City stalemate

A most unremarkable match, all things considered. I feared that our league season might go out with a damp squib rather than a bang and that now appears to be the case. Given that Bolton failed to beat Arsenal yesterday it looks like the top four will remain as is and all qualify for the champions league. Whether we finish third or fourth isn't going to make a hige ammount of difference in the long run. Both spots mean that you have to pre qualify for the group stages and the champsions league TV money for each spot is 15% of the total for England.

I was surprised that Crouch didn't start given his recent good form. When he did come on, it was a bit late to make much of an impact. Kuyt did ok and put in a hard shift as usual, but didn't threaten that much. Pennant had a good first half but I feel he might have done better with Crouch to aim his crosses at. He had the beating of the left back Ball and gave him a torrid time. Roose didn't offer as much on the left and maybe Gonzalez would have been a better bet to try and stretch the game with his pace. Mascherano had another good game doign what he does best.

Anfield will entertain Boro on Wed night. Boro aren't a particularly entertaining team and I could see them being happy with a point away from home and playing a defensive 4-5-1. Given that we don't seem to be pushing ourselves in the league, with one eye on Chelsea in europe, we can expect another dour 0-0.

Tomorrow sees the first leg of the FA youth cup final between us and Utd. It would be amazing if we coudl retain the trophy, becomign the first club to do so. Doing it against the mancs would even more special. I would like to see Ryan Flynn do well as I met his dad before in Liverpool.

Lots of transfer rumours doing the rounds, as usual. We've been linked with Eto'o again and he might be up for the deal. He's been making a lot of favourable comments about us recently but it's still unlikely that he'd want to swap Barcelona for Liverpool. Plus he would cost a fortune and I don't know if Rafa would be willing to spend that much on one player. I think Barca may sell one of Ronaldinho/Eto'o, but not both. Alves continues to be linked and I do think that we'll make a serious effort to get him this summer. Ribery has been liked to us a lot and would do a good job on the left in my view. But it's probably more likely that he'll go to Arsenal.

Enjoy the sunshine and the remainder of the weekend.