Brighton & Hove Albion vs Liverpool
PL Matchday 8
Sunday 8th October, 14h
Referee: Anthony Taylor
Assistants: Gary Beswick, Adam Nunn
Fourth official: Craig Pawson
VAR: Chris Kavanagh. Assistant VAR: Matthew Wilkes.
Let the gat humLet's all please forget about the Spurs game. We'll be reminded of their incompetence and thinly veiled bias soon enough, possibly in this very upcoming match. But for now, let's just forget about it. There's a beast approaching. A giant monster is rumbling over the horizon, smashing buildings as it goes, getting angrier by the minute. This beast is threatening to rekindle fire in so many hearts where love of football has died down to a tiny smouldering amber. It's loud, wild and fucking fun. We need to greet it on arrival, climb on it's back and go. Ready yourself and look forward.
There is something about this new Liverpool, 2.0 or however you want to call it. Not only was it obvious to anyone watching before the last game, it was cemented, carved in stone, signed sealed and delivered in our first loss of the season. Strange, but that's exactly what has happened. We haven't looked as unbeatable in a long time as we did in that defeat. We haven't looked so focussed in a long time as in a game where everyone but our players seemingly lost their bloody minds. We were unmoved, relentless, focussed, new and hungry. It wasn't just the daylight robbery that had opposition fans and media nodding their heads in agreement with Liverpool's point of view (for 24h or so), it was the manner of our performance as well. It reminded me of... Shit, this might take a little detour to explain. Ok, give me a moment...
My wasted youth in the 90's was pretty deeply marked by discovery of punk music. Though I was never really a 'full kit wanker' punk, I was, as all 16 year olds are, very explicit about my music taste - looking down on anything and anyone coming from another hormone fueled and over-eager subculture. There was a silent bit of respect with metalheads or new wave/indie crew - the rest were just plebs, but none more so than those into hip hop. God bloody damn hip hop, the end days are near, burn it with fire and piss on its grave was the general attitude. So one day, outside the school, prime zone of walkman swapping and mixtape exchange, I walk up to some (punk first obviously) friends and two of them are sharing one headphone each, nodding heads together. 'You have to hear this man.' 'Oh yeah, is that Stooges bootleg?'. So I pop in the headphones and my ears and bones are filled with menacing 'Dummm dummm dum dumm' bass line of
Cypress Hill 'Lick a shot'. It's relentless. It has venom, tempo, freshness. You can try to stop yourself, you can cover yourself in all
The Exploited merch in the world to protect yourself from this hip hop devil - but your head will bounce to the beat. It can not be denied. It will not be denied. It's transcending drawers you want to put it in, it's breaking rules and making fun of expectations.
Well, that's how I feel watching this new team slowly spreading their wings. Whatever your current state of affairs with football in general, whichever team you support, we look primed to eventually steamroll everything, marching to our own beat. Once again - we are the party and we're coming to your town. Can't deny it, don't even try it.
Put me in chains, try to beat my brains. I can get out, but the grudge remains I do like Brighton. Well, they did profit on our crappy season in a big way, really hurting us repeatedly, but still... you have to respect what they are doing. They do transfers well, they play well, just a well operated club who is also having a good start to this season. They will find it bit harder this year, no longer coming out of the blue and suckerpunching everyone, also they have Europa to deal with - but I don't see them dropping off much, if anything they might get even better through experience of playing european football. De Zerbi is doing a fine job and we're in for a difficult game.
Much like us, they are going into this game looking to wash away the bad taste from their mouth. Aston Villa really took them apart and coming back to their home turf - they'll play with a chip on their shoulder. We should expect a fast start, be ready to soak it up and be lethal on the other end. Being hit with injuries and suspensions really doesn't help, but we have enough and we are equal measure hungry and angry. Perhaps we even get a rare game where referees aren't the main event - so we can all just focus on football and enjoy a good game.
We're probably lining up with Diaz, Nunez and Mo up top. Middle is up for grabs, I'll say it's likely Dom, McAli and Endo - but would not be surprised if Ryan starts. Defence is almost certainly Trent, Konate, Van Dijk, Robbo and Ali. That's a very strong team, that's a team that can do anything they want. So let's go out there and bring the party. There's no stopping this.
Points to take.
Points to prove.
