Round two: deja vu

What odds on Tuesday night being another 1-1 to complete the hat trick of score draw score lines? This one started slowly. We played well enough in the first half and created some good chances. Crouch made a few for himself and others before putting away from outside the area, just before half time. Even if he does leave this summer, he's made a contribution when he has come in this year. We had to soak up some pressure in the second half but Bendtner was able to rise above the defence and head home from a free just before the hour mark. Pennant had stupidly given away a needless free and was subbed soon after. I think that he's been fairly poor this year and I wouldn't be surprised or sad to see him leave in the summer. Finnan came back in defence and did well as did Arbeloa on the other side.

Rafa's got to be the happier manager after that. He made 8 changes beforehand, with only Pepe, Carra and Skrtel surviving the cull and we still managed to get a draw away from home. Wenger made less changes so won't have as fresh a team on Tuesday night. Some of the players, like Fabregas looked tired both midweek and in this match. This should help us on Tue, especially were it to go to extra time. Wenger didn't look happy at all on the sidelines.At one point, it looked like he was so frustrated that his head might explode. I hope it's the same situation at Anfield.

Rafa and I agree that it was an impressive debut from the boy Plessis. The Guardian match report gave him the mana of the match award. Maybe Plessis is why Rafa was willing to let Momo leave at Christmas.

Souness was full of praise for Crouch after the match. Eamonn Dunphy interviewed Souness on his RTE Radio 1 programme last week. I have more time for him after hearing it.

In our defensive foursome, he's absolutely awesome. Sami signed a new deal this week which is good news. I think that his displays this season have merited his one year extension. At times he was our best defender despite his advancing years. I hope that he joins the coaching staff when he hangs up his boots. He has a lot of knowledge that he could pass onto the kids. Red legend.

David Fairclough was on Today FM radio here in Ireland confirming what I'd heard before about the Mascherano deal. He said that the £17m transfer fee quoted is a red herring as deal includes wages over the duration of the contract. This tallies with info I've read on forums. Good news.

This report says that Arsenal and us are battling it out again but the target this time is Ricardo Quaresma of Porto. He may be available to £5m if they are convicted of match fixing. Could be what we need for the right sided attacking role.

Various papers are saying that we have a deal agreed to buy Rafinha from Shalke for £6m. I think that this has a good chance of going through. He looked good form what little I saw of the barca champions league match last week.

Toffees get the blues

Well it wasn't a classic, unlike this derby a few years back. Jocky Hansen was impressed with our performance and disappointed with Everton. I thought they didn't create anything of note. Even though we didn't improve on our one goal lead, it proved enough as Everton were at nothing. So no chance of a trip to the grand national from Moyes for them so.

I thought that Sami and "Slovak hero Martin Skrtel" were superb at the back and coped well with Yakubu or "the Yak" as a cringe inducing Andy Grey kept calling him. Lucas came in for the suspended Masch and did alright. He hit some nice passes and linked play well but gave it a away a few times and was also caught in possession and out muscled at time. He definitely needs a weights programme this summer to beef himself up. Torres was a threat as always. Gerrard supported him well and the two of them gave Everton no end of problems.

Stevie thinks that we should have scored more. Rafa wasn't happy with the abuse that he got from the bitters. It was great to see him answer them with a great performance and he was unlucky to see a first half shot from distance come back off the post with Howard beaten all ends up.

It turns out that moany Moyes is a Torres fan and who would blame him? He said: "It was like playing against two men at times in the first half because of the way he occupied our centre-halves." Moyes was saying that he loves the Derbies beforehand. I wonder if he feels the same way now? 6 points from the two matches for us this season.

So now it's time for the Arsenal tripple bill. We'll be sick of the sight of them by the end of next week after this. If I had to predict the outcomes I would say that we'll get through in the champions league but they'll beat us in the league. In the other matches I fully expect Barcelona, Chelsea and Utd to go through.

The news that Sami is likely to sign a new deal comes as a relief. While there's no doubt that we've badly missed Dagger this season, Sami has stepped in and performed much better than I had expected him to.

George Gillett did a radio interview in Canada which was covered by the Liverpool Echo. You can listen to it here.

Ballague in the Times has an interview with his mate Rafa. Worth a read. And this blog about Raf's spending breaks down his transfers in and out. Not as much spent as some might think.

Rafa says that the summer's transfer business has already begun. He's got agreements for two young players and a senior player who will go into the starting XI. The Mail on Sunday speculate that the senior player is Rafinha from Shalke. He'd be a great signing in my view. We've also been linked with a young Croat midfielder called Rakitic at the same club.