Well, but we bottled it big time today. Not often in the last few months we've had to say that, but that's what happened. Loads of players put in their worst performance for ages at the same time? Not a coincidence. Anfield has been a graveyard too many times for us in recent years, it feels like it's hanging over us. We looked inhibited from the start, never believed we'd win, and when it started to go wrong, we gave up. I'm sure tiredness didnt help, but that's no excuse.
Hard to know where to start with the poor performances. Keeper was repeatedly bypassed far too easily. Backline looked shaky as hell. Midfield never got a hold of the ball, and gave up when the going got tough. Front line made a few chances early on but failed to bury them when needed. Even ETH was off key today, his selection didn't work and we were 3-0 down before we made a change. Plenty of blame to go round.
That said, 7 goals from those chances was pretty freaky. If this had "only" finished 3-0 or 4-0 I'd have called that a more fair reflection. But when you stop trying, you give your opponents the confidence to start banging in goals every time they kick the ball.
Doesn't really derail our season, as long as we can draw a line under today as a bad day at the office and move on. We're still on course for top four, have a decent chance in two cup competitions and have one pot in the cupboard. But it's a huge reality check for us, and ends any talk of a title run. 16 goals conceded away to City, Liverpool and Arsenal show that we've another level entirely to find in these big games before we have a chance of stepping up.