Let’s start with the triumph, the big match of the day yesterday, Liverpool Vs Manchester United at Anfield. Rafa Benitez finally broke his duck against Manchester United registering his first win against their midlands rivals since taking over from Gerrard Houllier. United’s new signing Dimitar Berbatov made an immediate impact laying the ball back for Carlos Tevez to sidefoot home in the third minute. The equaliser was rather fortuitous for Liverpool to say the least but us Liverpool fans will take it. Edwin van der Sar could only punch Xabi Alonso’s shot into Wes Brown which bobbled into the back of the United net to the level the scores. The game was decided in the 77th minute by substitute Ryan Bable who was picked out by Dirk Kuyt in free space letting off a shot from 12 yards to give the home team all three points. Liverpool moved to the top of the table briefly until the Chelsea result came in dropping The Reds back to second on goal difference, but it’s been the best start to a Liverpool campaign for many years so I am very happy and beating the old rivals has made this season all the sweeter. And I have gloating rights against my United supporting friends who were claiming ‘three easy points’ before a ball was kicked in anger!
Now for the disappointment, Plymouth Argyle slumped to bottom of the Championship after losing 2 – 1 against Norwich at Home Park. The Pilgrims are still to win a game at home this season with two losses and one draw. The game was being billed as the battle of the new strikers Antoine Sibierski for Norwich and Emile Mpenza for Plymouth but Mpenza didn’t make an appearance until half way through the second half so the fans that made the effort to go to the game didn’t really get to see if Mpenza lived upto the hype. But his counterpart Sibierski was instrumental in the win for Norwich setting up Arturo Lupoli for the first goal and finding the back of the net himself for the second. I believe that Sturrock is tactically naive in the Championship, why make two big money signings and not have them feature in the starting line up? This is the worst start to a Championship season for the Pilgrims since getting promoted, Sturrock needs to turn this around ASAP or Plymouth could find themselves adrift at the bottom on the table and the only way is down. But I guess for now, the only way is up, we can’t drop any further at this stage of the season. Argle need a few wins on the bounce to get themselves back into contention. But sadly at this time I can’t see where it is coming from with Sturrock steering the ship! last season many people were saying that the Sturrock/Stapleton combination was bad for Argyle and it seems that they were right and I was naive to believe in Sturrock. Plymouth have become a selling club, and as much as it pains me to say it, Ian Holloway was right about the club!