www.Go To The Mountain - Musings of a Potential Guru

Liverpool are leading Manchester City by a single point after they played a boring goalless draw at Old Trafford again missing out capitalising on the the opportunity. Manchester United parked a bus and were poor. So too Liverpool who despite United strangely having three players injured by half-time. The Reds should have up the ante to win but were toothless despite dominating possession. Last season, Liverpool had the most feared attack not only in England but probably Europe but their defence sucked. This season they have a more than solid defence but changed the way they play and their attacking game has suffered. That balance is not right and they have become predictable. Allison showed once again his worth with his one-handed strong left arm to stop Jesse Lingard who could have scored. Virgil van Dijk is just priceless as he was once again calmness personified. He could never be rushed and always unruffled.  Liverpool also made their Champions League...

Gordon Banks I never really followed soccer till secondary school. It was a soccer crazy school and Singapore was playing in the Malaysia Cup. The only soccer we had were on TV was an hour of weekly highlights of the previous week's matches of the old English First Division  and everything was in black and white.  All we heard about were the legends of the games. One of our teachers Mr. Harry Lim was also our school soccer team's coach and he was a very passionate fan of the game we fondly called football. In between teaching or after completing what he has to teach, he would surely talk about the previous week's Malaysia Cup match especially about how good Quah Kim Song was. Sometimes, he would share with us about Bobby Charlton and yes, Gordan Banks. Even people who aren't really soccer fans knew how Charlton and Banks were. In 1974, the World Cup soccer was held in the then West Germany. This was the year that colour television was introduced to Singapore wh...

Tottenham moved up to second albeit temporarily as Newcastle could not repeat their great feat of defeating City a week ago. Brighton and Watford played to a predictable, boring draw. I shall coined it a 'braw' which is a boring draw. Burnley rescued a point with a 90+4 minutes penalty against Southampton. Crystal Palace defeated Fulham whose great effort last week against Brighton has come to nought. Chelsea crushed badly by Bournemouth a match ago bounced back to 4th with great conviction crushing Huddersfiled. Everton were humiliated at  home by Wolves while Cardiff shocked Bournemouth who were so brilliant against Chelsea in their previous match. Solsjkaer and the Red  Lucky Devils had their unbeaten run extended with an away win at Leicester and Manchester City piled on the pressure on Liverpool when they had Arsenal beaten to 5th place ( now behind United by a point). Liverpool did not capitalised when they were held to cons...

There was a huge upset in game week 24 when Newcastle United led by former Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez did the improbable bey beating Champions Manchester City at St. James Park (2-1). This has huge implication on the title race but Liverpool did not make full use of the advantage as they were held 1-1 at Anfield by Leicester who played a good game. This means that Liverpool up just a point more to lead by five. With 14 matches left, it is still anybody's game. This may go down to the wire.  Tottenham v Newcastle - Tottenham are having many key players missing through injury and morale are not at the usual high as they slumped to a 0-2 defeat by Crystal Palace in the F.A. Cup but bounced back with a 2-1 win over Watford keeping them in third place and seven points ahead of fourth.  Meanwhile, the Magpies did Liverpool a big favour with an unlikely upset of Manchester City (2-1). This is a big result for the Magpies who are now five points clear from the relegation zone. De...

Last week, there has been no changes as Liverpool leads City by four points. Tottenham are five behind City, Chelsea four behind Tottenham and Arsenal three behind Chelsea. Manchester United are level with Arsenal on goal difference. The bottom three are Cardiff, Fulham and Huddersfield. Liverpool had a scare at home by giant-killers Crystal Palace but recovered strongly to win. Like Liverpool, City had a poor first half but still cruised to a win. Tottenham too suffered a scare but won at the very last minute. Chelsea got soundly beaten by Arsenal and it was rather unusual for both their play. Manchester United are in Seventh Heaven with their seventh win.  Huddersfield put on a good fight but still crumbled as they are short everywhere, Fulham took the game gallantly to Tottenham and lost narrowly. Finally, Caridff  were soundly spanked by Newcastle. There are fifteen matches more to go so nothing has been won or lost by any team yet. Y...

Liverpool consolidated their position as leaders at the top with a hard fought 1-0 win away at Brighton. Winning on no very good days are common.  Not a lot of teams win on average days and even fewer could win on bad days but winning on bad days is the hallmark of champions. The Reds game has changed from swashbuckling to very controlled ones. If they could win every game or match their closest rivals on results then they are the champions.  City are an incredible team who will snuff you out the moment you slip. They will do their own things and inch upwards just to pounce when Liverpool slips. Tottenham's home defeat to Manchester United were unfortunate despite an awesome attacking display in the second half where De Gea single-handedly made like ten critical saves to keep the Red Devils alive leaving Spurs in third.  Chelsea's 2-1 win over Newcastle brought them to a point behind Spurs while Arsenal's away loss to West Ham kept them six points from Chelsea in fif...

Liverpool have lost to Manchester City and now holds only a four-point lead at the top. They have won nothing yet until the end of the season. Sometimes a defeat can lead to more. SO what are they made of? We shall know soon. The win will deflate morale a bit for the Reds and inflate somewhat for the Sky Blues of Manchester but more is to come as the games come by. On the game itself, City were brave and solid but Liverpool have the slightest dominance n possession, It was a game of the finest margin as expected. Mane hit a post and the ball bounced out, Sane hit a post and the ball went in. The rebound from Mane's shot resulted in a bumbling clearance from John Stones that hit Ederson and went back towards goal. It was a goal if you saw it from TV or any other angle but goal-line technology aka VAR said no goal. It was ruled that the ball was 1.1cm away from goal. In their words, the whole ball must cross the line. Liverpool had their chances but didn't convert. City did. R...