Ladies and gentlemen… Fernando Torres is officially back in business. Five goals in our six Premiership matches is a spectacular start, and there is a feeling that if he stays healthy, this could be even more of a prolific season than in 2007-2008 (33 goals). Today against West Ham, Torres was an absolute terror, and took two goals at very crucial times.
The first goal can only be described as “The Torres,” as he faced up to the opposition, went aggresively to the side when it looked like going to the inside was the only option, and then slammed the ball in from an acute angle that looked impossible. He made James Tomkins look like a Sunday League player, and then made himself look like the best striker on the planet, something we’ve all known to be the case, but have been waiting for it since the winter.
Someone who looked like was not the best player on the planet by ANY STRETCH today, though, was Jamie Carragher. He was simply stunning, and not in a good way. This has been true all season, and I have to admit I’m getting a bit worried. Last season, Carra was starting to show signs that he was fading a bit. Right now, Carragher is more than just fading. He is making concentration errors, something I’m not used to seeing from him. As a player who has been there since I began watching back in the late 90s, Carra was always solid as a rock and made up for a lack in ability with intense intelligence and the ability to properly read the game. Recently, Carra has shown a lack of a left foot, a lack of pace, and the ability to lose his marker (not in the right way, mind you) on set-pieces and in open play alike. It is worrysome, but with Agger coming back, I have a feeling that Rafa will go with Agger and Skrtel. We’ll see.
Back to the match. Torres grabbed the first in that spectacular fashion (after Carra’s slip-up led to Hines hitting the post), but West Ham levelled through a Carragher penalty. The penalty was controversial, but let’s face it, it didn’t matter. We deserved to be level with West Ham at this stage, and Diamati probably would have scored a re-take or West Ham would have found a way to level again with the way our defense was playing. We responded well to that error, though, and Gerrard’s header off of the corner was directed in by Kuyt’s outreaching toe. 2-1, and we looked back on top. But Carra and Skrtel managed to muck it up, and zonal marking had nothing to do with it. Cole was in the middle of them on a corner kick (like in a sandwich… man-marking would not have made a difference), yet neither of them challenged him with any sort of conviction and he headed it in like you would expect him to as an England international. 2-2. With 30 minutes gone in the second half, we then witnessed a second moment of brilliance from Torres, but from an unexpected source. Ryan Babel came on as a sub for Kuyt, and it was his cross that Torres headed in. The cross was PERFECT, composed, and from the right side… something Rafa hasn’t really tried too often with Babel. 3-2, and that’s how it would stay. WHEW!
For me, this match has a bit of extra signficance. I got myself a liverbird tattoo a couple of days ago, and how fitting was it that we produced a winning thriller after such a moment? 
Diggin’ my liverbird.
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