Let’s cut straight to the chase here. No “reasoning,” no “tactical conversations,” no “biased or partisan arguments on Rafa’s policies,” etc. etc. etc. Here’s the deal: WE SELF-DESTRUCTED IN THE SECOND HALF. Simple as that. The first half was very even. It could have gone either way. Level at 1-1, you could make the argument for either side that the score could have been different… but it wasn’t. It was 1-1, and it seemed relatively reasonable at the time. The goal scored by Torres happened so quickly, as did Chelsea’s equalizer by the unlikely Serbian hero Ivanovic. The rest of that half had chances from both sides, and plenty of strange defensive moments.
But something just wasn’t right and the second half really magnified what was a bit of a dodgy first half on our part. It seemed as if we lacked the energy and belief that has been quite abundant this season. And the 1-3 loss was deserved. You heard it here! Not a single Liverpudlian will tell you otherwise. If Gerrard had a blinder, or if we hit the post four times again… then you could say something. But we didn’t carve out anything of note in that second half. Like I said… tactics, reasoning, zonal marking and all that other stuff aside. We weren’t up for it. Chelsea were. And now we have a massive hill to climb. It truly is a dagger to the heart, and one that I didn’t expect. Maybe that’s why it didn’t sink in right away. This was one of those losses where I was upset, but not at first. It took a few hours to sink in… and then it stung. I realized that it could be a third straight season without a trophy… but then I felt better when it hit me that we’d have more energy to focus on the Premiership. We’ll see. I don’t think I believe that myself. Losing just doesn’t make you more likely to win in other competitions, you know?
“They” always say that winning breeds confidence in a relegation battle and that an extended cup run is not at all a distraction from the league because it means you have the confidence and ability to beat the drop. This is true from the top just as it is from the bottom. If we are dumped out of the cup, I don’t see how it would really make us more confident against, let’s say, Arsenal at home. Especially if Arsenal are still in the Champions League. That would hurt more than it would breed feelings of freshness.
I might sound pessimistic, and coming from “Mr. Optimistic,” I can assure you that I am indeed pessimistic about our chances in the Champions League AND with how it will affect the Premiership run-in… though that’s been much less about us than it is about the four-leaf clovers of football… Manchester United. But that’s been the case since we drew away at Wigan. The Stoke and Everton matches were blips… the Wigan one was a dagger to the heart and was just the lucky charm that United needed to breeze past us. This Chelsea loss is probably the last dagger, and now what we should probably hope for is that Man U will lose the plot, get a bunch of injuries, and drop points. And we need to win, just like we have been doing in the league! I believe that we’ll be winning, but not that United will lose. They are far too lucky for that (Macheda, anyone?) and will definitely not lose it now.
But 2nd would not be so bad, would it? I guess not… it just burns knowing how close we’ve been.
