Liverpool’s continued unbeaten run after Arsenal draw and a potential FA Cup run is cause for optimism for remainder of the season…
THERE WE ARE then. Liverpool aren’t quite as bad as many thought. Not the full ticket either, true, but with the unbeaten run stretching to ten (irritating draws aside) there’s a sense of optimism at last.
Or not, depending on whose side you’re on.
I’m often surprised by pre-game cynicism and there was plenty of it about before the Arsenal game. ‘Let’s face it, we’re getting battered.’ – that sort of thing.
I can’t do that, myself. Call it stupidity or blind-optimism but I always tend to assume that we’ll be fine regardless of the opposition. Even faced with the apparently insurmountable, (for example, being 3-0 down to Barca with no Firmino and Salah) and I’ll still adopt a ‘you never know’ foothold.
This is especially odd as I’m a grumpy sod in any other walk of life. Victor Meldrew? Toby Ziegler? If anything I find their outlook to be just a bit too sunny.
But the Reds drew to a team who might well end up as Champions (though I still think City have a shout) and gave a solid account of themselves. Mikel Arteta was booked too so that was cause for celebration – a personal reflection on his Everton past rather than his current Arsenal position. Never forget. I don’t.
Arne Slot can look at those ten games with a mixture of satisfaction and resentment. Draws with Leeds and Fulham are frustrating but the batterings by City, PSV and Forest are now confined to the past and serve as a warning.
There are still questions to answer – the colouring-by-numbers build ups for one – but this is a start. The Arsenal game should be the template on how to defend. Everything stems from that.
Incidentally, how classy was the manager after the Martinelli incident. The whole world is baying for blood and he just calmly accepts the apology from a man who knows he’s done wrong.
It’s still horrible and I’ll be shouting at the player forever because I’m anything but classy, but Arne Slot doesn’t want the beef as other managers might. He just recognises the mistake and turns his thoughts to Barnsley.
I really like Arne Slot. That’s far from a uniform thought, I know, but I really do.
I loved the Arsenal game. I love it when we show up and remind the world that we’re not quite the pushover people seem to think we are.
But it’s the Cup tonight so it’s a free hit. I was at Anfield when we last played them in the Cup. A few days later we played Inter Milan who were the Italian champions. Inter weren’t the problem that week. Let’s just say that. We fell 2-1 to a last minute Brian Howard goal.
I didn’t have to Google his name, such was the shock that caused.
We followed that defeat with seven straight wins.
Arne Slot would like no alarms and no surprises please, and maybe even the Cup itself, but what he has now is the foundation for progress.
We should be alright – they’re 17th in League One after all – but a performance as well as a win would be nice to get the New Year off to a good start.
Cause for optimism? It is here.
