Gary Neville and his balloon hit Liverpool's title ambitions At last, the Liverpool balloon thrower is unmasked, and it doesn't look like he has quite the Scouse connection we first thought!

Sunderland's first goal against Liverpool today - from Darren Bent - came in the 5th minute thanks to a deflection off a balloon that had floated into the Liverpool penalty area.

That's going to make Rafa Benitez really mad...

"Sunderland score against Liverpool .

Ronseal

Here is the goal in gif format:

And here is the guilty party - the most hated man (boy) in Liverpool:

As you can see from the last gif, it's not a balloon at all, but some sort of beach ball thing. Hence the deflection. That chavvy kid must be extremely unpopular right now.

Sunderland's 1-0 victory over Liverpool came courtesy of Darren Bent's freakish eighth goal of the season.Darren Bent's strike hit a balloon which diverted it past goalkeeper Reina.While it was a freakish winner, the outcome of the game is an accurate measure of Sunderland's progress made under Steve Bruce.

Fergie faces his biggest fear Nothing scares the hardest manager in the Premier League, except his assistant Mike Phelan popping a balloon....

Liverpool have been left deflated as a balloon scores for Sunderland. The goal stands. Darren Bent with his eighth of the season. Final score: 1-0 Sunderland.
A beach ball now has more goals from open play this season than Frank Lampard.
Liverpool have already lost 4 of their 9 Premier League games this year.

Sunderland hosted Liverpool in the English Premier League on Saturday, October 17, 2009. Was Liverpool able to win without Gerrard and Torres or did Sunderland continue their strong start to the 2009-10 season? Here's a recap of the match along with video highlights.

Sunderland beats Liverpool 1-0 Video Highlights

Liverpool were without captain Steven Gerrard and leading scorer Fernando Torres as they struggled at Sunderland.

During a week in which the cheeky antics of America's "balloon boy" captivated the world, the Stadium of Light's "beach ball boy" brought controversy to the Premiership. Blurred out in photos by the press for his own protection, we at Footy Factor can finally reveal who the culprit is that cost Liverpool their fourth loss of the season.

This week could be very good for Rafa Benitez - or very bad. The Liverpool manager is reeling after his team lost 1-0 to Sunderland in a match that is now infamous for a balloon on the pitch. No matter...

What a game! Except for the nail-biting after going down 2 goals to none in the first half, that was an incredible match! I printed my number 9 (and mounted it on poster board because I'm anal crafty like that) and held it up with the crowd. The stadium went absolutely berserk when we scored in the 95th minute, especially since we couldn't see the extra time remaining.

Sunderland beat Liverpool after Bent's shot struck a balloon. No joke.

While Real Madrid has been signing and unveiling lots of big name players like Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo, Iker Casillas has been keeping a low profile.

He is currently spending time out in Mali, as part of the Plan International charity that he regularly works with.

Iker has been sponsoring a child named Bourama and they met each other for the first time on this trip.

While Real Madrid has been signing and unveiling lots of big name players like Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo, Iker Casillas has been keeping a low profile.

He is currently spending time out in Mali, as part of the Plan International charity that he regularly works with.

Iker has been sponsoring a child named Bourama and they met each other for the first time on this trip.

Literally. Darren Bent scored this winning goal for Sunderland off a balloon lying near the Liverpool goal.

A: The Distracter loves balloons.And while this may seem bizarre and random, it was not too long ago that another English club was doomed by their own balloon...- Greg Seltzer

They Think It's All Over... identifies where it's all gone wrong for Liverpool so far this season.

It's tempting to heave my piling anger, frustration, pain, and total bewilderment on a red beach ball. It's tempting to lament the many injuries my side picked up while the players were dispersed for the international break. But after watching Liverpool lose their third and fourth matches in a row, their worst losing streak since 1987, I know these things are easy scapegoats for my desperate state of trying to figure it all out.

Welcome to the jungle.

All eyes on Sharon Bent this weekend. After cutting the bouncy shinned striker loose in the Summer- not in altogether harmonious circumstances- Benty will no doubt be looking to prove a point. Whether it be cannoning one of his knee, face, balloon or all of the above, the Spurs defence will need to keep close tabs on a man positively seething with indignant wrath.

Some news to read as you reflect on the sheer awesomeness of Italian games where somebody (read: Amauri) gets red-carded and there is a little quote balloon in what is probably Arabic in the video and you have no idea what it says but you're pretty sure it reflects quite poorly on somebody's mother: Pictures: [.

To make it worse, that's the Liverpool crest on the balloon. Distraught.

I expected the Bolton match to be hard-fought, gritty, and all you could associate with a fixture played on the back of an international break. As the match started playing out, a little bit of revisionism struck and I actually felt we would walk it. But somehow, we contrived to make it harder for ourselves towards the end, and it ended as nervously as I first thought it would.

Will be awarded to the player who scores the best goal off a balloon lying on the pitch.A lot of painstaking research on the net over a period of five whole minutes has turned up two candidates.One is Darren Bent.His sublime effort is on view in the last post.This second candidate is a player from Sheffield United who also used a balloon to good effect.

When Don Garber finally assented to allowing the Chivas USA franchise to call Los Angeles its home in 2004, it was a sacrifice. The MLS cares about geographic expansion, and was looking to grow into Canada, the Northwest, and back into Florida. Adding a team into a well-established market, and have that team plant itself at the Home Depot Center was not part of the long-term plan.

I'm meeting up with Junior Goonier and some of his mates in a little while.
I'm off to the pub with them to watch The Arse cane The ManUre.
I hope.
I must say I do have a sense of excitement and anticipation.
And I've loved the build up, with Wenger and Ferguson doing respectful humble on the surface, whilst busy playing headgames in the background.

by Usman Azad, Football Perth Editor
WELL it's been about 10 hours since Perth Glory were beaten by Wellington Phoenix over in the land of the sheep.
What makes it even more disappointing is the Glory probably should've taken the three points, instead they take nothing and start the season behind the proverbial eight-ball.

Reina
Skrtel Carragher Agger
Johnson Lucas Spearing Aurelio
Benayoun Kuyt Babel
Goals:
Bent 5'
A balloon takes the air out of Liverpool's title chances? A balloon, and Steve Bruce's balloon-shaped head.
If I don't laugh at this season's misfortunes, I'm going to cry.

Man United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has said that once Bolton pulled a goal back, he feared the worst. United had been beating Bolton comfortably for most of the match but once Bolton scored, they looked like the more likely team to score again.
Taylor scored for Bolton in the 75th minute, after that all the pressure was at the United goal.

Sunderland battled bravely to secure a 1-0 win over Liverpool at the Stadium of Light and exacerbate the anxiety of Liverpool fans who are painfully realizing that their team will not win the Premier League this season.
Darren Bent controversially scored for the Black Cats in the first half when his shot deflected in off a balloon which had been tossed onto the pitch by a fan.

The story of the week was about a balloon - no, not that staged reality TV wannabe stuff out of Colorado - but a red Liverpool balloon, errr beach ball, that Pepe Reina couldn't deflate and then tried to save...