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As weekends go, can’t really call that one anything other than F*CKING FANTASTIC can we?

Arsenal dogging out a great win away at Fulham would have been enough, I really didn’t have expectations of anything else rolling our way… but the Weekend gods fried up three additional delicious moments.

Brighton put one over Newcastle. Danny Welbeck rolling back the years with two very tidy goals to keep Newcastle in 13th this season. I’m enjoying this run with a little bit extra heat because of how Eddie Howe appears to have taken over operations there and made things worse.

Sunday gave us an early lead for Spurs against Villa, only to see Unai Emery captain the Villa ship back on a more favorable course, with a really good win.

Then… we witnessed something I told a United fan last night I was sure of… an Amorin win. I’d love to spend some time conjuring a name for a term based on this explanation that might read a bit lumpy:

The luck of a really bad manager turning in an unexpectedly majestical result that brings equal parts joy and pain because you know that win has reset the clock on their exit.

In German, it would be, ‘Langanhaltender Schmerz, maximales Glück’ → prolonged pain, maximum joy. Or maybe if we’re branding this, we could go with ‘Leidensfreude’ which is ‘joy in suffering.’

Kind of like Wenger winning FA Cups - you could never say it out aloud, but those little pops of joy were soon replaced with the pain of knowing he was with us for another year of decline. Why did I waste time putting this word in German? No idea.

Anyway, United executed a pretty filthy smash and grab. Mbuemo scored after about 60 seconds, nipping in behind a VVD who was totally asleep at the wheel. They clawed their way back into the game late on with a Gakpo tap-in but couldn’t keep the MIGHTY MCGUIRE putting his massive slab head onto a volleyed Bruno cross.

The headloss has been quite outrageous. Carragher is already doubting Liverpool’s title credentials. EIGHT GAMES IN. Plenty of Liverpool fans catastrophizing the decline of their team over the past few months. It’s all utterly outrageous (and glorious). Liverpool battered United, they had the best chances, they hit the post three times, Mo Salah missed some sitters, it just wasn’t their day. Play that game 10 times over and Liverpool win it 9 times. They are now a monstrous 4 points behind us. Calling time on the Premier League before new players have bedded in is crazy…

I won’t hear it from anyone, Liverpool are a great team, packed full of winners, and they have the most sumptuous set of attackers in the League. Only a fool would write them off right now. But… let this be a warning to you and your own mental health. The internet rewards the extremists with influence and the perception that their views are normal. No professional would tell you it’s over for Liverpool because it’s not. Just remember this reaction for when Arsenal inevitably have a slip at some point. This league is hard, the competition is red hot at every level, we are going to have bad moments. Don’t do waste your energy catastrophizing bad results like no one else will have them.

We’ll be there, at the end of the season, fighting it out with Liverpool and Man City. Don’t bet on it, then blame me in the court proceedings when they’re seizing your house… this isn’t financial advice, but come on, we all feel this in our bones, right?

But… Liverpool. There are things that don’t look right there at the moment. Kerkez wasn’t a simple upgrade on Trent. Frimpong isn’t even getting on the pitch. Liverpool spent £140m on a player who isn’t ready for the big time. Alex Isak is showing you that even guaranteed hits kind of players aren’t always guaranteed. The big one for me though is Virgil. If things aren’t going well for him, he can really dip, and things do not look like they are going well for him. Similar stuff with Mo Salah. How many times have we seen BIG players in GREAT form get that final mega deal and just never hit the level again? Too many times to list.

Don’t make me start another sentence with BUT… BUT here goes. What was the biggest problem from yesterday for Liverpool? Lady Luck was smoking ciggies in the car park and took her eye off the game. How many times did that happen last season? ZERO. Luck is not a strategy, it’s not coachable, but it can infect teams and bestow great riches on them. As fast as it smothers with its silky grip, it can dissipate, like a cheap Le Labo dupe you bought off eBay. It’s starting to look like that’s what’s happening to them… and their fans don’t know how to cope. It’s rattling them, because it was literally an 12th man for them last season. That’s good news for us, we just have to hope we’ve suffered enough the carry favor with the Lady in charge of these things. Need Mikel to be a lucky general.

Ok, that was Monday for you. Hope you have a LOVELY day. If you want some exclusive content, check out Johnny’s Ratings below. x

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