) about to go into a top of the table encounter which is bound to see one of them drop points.Where do we sit in terms of getting excited, does this constitute a genuine title challenge already, should Rafa be given a new contract right fecking now and are we gonna win the thing at last?
Well I've read various posts from people urging caution, and I broadly agree with that. That said, one thing I'm absolutely certain about is this: If we were eight points behind the Mancs at this stage, albeit with a game in hand I would say we would be as good as out of it. By that I don't mean to praise them up, I'm merely stating that it is a big, big lead. Bigger than it looks as the actor said to the actress. Now I know some will say "yeah but you lose a couple and then it's all back on" and that's true, but the point is that if you get eight points behind the Mancs or Chelsea, they don't lose a couple. They just keep grinding our the wins and before long, you win six out of eight and draw the other two only to discover your decent run of form has seen you fall further off the pace.
I'm going to make a boldish prediction here and now, when the Mancs play Arsenal in a couple of weeks, defeat for the gunners will see them as good as out of it. Not totally out of it, but not totally in it either. They would need from there to win 15 on the bounce or something to get back into it. Even bolder, defeat at Home for the Mancs in that fixture would give them a mountain to climb too. As it goes, I fully expect them to win it and all other matches for the near future (and in fairness they are capable of winning 15 on the bounce as well), so they have a bit more stickability in the race.
Out of our next four matches starting tomorrow, a minimum of ten points should be the target, and hopefully all twelve to really crank up the pressure.
In terms of it being a proper title challenge in the full sense of the phrase, we probably can't quite count it as such just yet. That though is only a matter of phraseology, as by pretty much any definition we are now contendERS, even if we can't be officially classed yet as contendING. My definition of the latter would be if we're within five or six points by the end of January or so, and I'm absolutely certain we will be such is our current momentum.
Now the new contract thing is a bit more complex, but I'd certainly be opening talks with the manager around now. He has confirmed and is confirming the suspicion that I've long held that he's actually put together a very good bunch of players who are well capable of a ttle challenge, and now he's actually giving them the opportunity to show it then the skys the limit for the team and for Rafa himself. There's no need to stress too much about the possibility of him reverting back to mass styling. As I've said many times he isn't an idiot and only an idiot would fail to see that the way he is doing it now is the way to go from now on. That's not to say we won't see some rotation (and we'll need some because you can't play the same team in every single game) but we won't I don't think see some of the more "unusual" methods that we saw in the past.
Ultimately though as far as this seasons concerned, I'm starting to get quite excited by the whole thing. I watched the Chelsea game last night for the first time in its entirity, and I was very impressed by the team, the fans, by Rafa by everything. Encouragingly, having heard so much about Chelsea I thought we totally outplayed them, and I also thought Rafa totally outfoxed Scholari with his quite innovative defensive set up (if anyones at all interested I talked about that in the match thread but it kind of got smothered in some other stuff).
On a different note, I've got a feeling that Ronaldo is angling for a move from Man Utd and is maybe a disruptive influence for them, so all in all it wouldn't probably take the team of the century to win the Prem this time around. That's handy, because we aren't the team of the century far from it, but when Torres is fit we are a good team who will take some stopping if the crowd really start to believe. I can see Anfield becoming an absolute cauldron if we're anywhere near, as well as huge armies of vocal support on the road.
It's time for Liverpool to win the title, God knows it's been time for a while now. I started the season predicting we will get very close, but ultimately just fall short due to lack of squad strength. We would though build a "base camp", to go for a final assault next season. Right now though if I'm honest I'm not so sure. I still think we can play much better than we currently are, and I think it's perhaps a year too early for Arsenal, a year too long for Ronaldo and Man Utd, and a learning curve with desperate injuries for Chelsea and Scholari. I tell you this for free, if we're not very careful we might just end up winning the fecker.
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