League Cup preview: Everton v. Chelsea
Tuesday, 22 January 08, 02:51 PM · Comments (49)
If a week is a long time in politics, then three months in football is surely an eternity (including tea breaks). Back in September, Jose departed the Bridge after a lover’s tiff too many with Roman and a new sheriff that no-one really wanted arrived in town.
Avram Grant’s appointment was generally greeted with the same kind of shock and derision that Cleavon Little’s Bart suffered in ‘Blazing Saddles’; the stunned Blue faithful gathered themselves like the residents of Rock Ridge and sung “Now is a time of great decision / Are we to stay or up and quit? / There's no avoiding this conclusion: / Our club is turning into shit. Amen.” Or at least that’s what it sounded like at the time.
Elsewhere, Liverpool fans chortled as big green piles of Yankee dollars were flung down the Mersey at Rafa as fast as he could spend them on fancy electric beard trimmers and exciting forwards to rotate ad infinitum.
Another title challenge was on, they bellowed like Spurs fans proclaiming their annual assault on fourth place; Chelsea would be hard-pressed to make said spot, end up on Channel 5 playing some Lithuanian pipe fitters in the UEFA Urn and the new Scouse Superdome would be up on bricks, confirming their return to the pinnacle of English football.
In short, had anyone mentioned a Carling Cup semi-final for Chelsea back in ‘Black September’, it might have been looked upon as “the best we could hope for this season”. Never mind which resurgent team from Merseyside we were likely to end up playing in a semi-final (again).
All of which has made the last few months all the more pleasant (and indeed surprising), both in terms of Chelsea’s progress and events elsewhere. Down in SW6, Bart — sorry — Avram has survived most of what has been thrown at him and come out smelling of anything but what was predicted, arriving in 2008 with his hands on all the chicken soup and kneidlach still available. A couple of astute signings made, key players due back from injury and Africa Cup of Nations duty before too long, Ballack patrolling the midfield like Rommel in his pomp and Pizarro finally looking like the net-bursting goal monster we paid nothing for.**
Meanwhile, Liverpool’s soccertainment business venture seems to be encountering a few teething problems. Rafa looks increasingly likely to be as unemployed as Avram’s tailor before you can say “another turgid draw at Anfield”, while his paymasters trot the globe looking for another stooge to teach Stevie G the value of retaining the ball (or to flog the club to the highest bidder, depending on who you believe). Schadenfreude? Oh well, if we must.
All of which brings us nicely on to another semi (it must be all that terribly attractive football we’re playing); unless the statisticians amongst us can confirm otherwise, our eighteenth in fourteen years. Thanks to Joleon Lescott’s inability to notice the shortest man on the pitch climbing onto his shoulders during injury time of the first leg, we head to Goodison Park with a lead only slightly less slender than the chances of Alan Shearer not sticking the proverbial knife into Kevin Keegan when things inevitably go pear shaped on Tyneside.
Aside of the absence of Mikel, Drogba, Kalou and Essien who are all on ACN duty, Chelsea will be without Wright-Phillips who picked up an ankle injury in the win against Birmingham on Saturday with Terry and Shevchenko the other notable long term absences. Lampard could feature at some point while Anelka is not cup-tied and available for selection. And according to my Evertonian boss, he seems to love scoring against them.
Predictions: Goodison Park will be very noisy. Avram will be wearing an item of black clothing that doesn’t fit properly.
** one of the above may not be entirely true.
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My only fear for tomorrow evening is.... well we seem to hit a brick wall when we have semi's in the Mersey area. We all know too well our last two trips ended in tears, and yes this is Everton, but on current form they're better than their cousins from across the park.
Great article as always JD! There is nothing better than seeing Liverpool toiling away against cheaper opposition week-in week-out! Especially when the fans get wound up! I think Everton will be a tough proposition though - we will need to play like we did in the first leg when we should have won by 2 or 3 goals. If we win the Carling Cup yet again this year, I think Carling ought to award us the trophy for keeps!
By the way, I hear from 'fat-bloke-down-the-pub' that we are chasing the Croatian defender-cum-midfielder Corluka (who I rate highly) - anyone know if there is any truth to this rumour?
Great article JD, Watching liverpool struggle against low level teams has been good, likely 11 for tommorow Cudicini,Belletti,Riccy,Alex,A.Cole,J.Cole,Ballack,Sidwell,Malouda,Pizarro,Anelka
JD,
Thanks for taking the time to put a preview together.
From what I've heard, Lamps wont be available as he's suffered a set-back and is crocked again.
Line-up wise, I'd be surprised if Makelele didn't play to offer protection to the back four. Then again, he'll be needed Saturday at Wigan so AG may have a call to make on which game he deems more important. Also think Ivanovic may be involved, but Saturday could be a better option for his debut.
I take it "Ballack patrolling the midfield like Rommel in his pomp .." was the comment you mentioned may not be true.
It couldn't possibly be the mention of Pizarro. A strike rate of one-in-one means he's that "net-bursting goal monster" more than anyone.
Haha, very well written. You've rivaled Pat Nevin's regular anti-liverpool rants. Liverpool are just so easy to hate.
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That preview has cheered up my day, it's nearly as funny as the current state of affairs in Liverpool. No offence JD... as much as I giggled at reading your pearls of wisdom, Stevie Me and his pathetic excuses for YET another poor performance wins hands down.
Ah, but *next* year Liverpoo are definitely going to be up closer to ManU and challenging for the title! Or maybe, the year after that! Or maybe they'll just be saying so in August again ... and again ... and again ...
Heh, heh.
Great preview. Thanks for taking the time/effort to do the pre-match reports.