Liverpool 3 Bellamy 29′, Bellamy 67′, Gerrard 78′
Newcastle 0 Agger (og) 25′

The first Friday night league game in England in over twenty years hardly started well for Liverpool, following the pattern set by matches against Blackburn, Wigan, and Fulham in recent weeks.

"[Rio Ferdinand's] performance was nothing short of magnificent," announced Alan Hansen on Match of the Day 2 yesterday, before wheeling out selected clips for his analysis on what appeared to be Ferdinand's return to form (at one point, he put down a random pass to Wayne Rooney as good "anticipation" ).

"[Rio Ferdinand's] performance was nothing short of magnificent," announced Alan Hansen on Match of the Day 2 yesterday, before wheeling out selected clips for his analysis on what appeared to be Ferdinand's return to form (at one point, he put down a random pass to Wayne Rooney as good "anticipation" ).

With Liverpool facing Chelsea in a week's time, I thought it interesting to look at the club's recent record against the best and worst of the Premier League. Long story short, Liverpool have a habit of playing up or down to the opposition's level under Dalglish.
Against top-five opponents:
• 1-0 Chelsea (a)
• 3-1 United (h)
• 3-0 City (h)
• 1-1 Arsenal (a)
• 0-2 Tottenham (h)
• 2-0 Arsenal (a)
• 0-4 Tottenham (a)
• 1-1 United (h)
Overall record: 4W-2D-2L
Points per game: 1.

Against Swansea, Liverpool started on top, couldn't take advantage of the early dominance, and finished with a draw. Against Norwich, Liverpool started on top, couldn't take advantage of the early dominance, and finished with a draw. Against Stoke, Liverpool started on top, couldn't take advantage of the early dominance, and lost.

Below is a comparison of individual statistics from Henderson and Kuyt's last four league games when played on the right of a 4-2-2-2. Formation notation is subjective, especially with this season's group of players, but these are how I saw each formation at the start of matches. For Henderson, that's wins over Wolves and Bolton, the draw against Sunderland, and loss at Stoke.

I know how much you missed these self-explanatory Guardian Chalkboards, even if you don't.
Liverpool were outstanding in the first half on Saturday, unlucky to not be ahead by more than a solitary goal. But Sunderland regrouped, better in the second frame, and reaped the reward.
The first example of that regression was where Liverpool won the ball (when they actually did).

Goals:
Suarez 12'
Larsson 57'
First half: new Liverpool. Second half: old Liverpool. Result: old Liverpool. Sigh.
Rampant – utterly rampant – in the first half, Sunderland were infinitely lucky to only be behind by a goal after 45 minutes. The away side should have been down to 10 men with less than seven off the clock: Suarez blocked Richardson's ill-judged clearance and charged toward goal.

Time to write my Premier League predictions. Here goes:
1) Man Utd - I think this will be a very tough race with the top three all challenging. Ultimately I think Utd will win out.
2) Man City- I only want to see some more playmaking ability in the central midfield, then I'm convinced.

Quick Reminder, Real Life An odd season at Fulham saw them lose their very successful manager to Liverpool where he was a flop. His replacement managed them to a very solid 8th place finish in the standings with no reason to expect that it was either a fluke or that a huge regression was coming but then he left too.

There is no player that shadows the recent fortunes of Arsenal more than Gael Clichy.

When he was thrust into the limelight in the wake of Ashley Cole's departure to Chelsea, we were full of hope. We didn't miss Cole and also had a fine center-back in William Gallas at that point it looked like we got the best of that deal.

"Can you hear Alberta sing? Noo, noo, noooo!"
TORONTO FC VS. FC EDMONTONNUTRILITE CANADIAN CHAMPIONSHIP
SEMI-FINAL - 2ND LEG (3-0 AGGREGATE)
　
BMO FIELD - WEDNESDAY 8PM ET
TV: SPORTSNET (ALL REGIONS)
　
We would love to make this a politics-free, non-partisan match preview and lick our wounds quietly in the corner - but we're playing "Alberta's Team".

Glory days. They'll pass you by. Have they skipped beyond our Bison?

Past it?

Claude Makelele left. I cried. Shortly thereafter, I granted Michael Essien personal favorite status a rank reserved for only a select few. Be humbled, Mike.

Lately, however, as the Ghanaian's formed has waned so too has the love affair.

Alright, so the SuperDraft has now come to a conclusion and the Kansas City Wizards, er, Sporting Kansas City (Wizards) have said goodbye to a few players, hello to others and managed to prevent goodbyes to a few as well. So it's about time that I get some writing done... you know, because all of you have been deprived of my brilliant thinking and analysis.

The end appears near.

Ladies, gents, we've reached a new low.

No MotM poll today. There is no need. And there are much more pressing matters to be addressed.

More dross. Included in the dross, a first loss to Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux for the first time in decades.

Just in case anyone missed it, Brad Guzan has gone to Hull City on a one-month loan, in his quest for regular playing time. If the first couple games are any indication, it was a good move.

Many of us were hoping Guzan would be starting for Villa at this point, but it's important to keep things in perspective: he's only 26 years old (young by goalkeeper standards), and he's currently sitting behind the namesake of Friedel's Law arguably the greatest/baldest American keeper of all time.