Red in Dublin

Another professional win and another 3 points v Reading. Monster Masch got off the mark with a stormer of a strike from outside the D after Matejovsky had opened the scoring for the visitors. It took a free kick from Gerrard and a far post header from El Nino to seal the deal.

I don't think that it was our best performance but we would have lost or drawn this game had it been played when we were in our bad patch in Jan. We stuck to the task in hand after going behind to an early goal. Torres had a 1 v 1 with the keeper and Babel had a couple of dangerous shots. Kuyt was fairly poor and neither of the full backs covered themselves in glory. We should have scored a third to calm the nerves but we didn't and then sat back which let Reading come back into it at the death. Thankfully we held out.

We have a full week off until Sky's big hype Sunday when we play Utd in Old Trafford. I am a bit worried about the game but we're in great from. They struggled a bit against Derby and weren't convincing against Portsmouth or Lyon before that. In El Nino we have the most exciting player in the league at the minute. I think that we're good enough to get a draw but they have a very good home record. The fact that Everton were beaten by Fulham yesterday takes the pressure off somewhat. The derby at the end of the month is still going to be massive though.

The champions league draw was made on Friday morning at 12, or was it? This article suggests that it could have been leaked beforehand. I was a bit suspicious but have a look at this forum. The poster has the draw correct at 10.28. The odds of guessing correctly are 191-1 apparently. Arsenal is a really tough draw. We're going to be playing them three times in the space of a week. We do have the experience of going all the way in the comp which they lack. The fact that they seem to be falling out of form is also promising. Let's hope that it continues until next month.

Dion Fanning in the Irish Indo had a good article on Rafa and rotation at the weekend. The more the facts are getting printed, the better.

This is bad news. I had half suspected that he wouldn't be back this season but it's still a blow to have it confirmed. We've really missed him but hopefully Skrtel can come in and fill the gap for the next few months. What's more important for the player in the long term is that Agger gets this problem sorted once and for all. The news that Kewell is heading off to an Australian training camp is less disturbing.

Sometimes a draw feels like a win and sometimes a draw feels like a loss. I don't know what this feels like. We played quite well in the first half and should have been out of sight at half time. Then we let them get one either side of half time and we only salvaged a point in injury time with a goal from Torres. It was great to get a draw rather than a loss but we really should have won at home against a team in the relegation zone.

What was surprising here was the manner in which we conceded the goals. Berbatov beat Sami and then Carra to high balls from the back. Robbie Keane managed to evade the other defenders and latch onto the flick on. His finishes were good but we shouldn't have gotten the time and space to get a shot off. It was very uncharacteristic of our defence but it was only the first 2 goals that we're conceded from open play. I reckon we'll improve at the back when Dagger returns.

We were quite good going forward and could have had a couple of goals. Voronin did well to put in a rebound for the first goal. He had a good match and linked well with Fernando and the midfield. Gerrard had a few shots and was unlucky to hit the post. If we had taken one or two more of these then the game would have been over.

After another boring international break, we have the Derby at Goodison. This is usually a tough match for us but it's going to be even harder as we're in poor form. They were beaten 3-2 by the Toon at the weekend which is good news. The Echo reports today that we might have some good injury news in the form of Alonso and Agger coming back. Xabi is the more likely one to be fit for the derby. We could do with both of them, badly.

Here are two interesting articles on our current form from the UK broadsheets, the Times and the Guardian. I don't agree with all of them but they make for interesting reading nonetheless.

Uefa.com have a great interview with Marcus Babel. He was a wonderful player at right back when we won the treble in 2001. It's such a pity that he became ill and never really recovered his previous form. It's good to hear that he's doing well as Stuttgart assistant manager now. Good luck to him.

Goal.com has linked Jeremy Menez of Monaco to us. I don't know too much about him but he's only 20 and is a promising attacking midfielder. A good dribbler who can play on the wings or through the middle by all accounts.

I was watching Red Dwarf yesterday and while I was looking at Holly the ships computer, I was thinking that he reminds me of somebody. Then it came to me. Separated at birth?

That was terrible. I haven't been able to bring myself to write a post on it until now. As Rafa himself said, that's as bad a performance as we've put in at home since he arrived. We were unlucky to see El Nino hit the post at the end but it would have been unfair on Marseille who were by far the better team. We were shocking.

Only Pepe, Finnan and Aurelio can come out of that with any credit. Only for them we could have lost by a few more. Momo was awful. I really like Momo but he's been shit this season. But he's not the only one. Our entire midfield was useless on Wed night. I think that the lack of Agger and Alonso has hit us hard. We haven't passed the ball well since they got injured. I'm hoping that they will be back in training once the international break is over. We'll need them badly for the Everton and Arsenal matches.

El Nino revealed that he's a bit manic to the official site. Fair enough. As long as he keeps scoring, let him continue with his rituals.

Rumour has it that Crouch may be on the way in January. I don't claim to have any inside track here, I'm just reporting what I've read on the forums. Word is that he is pissed off with his lack of games so he'll be sold with Klaas Jan Huntelaar as his replacement. I've been a big fan of this kid since I saw him fillet Ireland in Lansdowne road last year. While I"d be sorry to see RoboCrouch go, I'd be happy to see us replace him with pure Klaas. Think of all of the crappy puns I could come up with if he signed.

Spurs match tomorrow should be interesting. They're in worse form than us, which is handy. Robinson in goal could be our ace card. Rafa should tell all of the midfielders and strikers to shoot on sight. This guy is one of the worse keepers in the league and can't save long distance shots. Their defence is quite porous so I would expect Torres to be able to take them apart. A moral boosting win is needed after the debacle of Wednesday night. A win here would set us up nicely going into the international break. I'm hoping that we'll come back from it refreshed and rejuvenated. The last break really fucked us up as we were flying before it but haven't played well since. I'm hoping that this one will have the opposite effect and put us back into form. I was hoping that Spurs didn't lose last Monday as Jol might have been sacked. They drew 4-4 and he kept his job. If we win tomorrow, he might lose it. If we lose, I might lose it.

Sometimes you play well and lose. Sometimes you play badly and win. Sometimes you play well and the ref robs you, like what happened against Chelsea. Sometimes you play shit and get away with a draw. That's what happened in the Dragao on Tuesday when we drew 1-1. It was a fairly poor game and we didn't play well at all. It was one of those nights where nobody had a particularly good game. They started off like a rocket and scored with the eight minutes. We were suffering from shell shock but we did manage to get our act together somewhat as the half went on. Sami flicked on a Finnan cross and Dirk Kuyt was there to score from close range. It was an important goal at an imporant time.

In the second half Pennant got riled up, not for the first time. He was sent off for an idiotic tackle on Fucile. Porto players went down easy enough but there is no accounting for Pennants stupidity. It was a needless tackle and put extra pressure on the team. I doubt that Rafa was too impressed with that. We improved defensively after that and won a hard fought point.


But while a point away was a good result, the bad news that Xabi and Dagger are injured arrived today. While we have enough cover in central midfield, we could be a bit short at the back. Sami is short of pace but he'll do his best over the next four to six weeks. Sami isn't as accomplished a passer and tends to hoof the ball out of defence more. This has a knock on effect on our play which we'll have to try and minimise. We might even see Arbeloa play a few games there. Jack Hobbs might come into contention for the easier games. IT's going to be tough but we should be able to get through. We face Everton away on Oct 20th and then Arsenal at home a week later. I hope that we have them back at that stage but that would mean some quick healing is required.

Bring on Brum. Handy home win required.