Unbeaten table-toppers win again ahead of next week’s collision
Chelsea and Liverpool remain the top two teams in the country after the Blues thumped Middlesbrough 5-0 while the Reds again came from behind to beat Wigan 3-2. So ahead of their clash at Stamford Bridge next Sunday, The Spoiler wants to know which one has impressed you the most?
In the blue corner, Luiz Felipe Scolari has instantly got his team playing exciting, attacking football and has accompanied that with results. They’ve won all four of their away games this season, comfortably have the league’s best goal difference (+16) and have conceded just three goals. Despite numerous injuries, they have continued to shine.
In the red corner, Liverpool haven’t dominated games like Chelsea and have only won by more than one goal once. However, they have already faced three of last season’s top six and whereas Chelsea were expected to start strongly, Liverpool’s form has been more of a surprise. With Fernando Torres out injured today, Dirk Kuyt stepped in with two goals and the Dutchman has already equalled his league total from last season.
Five of Liverpool’s six league wins have come courtesy of goals scored in the final fifteen minutes: does this show a never-say-die spirit that can take them all the way to the title or are they just getting lucky at the moment? Equally, five of Chelsea’s six have been by a margin of two goals or more: is this a worrying sign of things to come or is there a danger of them running out of steam like Arsenal last season?
With all that in mind, let us know which side’s start has impressed you the most with a vote and a comment below.
Liverpool star is an excellent pretend rocker, apparently
The folks at Popbitch seldom miss the mark when it comes to juicy gossip and little-known facts, and in this week’s newsletter they supply details of Dirk Kuyt’s incredulous past:
Dirk Kuyt was the air guitar champion of Holland for four years running.
Could it be true? Did the Dutchman shun training to learn air scales and perfect his air finger tapping technique? Or is this story as real as, well, Dirk’s guitar?
If you have any info on Mr Kuyt’s pseudo-musical side, let us know.
Reportedly, Hamburg’s Martin Jol politely enquired as to whether Liverpool would part with Dutch striker-turned-winger Dirk Kuyt, but was left petrified, alarmed and severely shaken after Rafa Benitez mentioned the £16m price tag. With no new wingers arriving, he will be needed again at Anfield, so a transfer looks unlikely.
Benni McCarthy to Blackburn
McCarthy doesn’t match any of Roy Keane’s three transfer target requirements (played for Manchester Utd, played in the Championship, comes from Ireland) yet a £7 million offer for the South Africa is being readied.
The Spoiler Truth-o-meter: Keane wants another striker and Santa Cruz has stolen Benni’s thunder, but Ince may want to keep hold for now
Footballers lead a blessed existence - the money, the girls, the adulation. But for every upside there is a downside, for every yin a yang, for all the pleasure, there is pain. Especially up in Liverpool, where the players are forced to undergo a series of deeply humiliating training rituals.
Obviously taking his cue from Rocky VI - the most overtly political of the boxing films, in which Sly Stallone trained using not cool things like rowing machines and cross trainers, but instead massive logs, cold meats, and snow - Rafa Benitez has incorporated everyday household objects like boxes and strange poles into his regime. Dirk Kuyt, for one, was forced to balance on a box, as his out-of-view team mates guffawed and poked fun at him. While Steven Gerrard and Jermaine Pennant jumped up and down like looneys.
Now that Mr Canoe and his crone of a wife have been ordered to go to prison, you should probably scrap all those get-rich-quick schemes and stick to the straight and narrow. After all, there’s no such thing as an internet when you’re banged up, and some of those guys haven’t even seen a television. Or have we just mistaken jail with Hull again? Either way, tomorrow looks a bit like this…
Kuyt helps out the boss
If at first you don’t succeed, goes the old saying, next time get Dirk Kuyt to have a go for you. Benitez, now with his hands tied when it comes to prodding and unsettling target players, has wisely put his faith in Merseyside’s hardest working and most eager-to-please blonde (and that’s saying something!). “We all know how well he did for Spurs last season,” he gushed, winking playfully at Robbie Keane, “he would be a great signing.”
Has the man not done the maths? One Robbie Keane = No room for Kuyt.
Signs of life in the transfer window
Believe it or not, but the transfer window is open right now, and yet no one is responding. Or, at least, not until now. The thrilling news is that Real Madrid want Samuel Eto’o, Barcelona want Didier Drogba and Chelsea want Robinho. Could we witness Ramon Calderon, Joan Laporta and Peter Kenyon forming an orderly circle and handing over their players to one another in a calm and polite manner? Of course not, that would be boring!
Does the WAG hold the key to the pilfering mystery?
Jack The Ripper, the Zodiac murders, the sandwich that was stolen from the Spoiler’s fridge last week – all unsolved crimes that have dominated the agendas of law enforcement officers the world over.
The latest mystery to plague their thoughts is the Liverpool burglaries – last night Stevie G became the sixth player in eighteen months to have his home ransacked while he was out of the country. His WAG Alex Curran was
