An objective summary of today

Or at least an attempt at one.

I love this club, and I'm gutted. Absolutely gutted. Today's game was painful and I think embarrassing is probably an appropriate word. The following is what I think went wrong.

Liverpool came out firing, we didn't. Well in fairness, we didn't really have the chance to. One mistake from Mertesacker and we find ourselves a goal down inside a minute. I thought in the immediate aftermath of that goal (I'm talking literally the next 2/3 minutes), I thought we responded well, dominating possession and we were nearly in when Cazorla fed Giroud, but the big man's lack of pace agility unfortunately let him down, as it did so often today. Then an ordinary set-piece, and a great header from Skrtel and suddenly we're 2-0 down after 5 mins.

Now when you go 2-0 down in 5 mins, psychology and momentum take over. We were demoralised, they we galvanised, and add the to the fact that they were at home, it was always likely that they would batter us for that next 10/15 minutes. And thanks to some shocking defending and great attacking play, they took 2 chances, and in hindsight that was game over. And then at 4-0, they can afford to put 10/11 men behind the ball, making it incredibly difficult for us.

Every single Liverpool player put in a great shift today, and I don't think a single one of our starting back 4 ranked higher than a 5/10, and Szczesny was disappointing with regards to the 4th goal. Giroud and Ozil were also well below par today.

So I would summarise this game as one team playing to pretty much their full potential, and another playing nowhere near it, for which Liverpool deserve credit. They were very impressive today. But I think it is also important to understand that momentum and the shock of going 2-0 down so early on played a big part today. I know that that is absolutely no excuse, it is just the way football works, but personally, I would be feeling far more dis-heartened if their 5 goals had been more evenly spread out, because you cannot cite momentum and shock as factors behind the goals. It also didn't help that the 1st goal was offside, but let's not dwell on that.

Today's defeat highlighted that there are still some major flaws within our side. Some players need to step up, others need to be more consistent. And we need to hit the ground running more often. The only positive I would take from today was Wilshere's performance.

We were also missing three key players today, let's not forget that. Walcott especially I feel could have made a real difference today.

We all know how good we are on our day. Let's not pretend that today was the end of our season, let's not start crying over the fact that Liverpool are a better team than us, because they're not, and let's certainly not call for the manager's head. Anyone who does that doesn't deserve the right to watch football.

Let's remember that we have suffered heavy defeats before, we will suffer them again. What's more important is how we bounce back. And fortunately, we have a chance to restore the morale with a big win against an old rival on wednesday, and a chance for some sweet revenge in front of our home crowd next sunday. We are still 2nd (at the moment), and only 1 point off the top. We are still in the CL and the FA cup. As SUPPORTERS, it is our duty now more than ever this season, to SUPPORT the team, and move on from this disastrous day at the office.