I tell you what folks, given the lack of excitement in the Saturday matches I would imagine Gary Lineker was pretty close to dropping Chappers a text to see if he fancied the MotD gig that night.
Goals were hardly flowing, if you know what I mean.
Granted, Saturday afternoon saw Palace, Watford, Sheffield United, Norwich, Arsenal, Southampton and Newcastle play – none being the most free-scoring of sides this season.
Then you throw in Spurs with their lack of striker multiplied by their manager and you are certainly not punting on over 2.5s, that’s for sure.
In fairness, it helped the coronavirus cause – no handshakes before the match and very few during as there were very few moments to celebrate.
The 2019/20 champions Liverpool did finally get a chance to celebrate their season getting back on track after that crisis that lasted nearly a whole week.
Admittedly, it did look very briefly as though yet another exponent of good ol’ 4-4-2 was going to have their wicked way with Jurgen Klopp’s side.
Bournemouth need a bit of a helping hand right now and it was a rather big hand placed in the back of Joe Gomez that led to the Cherries taking the lead at Anfield.
If you ignore the blatant shove in Joe Gomez’s back, just like VAR decided to, it was actually a very nice goal by Bournemouth and for a moment, you could see Liverpool’s knees wobble a little.
But, when you need to come from behind to get a win it helps if you are playing Howe’s side – one error led to Sadio Mane breaking away and playing in Mo Salah for the equaliser.
Ben Foster explains how Watford toppled Liverpool
In fairness, Mo’s goal had a ‘still a bit to do’ rating of 8.5 given how bad Mane’s actual pass was, but nevertheless Anfield took a massive collective sigh of relief when it went in – before dancing in sheer relief after Virgil van Dijk nicked it, passed it and watched as Mane tucked home the winner.
Is it too early to say that Sadio went and scored the most important goal of the season? Maybe.
At the end, the offside flag incorrectly raised might have spared Callum Wilson’s blushes as he fell over the ball with the goal gaping – though had he managed to stay on his feet like most players would have and score, VAR might well have given it.
So, the Anfield crisis is over and the lead went back to 25 points on Saturday night.
My main thoughts post-match, though, were around wistfully recalling the days where Liverpool fans sang about having the best two goalkeepers in the league.
Yeah, about that. I could have personally told you that Anthony Martial was going to score in the Manchester Derby given I logged into my Fantasy Football account for the first time in months and noticed he was on the bench instead of Ryan Fraser – naturally I reinstalled the moody-looking Frenchman but I missed the weekend deadline.
I’m just shocked he didn’t get a hat-trick against Pep’s lot.
That said, I would have also suggested that it was going to be David de Gea who made himself look like a bit of a plonker as Old Trafford – not Ederson – had you asked me to choose between the two goalkeepers.
Fred could feel a little hard done by for getting a yellow for ‘diving’ despite Nicolas Otamendi almost breaking the Brazilian’s shin pad, but that probably won’t bother Ole too much given United have done the double over their city rivals for the first time in a decade.
Carlo Ancelotti was hoping for a nice reception at Stamford Bridge and Frank Lampard’s Chelsea reminded Uncle Carlo of better times as they stormed past his Everton side 4-0.
Youngster Mason Mount blotted the veterans copybook as Pedro, Willian and, of course, Olivier Giroud were the masterminds behind Chelsea’s most convincing win of the season – what if Frank had picked the golden oldies more often, eh?
The win moved Chelsea five points ahead of Wolves in fifth place, who added to the lack of goal action on Saturday in their 0-0 draw with Brighton.
David Moyes is, apparently, keen on making the Carabao Cup a British Cup which is a curious call given West Ham’s ability to get beaten by League Two sides in it quite frequently – surely that would be even worse if Glentoran stuck one on the Hammers?
At the Emirates, Moyes will have come away wondering how his side had lost to Arsenal – despite the answer being very, very obvious.
They scored, David. You didn’t. And we all knew they’d scored, five minutes before VAR decided to give it.
VAR just love giving Southampton red cards. The last time the video ref upgraded a Southampton player from a yellow to a red was in that game against Leicester where they got done 9-0 after Ryan Bertrand got caught.
Luckily for Ralph this time, the Saints were only playing Newcastle and they’ve not scored nine in 2020, let alone in one match.
As we mentioned last week, Newcastle have stopped players shaking hands at the club and we can only presume that their lack of goalscoring threat is also to do with that.
Matt Ritchie took it one step too far though, missing his penalty and forcing Mike Ashley to revoke the contract extension Ritchie signed on Thursday.
Allan Saint-Maximin clearly didn’t get the message in the team’s WhatsApp group however, as he went rogue and scored the winner.
As Watford will have learned, there was little point in beating Liverpool (other than the unexpected three points, a historic day out and fans having something they can tell their grandkids) if they go and lose to Crystal Palace.
Believe it or not, Christian Benteke was involved in Palace’s winner, nabbing an assist.
Billy Sharp just loves scoring at the moment and his winner against Norwich was his third in four games.
Dean Henderson’s performance also led to even more people pointing out that we do have other options for Euro 2020 than Jordan ‘shouldn’t get Picked’ford.
What is the most Jose Mourinho thing you can possibly imagine? Go on, I’ll give you a moment.
Did you come up with going to Burnley and picking five central defenders? You didn’t? Well, he did. I kid you not.
Sean Dyche’s side, in a rare moment of being the more creative team on the pitch, battered Spurs at Turf Moor yet left with a 1-1 draw.
So, in a way, Jose was proven right – if, of course, we are going to judge Mou on how he gets on away to Burnley nowadays.
