Month: September 2008

Premier League, September 27th 2008, Result

Everton 0 Liverpool 2 (Torres 59, 62)

Liverpool moved to the top of the table again, even if only for a couple of hours, by taking control of the latest Merseyside derby and ending it as deserved winners.

Fernando Torres ended a short spell without a goal by getting his name on the score-sheet twice – and thought he had a hat-trick until referee Mike Riley pointed out he’d just blown for a foul by Kuyt.

His strike partner Robbie Keane still hasn’t opened his account for the Reds – but if he plays like he did today, in particular in the move for the opening goal, Rafa won’t have any issues with him at all. Just short of the hour mark Torres had got himself unmarked, in the box, and Keane’s vision and delivery were perfect. Torres made no mistake; Liverpool were ahead.

Just three minutes later Dirk Kuyt was causing Everton trouble, until Phil Jagielka put in what he must have thought was an important tackle, stopping Kuyt in his tracks. It would have been important, had Torres not been on hand to pick up the loose ball, smashing it into the roof of the net from just yards out.

His third “goal” came just two minutes later, and Riley’s decision to rule it out might have been controversial, had it not got to the point where the result was already looking academic. After the game Torres was asked if he was disappointed to see it ruled out – he wasn’t disappointed at all, he was delighted to score, but above all else delighted for Liverpool’s three points. And he was also thinking about the next match already: “It has been a difficult start for me this season after a busy summer. Six games is too many times for a Liverpool striker. Now I want to keep going in the Champions League, scoring almost every game like last season and maybe improving on the 33 I managed then.”

Continue reading Result: Everton 0 Liverpool 2

Premier League, September 27th 2008

Everton v Liverpool

It’s the Merseyside derby, the Goodison one, and although some Reds supporters will argue the games against Manchester United are bigger, it’s still massive – especially to local Reds. Everton actually bring out DVDs of the game if they win.

Both sides of course will do all they can to win. For both sets of supporters it’s important they go into work on Monday morning without having to hear the jokes their colleagues have spent 48 hours crafting. They want to be telling the jokes, having the fun. But for Liverpool there’s also the importance of not dropping any more points in what is an important season for Rafa Benitez. If they want to be challenging for the league they’ve got to get the points against the big sides – like they did in their win against Manchester United two weeks ago – but they’ve also not to drop points against the small sides – like they did last week against Stoke. They mustn’t drop points today.

Everton are looking for their first home point in what is the 179th derby, Liverpool are so far unbeaten in the league this season. But that really doesn’t matter in these games, where the referee’s name is often mentioned more than any player’s name in any discussions after the match. Ask Clive Thomas about this. You can also ask Mark Clattenburg about this – the two Everton players he sent off in this fixture last season took the total to 16 red cards in the 32 meetings since the Premier League began, and added his name to a list that Everton supporters seem to keep in their heads. One of those sent off last season was Everton captain Phil Neville, who appointed himself rush-goalie to prevent Liverpool’s Lucas getting his first goal for the club. Liverpool’s captain, Steven Gerrard, has been sent off twice in these games.

Today’s referee is Mike Riley, who seems to be unpopular with fans of all clubs. With 20 yellow cards already in just four matches so far this season it’s not exactly surprising. Two of those went to Liverpool players – Arbeloa and Keane in the game at home to Middlesborough. He booked eight in one game last weekend, seven of them going to Manchester United players in their draw with Chelsea.

More John Motson style trivia for this fixture – defeat today would be Everton’s third in a row at home, and it would be the first time that’s happened in almost three years. And it was Liverpool who inflicted that third defeat three years ago. Liverpool are on a run of 12 games unbeaten in the league, but remaining unbeaten isn’t enough – too many draws last season ended any hopes of a league challenge pretty early. But Everton aren’t likely to go into this game looking for a point, which means the game should be open and full of chances.

Everton: 24 Howard, 2 Hibbert, 4 Yobo, 6 Jagielka, 5 Lescott, 10 Arteta, 18 Neville, 25 Fellaini, 21 Osman, 17 Cahill, 22 Yakubu
Subs: 1 Nash, 3 Baines, 8 Castillo, 9 Saha, 14 Vaughan, 19 Nuno Valente, 26 Rodwell

Liverpool: 25 Reina, 17 Arbeloa, 23 Carragher, 37 Skrtel, 2 Dossena, 18 Kuyt, 14 Alonso, 8 Gerrard, 11 Riera, 9 Torres, 7 Keane
Subs: 1 Cavalieri, 4 Hyypia, 5 Agger, 12 Aurelio, 16 Pennant, 19 Babel, 21 Lucas

Referee: Mike Riley

Kick-off: 12.45pm.

We’ve previously added articles highlighting the murder of 18-year-old Andrew Jones, an Everton supporter who had been on a night out in Liverpool when he was attacked. This was five-and-a-half years ago, and to this the day nobody has been convicted for ending his life.

An inquest is now set for December, when the family hope to finally see some large steps taken towards justice. More details can be found on the website the family have set up – http://www.justiceforandrewjones.com.

Andrew’s family aren’t the only family living through additional pain after losing loved ones, caused by obstacles they face in their quest for justice. In Liverpool alone there are a growing number of families in this position, and as a result a group has now been set up to campaign about it – Merseyside Families for Justice.

Andrew’s dad, Andy, asked us to publish the following statement from the group, who are to hold a march and rally early next month.

Merseyside Families for Justice will hold their first March and Rally on Saturday 4th October 2008. All supporters and justice campaigners will be welcomed. It will start outside the CASA in Hope Street at 12 noon and finish at 2:00pm with a Rally outside of the Law Courts in Derby Square.

Merseyside families who have lost loved ones through acts of criminal and unwanted violence will be holding a March and Rally in the City Centre of Liverpool. They will be calling on the Government and Judiciary to implement tougher sentences for those who commit murder and acts of violence. They will also be asking for the criminal justice system to give better support to the families of the victims and show a far greater understanding of their needs and concerns.

All families and family friends and supporters who have experienced the trauma of murder are being urged to join the demonstration.

Family, friends and supports of murder victims Andrew Jones, Liam Culshaw, Ryan Dugdale, Gary Dunne, Kevin Lavelle, Stephen Croft, Lee Connerty, Julie Cunningham, Chantel Taylor and Robbie Ryan will lead the march.

Liverpool co-chairman George Gillett will be at Anfield on Saturday, sharing the director’s box with at least one member of his fellow owner Tom Hicks’ family, as Liverpool prepare to face Manchester United in the league. Whether they’ll sit next to each other for the match remains to be seen, but even if they do it shouldn’t be taken as a sign that the feuds of 2008 are over.

It’s hard to keep count of the feuds related to Liverpool FC now, all of which will bring laughter to most fans of Saturday’s opponents, who are close to catching Liverpool’s long standing record of league titles.

Hicks and Gillett made it clear in public earlier this year that their working relationship was over, Gillett using the word “untenable” to describe it. Gillett claimed in the summer that they’d now started to get on with each other again – given their lack of appearances together it seems more that they’ve decided not to speak to each other rather than argue. Whatever their individual plans are, it seems that they did finally realise that if they weren’t going to be able to separate as business partners, their business was going to be hurt by their public spats.

We’ve then got the feud between Rick Parry and Tom Hicks. Hicks sent Parry the letter that hit the headlines, asking the CEO to resign. Many of the points listed as reasons to resign were valid points, and in any other company Parry would either have gone or be under close scrutiny to fix the issues. But LFC don’t have one man making decisions, and Parry has Gillett on his side. It’s a mystery just quite how a club like LFC is expected to function successfully when one exact half of the ownership wants rid of the CEO and the other half is refusing to let him go. Continue reading Gillett to visit Anfield as tensions increase

Albert Riera has signed for Liverpool this afternoon as the summer transfer deadline draws near to a close.

Although manager Rafa Benítez hasn’t seen all his summer plans comes to fruition, he’s been linked with a move for the Spanish left-winger for some time, and is believed to have paid Espanyol around £8m for his services.

The announcement was made a couple of hours after Steve Finnan’s move in the opposite direction had been made public. Finnan has been one of Liverpool’s unsung heroes during his time at the club, but he’s now embarking on a new stage of his career with Espanyol – the fee wasn’t disclosed, but it’s believed that disagreement between the two clubs over what that fee should be had held up the Riera deal.

Riera has now flown back to Spain for a couple of days; he’ll be back in England in midweek ready to start his Reds career.

The usual transfer deadline was extended by a day due to 31^st August falling on a Sunday, and although there are a few hours left there isn’t any big news expected from Melwood or Anfield today.

The Riera-Finnan move hasn’t been the only business for Rafa today. Continue reading Riera signs, Finnan’s Anfield days are over