namely Merson and Cottee, having played in it and experienced
it first hand. To completely rule out any of the big teams as categorically as
they have is pretty darn naive, plus, as someone who’s WELL superstitious, it
is all but tailor-made for the old jinx rule to be applied.

Liverpool have been beyond shocking
this season, don’t get me wrong, and a trip to Stoke without Torres, Gerrard,
Benayoun and Johnson isn’t ideal. But is football really as black and white as
all this negative chat will suggest? And is to say so assertively that things
will only get worse surely not teeing things up for a remarkably typical
comeback?

The no.1 FACT that doesn’t need to be cleared up, because it’s
obvious, is that Liverpool wont win anything this season.
However, do they 100% not even have a smidgen of a chance of finishing 4^th?
Really??. A few slip-ups from City, Tottenham and Villa towards the business
end of season could conveniently see the Scousers capitalise and ironically end
their season in the top 4; the same sub-section of the League as they finished
in last time around in they’re ‘greatest Premiership season ever’.

And looking back at they’re injuries and, in turn, inability
to play well without their only two decent players, is this again not just the
easiest, most unimaginative conclusion? When in fact, contrary to popular
belief, they’ve have been able to win games without them.

Anyway, I guess the point I’m making is that nothing should
ever be taken for granted or even assumed in the Premier League. How many
thought Arsenal’s season was over when, after selling Adebayor, they then lost
Van Persie through injury? Only to see them practically come out completely
unscathed (with the home draw against Everton last Saturday pretty much their
only shit performance of the period). And Chelsea, although they haven’t played
a game since all their Africans travelled to Angola, I personally can’t see the
loss of Drogba, Essien etc having a big as impact as has been predicted. And as
for United? The amount of times we have had our backs against the wall,
seemingly appeared to ‘not be the same side anymore’ and been consequently
completely written off – 1993, 1998, 2002, 2006 and 2009 – only to prove them
all wrong over and over again, is the perfect example of how nothing is ever
certain in this League.

Yes, Liverpool are playing/have played poor, they are having
a crisis in confidence and probably should scrap their manager; more than
anything for the shite team he’s created after squandering hundreds of millions
in building it up. But I honestly can’t help feeling this horrible sense of ‘we
proved you all wrong’, especially after the footballing experts had casually
and categorically written them off; perfectly gearing them up for such a sudden
surge in form.

Maybe, more like hopefully, I’m completely wrong and due to
my ridiculously paranoid superstitious state, I’m looking into this too deeply.
Hopefully it will all go as planned and as expected, they can’t in fact play
well without Torres and Gerard. But still, I honestly cannot help to foresee a
sudden, suprising change in fate; especially when you hear all four of the
panellists proclaim that their problems will deepen and that Stoke away is the
worst possible game for them after being knocked out of the cup mid-week – 3
out of 4 of them confidently predict a Stoke win…guess who bashfully suggested
a draw??

As the week’s have progressed and Liverpool have continued
to falter and we, well, have somehow remained in contention but have looked shaky,
I have thought that even if we don’t win it this season, I will genuinely be
sadistically happy with the way our most bitter rivals have bottled it so
spectacularly. So I guess I’m worried about how it will all turn out. As I
said, if we can’t retain our title. But if we finish second, maybe even third,
and those Scouse bastards grind it out into the Champions League spot while
capitalising on possible poor form of the top4 contenders, then this will truly
be a season horribilius.

And incidentally, it’s 0-0 at half-time. They should’ve had
a penalty, but other than that, it’s so far so good for them lot to gloriously
prove me wrong and prove those ‘experts’ right.