And anyway, we need to set all thoughts of that aside, and concentrate on what is still, by contrast, very much a live issue: our position in the top four. We’re operating in a bubble now. No other consequences matter – only points. Three more tonight, let’s hope. Third place, after all, has begun to look highly achievable.
On the subject of awards, by the way, we already have a contender for ‘Best Stat of the Restart Period’. I know we’re all finding ways to make this period as interesting as we can, but the BBC website really went the extra mile in that department by carefully pointing out that, during West Ham’s game against Tottenham, ‘Tomas Soucek became the fourth Czech player to score a Premier League own goal.’
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And accordingly, by extension, a few among us would no doubt argue that there were consolations readily available to us in the event that City (eight goals and six points in their two post-lockdown fixtures so far) spend the evening continuing as they started.
Let’s not even go there. For one thing, it’s over. The destination of the league title is unfortunately, as it has been since February, a flat and foregone conclusion. Fun though it was, after the utter blankness of the Merseyside derby (and one has had glasses of water that were more memorable than that particular Project Restart football match) to entertain the possibility that Liverpool might yet embark upon a nine-game choke (Project No Start), it was always too big an ask. Or rather too big a choke. Not even Devon Loch would have lost the league from this position.
And anyway, we need to set all thoughts of that aside, and concentrate on what is still, by contrast, very much a live issue: our position in the top four. We’re operating in a bubble now. No other consequences matter – only points. Three more tonight, let’s hope. Third place, after all, has begun to look highly achievable.
On the subject of awards, by the way, we already have a contender for ‘Best Stat of the Restart Period’. I know we’re all finding ways to make this period as interesting as we can, but the BBC website really went the extra mile in that department by carefully pointing out that, during West Ham’s game against Tottenham, ‘Tomas Soucek became the fourth Czech player to score a Premier League own goal.’
