How 8.75m can change a game, apparently

Saturday saw the usual problems surface. The glasslike tackles in the first half and our inability to deal with power. Bruce, who is slowly mutating into Bernard Cribbins, knows how to play Liverpool. Get a foot in, leave the centre backs winded wherever possible and frustrate throughout. Don't knock it - we did the same against United. At half time I was still pretty confident given current form but was furious in equal measure at how slow and lazy we were. Agger's aberration was mystifying but not untypical of the half-arsed complacency we showed at City a fortnight earlier. Add that to a truly special goal (applauded by the Kop - something that was glossed over by many including the Observer in their spiteful editorial) and finally an alarm went off somewhere in the team. Make no mistake, if we do the same at Chelsea next week we won't be coming back.

The press reports about Valencia's cards have been little short of hilarious. It was good of Sky and MOTD to show the last thirty seconds of the wall's formation. The previous minute or so would have shown that Valencia et al (particularly Melchiot) were still complaining and could have gone in the book. MOTD even moaned that he was still over eight metres from the ball. That's alright then. Bruce even went on to say that the tackle wasn't that harsh. That worked in your previous life, Steve, but those days have gone. A Wigan mate of mine claims that they'd never get decisions at Anfield but we don't get them at OT , the Bridge or any game where a Mr S Bennett of Kent is involved either. I'm not saying that makes it right but it's hardly our fault. Respect the ref, yeah?

Wigan were genuinely impressive in the first half and could have won had they not exercised an unnecessary caution. We couldn't handle Zaki and it was only when he got tired that we started to wake up from our stupor. It reminded me of Homer Simpson's brief boxing career where he waited for his opponents to be dead on their feet and then simply tap them. I'd never thought Kuyt, Benayhoun and El Zhar could do that.

So, top of the League and with a trip to Madrid/Valencia/Botafago/Norwich to come. Let's see. Let's just see.

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