The second coming, part 2

He has come again. God walks among us once more. But lucky for us, even God couldn't prevent Cardiff from going down 2-1 at Anfield last night with his heir delivering the fatal blow.



As expected, it was a fairly young team and we got to see some of the youngsters in action. Jack Hobbs, Charles Itandje, Nabil El Zhar, Seb Leto and Lucas all started. It was also notable in so far as two of our oft injured players got game time in Aurelio who started and Kewell who came on in the second half.

Hobbs did quite alright at the back and he did have Carra beside him, giving tips and bollickings if needed. Itandje made a couple of smart saves, notably from a Fowler free kick. Leto didn't have a great game. It's hard to know what to make of him. I've seem him play very well for the reserves on LFC TV but it doesn't look like he's ready for the step up to the first team yet, if ever. Lucas played very well in the middle beside Stevie but he did seem to tire towards the end and gave the ball away a few times. Up until then he had been superb. I think this lad can do a job for us in the Xabi role while we're waiting for the master to return from injury. El Zhar opened the scoring with a cracking strike from distance. It was a superb goal but again I don't think that he's ready for the step up to the first team. He still looks a bit lightweight.

Yossi cam on and did fantastically well to set up Stevie for the winner. I would like to see Yossi get more game time now that Pennant is out. He's an intelligent player who has pace, great control, good link up play and an eye for goal. He gives us something different to what we already have. I think that he's been underused so far but I'm hoping that will change now.

Blackburn away is going to be really tough. They are in great form at the moment having won their last few games. We have good domestic away form but this will be our toughest journey so far this season. The news that Bently and Mokoena should be out is good for us. It sounds like we won't have our spine of Agger, Xabi and Torres back for this one, in fact, it could be another two weeks before we see any of them. I wouldn't be surprised to see Momo start this game if he's recovered from his illness as Rafa likes him for these kind of games. I predict an away draw. A win would be great but I think Blackburn have enough to take 2 points from us.

Fordies had an interesting post last month saying that we are going to try and bring in three players next month. He reckons these are James McCarthy from Hamilton Academicals who we've been linked to before, John Cofie a young midfielder from Burnley and Samir Nasri from Marseille. He reckon that we've built up a good relationship with them after doing business over Cisse and Zenden. Nasri would be expensive, around £11m according to Fordies. I haven't seen much of this lad but he's destined for great things by all accounts.

Let's make Ewood park threewood park tomorrow. Sorry, that was terrible.

Honours even

Well well well. What a great game of football? In terms of the result, it could have been better but it could have been a lot worse. It wasn't the beating that many pundits had predicted we'd received. We led for most of the match and created a few good chances. But despite that, Arsenal were great at times and a draw was probably a fair result overall.

On the upside, Gerrard had another decent game following his display against Besiktas. Hopefully he can continue it over the next few games, god knows we're going to need him. He took his goal well and really hit the shot with some venom. His chance at the end was close and I think that he would have scored if Toure hadn't of blocked his shot.

The defence also performed well and seems to have bucked up a bit. Carra was back to his imperious best. He was throwing his body in front of the tackles and making vital interceptions. We still need Agger back as soon as possible but Jamie regaining his form should help to bridge that gap.

On the downside Torres and Xabi had to come off. This is really bad news. We're missing the spine of our team and it now seems like they'll be out for the next few weeks again. There doesn't seem to be a definite date on their returns yet but it sounds like it'll be three weeks at a minimum before Torres is ready as he has an abductor muscle injury. While it was a good match and we played well, we were at home and if we want to challenge we need to be winning these games at home.

The Carling Cup Cardiff match on Wednesday seems like a sideshow after yesterday. It'll be great to see Robbie back at Anfield if he plays for them. But I would imagine that we might see some of the younger players get a run out. Blackburn away on Sat will me a much tougher challenge I would imagine.

Until next time.