Priorities for Benayoun

Benayoun picked up a hamstring injury a couple of weeks ago and acknowledges that it still hurts him, yet he intends to play for Israel this Saturday. The odds are that he'll probably tear his hamstring again.

So what's at stake here, Israel qualifying for the World Cup next year or Liverpool's title run-in. Even if Israel qualify, it's not like they've got any chance of making much progress in the competition, whereas Liverpool have a very realistic chance of winning 2 trophies in the next 2 months.

In an interview with Sky News, Benayoun said that LFC objected to his playing on Saturday yet he feels it would be the biggest disappointment of his career to miss it. Given the likelihood of aggravating the injury and what's at stake, his decision seems a little surprising.

Yet another comprehensive victory for LFC

It was only a couple of weeks ago that everyone was writing off our chances of lifting the Premier League trophy. It's truly amazing what a difference a couple of games can make to our dreams. Destroying Manchester United (4-1) and now Aston Villa (5-0) has put a whole new complexion on the title race.

Everyone looks like they're enjoying their football which is reflected in the quality of play. Goals are being scored for fun and the Anfield faithful are giving standing ovations at half time. This is dreamland stuff for Liverpool fans and fingers crossed it will continue after the international break.

We're still relying on Manchester United to continue to make mistakes (Vidic and Rooney missing for a few games will help), and of course we must capitalise on those, but surely we've got a very realistic chance of coming good now.

Every single year we get Chelsea

It's getting a little tedious having to face Chelsea every year in the Champions League. 3 times in the semi's, once in the group stages, and now in the quarters. It's going to be a relatively tough draw, but we've got to fancy our chances of beating them yet again.

The semi-final will be a tough prospect with either Barcelona or Bayern Munich our opposition. But it would be kinda boring if we were just gifted a run to the final (which is pretty much what ManUre managed to land) and will make it all the more worthwhile if we do win.

Where's the juicy details of Rafas contract ?

Despite LFC's announcement that Rafa signed a contract extension until 2014, there was no mention made of whether he got all the things he was asking for. It's no secret that the sticking points in the contract talks concerned the amount of control which he would have over certain affairs at LFC.

To a lesser extent part of the problem centred around Rafa having more control over the running of the youth setup. Rafa has already hugely revitalised the youth setup, bringing in some exciting talents. Hopefully he'll now have more of a say in the running of it, and LFC can benefit from that in the future.

But the primary sticking point had to be in the transfer market and I wonder just how much control he will have now in the transfer market. Surely he must have been given some sort of assurances that he would be allowed determine a players value and actually buy the players he wants (within budget).

I can only assume he got what he wanted, otherwise I doubt he would have signed. It's great news that he's staying with us and hopefully it'll soon be followed up by a number of players commiting their futures to LFC also.

An awesome double over ManUre

Before the game, there's no way anyone could have possibility guessed that we were going to come from a goal behind to destroy ManUre 4-1. That's truly the stuff of dreams, not reality, and what makes it all the more sweeter was that we did this in their Theatre of Dreams and sealed the double over them.

The goals were beautiful, Torres equaliser was mind blowing, Gerrard scored an emphatic penalty, Aurelio's free kick was astonishing and left everyone flat footed, Dossena rounded it up with another goal in the dying minutes.

Absolutely everyone played brilliantly in their defensive and attacking duties. Reina, Carragher, Skrtel, Hyypia, Aurelio, Kuyt, Mascherano, Lucas, Riera, Gerrard and Torres, those are the names which will go down in history for this truly magical performance. The subs also did their bit.

Fingers crossed this emphatic victory keeps a faint glimmer of hope alive that we may win the Premier League this season. Of course the odds of that are excruciatingly unlikely, we're relying on ManUre to literally throw a few games, but why should we give up now.

Exposed: The Art of Kuyt

Kuyt has never really been one to extol the virtues of the beautiful game. Many love him for his hard working ethic, others loathe him for his lack of finesse or goal scoring prowess.

The Run of Play has conjured up an awesome and unique perspective on Kuyt. Click here to read this literary masterpiece. No prizes for guessing whether Rafa loves or loathes him.

Can you believe we thrashed Real Madrid 4-0 ?

The whole team deserves praise for the high tempo effort they put in, it was attacking football at it's best. The lads completely controlled the game throughout, and even if the penalty hadn't been unfairly awarded, winning the game seemed inevitable.

You'd nearly expect Torres to be somewhat slow and sluggish after coming back from injury. Torres it seems had other ideas and produced a virtuso performance for us with pace and skill in abundance, but it was his hunger and willingness to chase balls all over the park which really impressed.

Gerrard too, obviously deserves special mention not just for scoring a brace but also his all round play. It's obvious from the way he links up with Torres, that the two of them enjoy playing together and reinforces the 4-2-3-1 formation as clearly being our most effective formation.

It was an amazing and utterly enjoyable game to watch, yet performances like that make our inability to beat smaller teams in the Premier League all the more frustrating. It's obvious the lads are capable of turning it on, we just need them to do it more often. Here's hoping the confidence carries over.

Run of good form ends with a tear

Life must be tough for Benayoun, he has missed much of the season, yet in recent weeks found himself getting some games and even playing pretty well in them. Sadly the excitement of playing has proven too much for him and he's now the latest player to succumb to a tear in his hamstring.

Other notable absentees for the make or break games with Real Madrid and Manchester United are Arbeloa and Agger who are both still injured. Torres on the other hand stands a chance of being available, he faces a late fitness test today to see if that's hopefully possible.

The case for Insua and Riera on the left flank

While Aurelio is a more than useful full back, and poor Dossena is less than useful (in the Premier League anyway), Insua definitely has to be the future and possibly the present. The kid has got it all pace, skill, awareness, plus he can shoot and pass very well. When Insua is on the pitch, we tend to score more and concede less goals.

Statistics aren't the be all and end all for everything but they sure do paint some interesting pictures from time to time. Oh You Beauty has a rather interesting and well researched post on the case for using Insua and Riera on the left flank. Click here to see the cool post.

Game Over for LFC

Wow. That was really impressive (not). I can't even single out one player who played badly, as pretty much everyone played crap. Middlesbrough 2-0 Liverpool, doesn't make for a good result, and has pretty much sealed our Premier League fate.

Last week, I didn't want to write off our title chances until after we had played Manchester United, but I was counting on us winning a couple of games before then. The harsh reality is that too far behind them, and with too few games remaining, we've practically no chance of catching them now.