{"id":2143,"date":"2022-01-21T13:48:30","date_gmt":"2022-01-21T13:48:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/?p=2143"},"modified":"2022-01-21T13:48:30","modified_gmt":"2022-01-21T13:48:30","slug":"now-lets-go-and-win-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/now-lets-go-and-win-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Now Let\u2019s Go And Win It"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Given the immense, consistent and ludicrous level of bet-wetting from Arsenal fans over our League Cup tie, last night was a lot of fun. The Gunners absolutely threw their toys out of the pram at the very idea that Liverpool could have had as many as 13 false positives, which we now know wasn\u2019t the case. Instead, a faulty laboratory told the club that there were 13 positive players, only for those positives to be discounted with further testing. Not content with that explanation, Arsenal fans went straight into detective mode, discovering that Kenny Dalglish\u2019s daughter Lynsey is the Commercial Director for the lab that sent back the positives that turned out to be wrong. According to the, rather dim, supporters of the North London club, a Commercial Director has the ability to fake test results in order to get a match postponed. That the postponement was granted before the tests came back and that Liverpool benefitted in no way from getting it postponed wasn\u2019t relevant.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Credit where it\u2019s due to Arsenal &#8211; they really were slightly better than average for those first 15 minutes when Alan Smith lost his mind because they had one chance from a free kick before Liverpool absolutely battered them in their own ground and they left the field with 10 men<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Neil Docking (@NeilDocking) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NeilDocking\/status\/1484280644595331075?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 20, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The argument from the Gunners was that the Reds wanted to delay the match in order to get Sadio Man\u00e9 and Mohamed Salah back from the Africa Cup of Nations in time for the rearranged fixture. The fact that there was virtually no chance of either player being back in time and that J\u00fcrgen Klopp doesn\u2019t tend to play such senior players in League Cup matches was ignored. It is, of course, a perfect demonstration of the dangers of tribalism in football. We are all guilty of it, of course, but Arsenal fans have taken it to a whole new level in the past couple of weeks. It was, therefore, an absolute pleasure to see the Reds (or Yellows in this case) turn up at the Emirates and batter the Gunners in their own backyard. They celebrated the draw in the first-leg as if it meant that they were guaranteed a trip to Wembley, but they forgot that they are, basically, rubbish. Now it is up to Liverpool to ensure that the defeats of three Premier League clubs on the way to the final aren\u2019t wasted.&lt;\/p.<\/p>\n<h2>Chelsea Might Prove Tough Opponents<\/h2>\n<p>Our two games against Chelsea have both ended in draws so far this season. The match at Anfield wasn\u2019t a fair test, given that the sending off of Reece James came at a moment that allowed Thomas Tuchel to get them organised for the second-half. It was one of the first signs of the season that Liverpool aren\u2019t great at playing against ten men, which we also saw play out against Arsenal. The Stamford Bridge match was more akin to what we might expect to see from Liverpool in the final, at least at times, but the team tired as the game wore on. In the end, there\u2019s an argument that we were lucky to escape from West London with a point. Of course, we don\u2019t really know what Chelsea will show up at Wembley on the twenty-seventh of February. In the Roman Abramovich era, it always feels as though they are one moment away from either a trophy or an implosion and now is no different. Thomas Tuchel is a good manager, but it already feels like he\u2019s losing control of the dressing room.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Diogo Jota&#8217;s double fires Liverpool to beat Arsenal for a place in League Cup final against Chelsea. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/cGIjgopvWL\">pic.twitter.com\/cGIjgopvWL<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Skankan (@Skankan7) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Skankan7\/status\/1484363787147034626?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 21, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>It is easy to forget that finals haven\u2019t gone that well for J\u00fcrgen Klopp during his career. The master of the semi-final, he\u2019s won ten of the eleven that he\u2019s managed. The problem has come in the big game, when he\u2019s lost the final of this very competition, as well as the Europa League and two Champions Leagues, once with Borussia Dortmund and once with us. He won the latter in the end, of course, and he also won the two domestic cups in Germany, so there\u2019s no way that we should be writing off our chances on that basis. For the record, Tuchel also won the DFB-Pokal in Germany and lost in the Champions League final with Paris Saint-Germain, only to win it the following season with his current club. Add to that the fact that he lost the FA Cup with Chelsea last season and you can see why it feels as though the League Cup is like tossing a coin. I\u2019d expect the likes of Salah and Man\u00e9 to come back in for it though, so if they\u2019re on form I\u2019d fancy our chances.<\/p>\n<h2>We Want To Re-Claim The Most Wins From Manchester City<\/h2>\n<p>Since Liverpool\u2019s first League Cup win in 1981, the Reds have won the trophy at least once a decade. Manchester City had only won it twice before Sheikh Mansour bought the club, but they\u2019ve won it six times since then, including the last four in succession. By doing so, the Cityzens have used their petrol money to draw level with us in terms of the number of times that they\u2019ve won the trophy. In our defeat of Arsenal, we\u2019ve put ourselves in a position whereby we can once again claim the trophy for ourselves, which would be delightful in this era of big money spending by one of the richest clubs on the planet. I understand the reluctance of some to call Man City our rivals and it\u2019s certainly true that they don\u2019t deserve that moniker in the same way the likes of Everton and Manchester United do. That being said, they are the team that is stopping us from winning the league at the moment and it\u2019s likely we\u2019ll come up against them in the Champions League at some point.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#LFC<\/a> and City hold more League Cup titles than all other clubs (8). Liverpool with a chance to take League Cup supremacy. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/CarabaoCup?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#CarabaoCup<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/e2dT4U570L\">pic.twitter.com\/e2dT4U570L<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Premier League Story (@LiverpoolFooti) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LiverpoolFooti\/status\/1484319968501981191?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 21, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Whether we like it or not, they <em>are<\/em> a rival, so being able to take the League Cup back off them outright is something to be celebrated. It would be a shot across the bow for Pep Guardiola and his billion pound squad; a warning that they don\u2019t get everything their own way no matter how much money they spend. It would also allow us to strike a blow against Chelsea in the race for second-place, presuming as I am that City aren\u2019t going to let their Premier League lead slip from here. Of course, we\u2019ve got Crystal Palace to worry about before that and last night might just act as the perfect preparation for facing Patrick Viera\u2019s men. Whilst Selhurst Park is significantly more intimidating than the Emirates, the noise from the Arsenal fans was impressive until we silenced them and pretty much kept them quiet. Doing the same thing in a different part of London would put us one step closer to a second-place finish and maybe ask question\u2019s of City\u2019s mentality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Given the immense, consistent and ludicrous level of bet-wetting from Arsenal fans over our League Cup tie, last night was a lot of fun. The Gunners absolutely threw their toys out of the pram at the very idea that Liverpool could have had as many as 13 false positives, which we now know wasn\u2019t the case. Instead, a faulty laboratory told the club that there were 13 positive players, only for those positives to be discounted with further testing. Not content with that explanation, Arsenal fans went straight into detective mode, discovering that Kenny Dalglish\u2019s daughter Lynsey is the Commercial [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1866,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2143"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2143"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2144,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2143\/revisions\/2144"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}