That's What It's Supposed To Be Like!

 Now that was a good way to sign off from Anfield for the season! This piece almost writes itself today there are that many easy things to point out. We put four past Chelsea with with ‘seeing is believing’ written on our shirts, we were doing our bit for charity but Chelsea were in a far more charitable mood than us etc…

 4-1 was a good was to exact some sort of revenge for our FA Cup final defeat at the weekend, and three home points were long long overdue. Every player put in a performance and for me the young central midfield pair of Henderson and Shelvey deserve special mention. They both scored and both got from box to box in a pair of energetic displays with more than a little flair to go with the effort. When I saw the team there were a few areas that concerned me including the centre of midfield up against the experienced Essien and Malouda but our youngsters did us proud. I was also sceptical about Carra’s chances against Torres but our veteran centre back came out on top and reminded us there’s life in the old dog yet. Torres has now played against us four times since he left in January last year and has lost all four, the only time Chelsea have beaten us since then is when they left him on the bench and didn’t allow him near the pitch. He’s probably due a hat-trick against us next season now……

 The performance itself wasn’t overly different from the majority of our home games this season but this time our chances went in the back of the net and the opposition (as well as us, naturally) hit the woodwork twice. Possession and goal attempts weren’t weighted any more heavily in our favour for this 4-1 victory than they have been in the majority of our home defeats and draws but we had players step up and finish last night which was fantastic to see, it was amazing to see the confidence in the performance after such a draining season, there was no going through the motions, it was a team determined to win.

 Despite all the positives there were a few things that helped to sum up why our season has left us where we are in the league. Henderson’s goal was only his second of the season while Shelvey and Agger both netted their first of the league campaign, Downing hit the woodwork twice and still hasn’t managed a league goal for us and Andy Carroll has begun to play well for us but has gone through the entire season without scoring in the league at our home ground. Despite a few shaky moments our defence this season has conceded an acceptable number of times (though there is always room for improvement) but we’ve simply not been anywhere close to clinical enough in front of goal and the whole team needs to take responsibility for this, not just the strikers. Our manager is one of the greatest forwards to have ever played the game so such wastefulness in front of goal is surprising and extremely frustrating.

 It’s Swansea away on the final day and they’ve been quite impressive this season, the game will be played out in front of a sold out crowd making a good atmosphere against a team with no pressure on them so it won’t be easy to get a win. We’ve also struggle to put two good results together this year so a win on Sunday will be a big result. There is the potential to finish above Everton if results go our way but this isn’t particularly important to me in the grand scheme of things. You finish where you deserve to over the thirty eight games and it is what it is. It’s nice not to be below our local rivals but whether we manage 7^th, 8^th or even 9^th it isn’t good enough. The only time I’d be particularly delighted to finish above the blues is if they were in 2^nd.