Charanjit Chana

Real Madrid were dealt with quite nicely over in Spain. My friends went to watch the game and I was really happy that they saw a victory as with Real, you never really knew who would turn up! I felt we showed them way too much respect though. We let them have the ball and do as they wish. They didn't punish us, but with the amount of possession they had, they really should have.

Two weeks later, Liverpool were running riot. 4-0 at Anfield. Fantastic. Some 4 days later and we'd scored another 4! The league leaders were poor. Embarrassing even and to top of a good two weeks, Benitez has committed himself to leading the club for another 5 years.

Fantastic! :)

Oh, and here is a gem of a link. Anfield on Google's Streetview!

Until it's mathematically impossible, there's no point conceding the title but Saturday's infuriating result against Middlesborough is another unwelcome hitch in our season.

I have constantly stated to friends that I see United loosing more games, and considering we had lost fewer games (same scenario as last season) there was always some hope. Off course, we may still end up loosing fewer games than they will but we have drawn too many. At least 6 of our draws should have been victories.

The Champions League now has a lot more importance in our season. Having been top at Christmas, I am sure nearly every Liverpool fan was eager to see our impressive run continue, but unfortunately it ended soon after.

With Rick Parry leaving the club at the end of the season, Rafa may get his wish and total control of transfers from in and out of the club. I am a little worried that he will hit even more walls with the owners as they will look to enforce a budget that Rafa deems insufficient, but let's hope that it works out better than that.

Liverpool have drawn too many times. Way to many. A similar thing happened last season, but it was an encouraging sign of progress as we began to draw matches we were loosing the season before.

With Torres back, I'm sure we'll have that little bit extra fire power needed to push us on, but draws are no longer acceptable.

One of the biggest annoyances of this season has been Liverpool's habbit of drawing. Two seasons ago those games would have probably have ended in defeat and we were able to turn the loss of 3 points into the loss of 2. A much better position to be in. Had we won half the games we drew last season, we probably would have topped the league, but alas, it wasn't meant to be.

Last season's habbits seem to be creeping back into the side, but convincing victories over Bolton and Newcastle have silenced some of the critics.

The biggest annoyance though, is the analysis of Liverpool's position and points total. We're top. Clear by 3 points. All the press want to focus on are the dropped points. Now, the other 'big 3' have all lost and drawn more matches than we have. If they hadn't they'd be ahead of us, rather than playing catch up.

When Liverpool were second and the players had a chance to go first, we fluffed it and were duly criticised. Chelsea have the same chance against Everton and after throwing away a perfect opportunity to open up a gap of their own the press didn't talk nearly as much as they did about Liverpool.

Truth be told, being top and being criticised is a great position because things should really only get better. Benitez has said we're only at 80% and we are still missing important players. Torres obviously, but Mascherano and Lucas are performing well after the Olympics, Arbeloa has missed a few games and Robbie Keane doesn't always start.

If this was offered to me at the start of the year, I'd have taken it so we are perfectly placed going into 2009.

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Prior to Monday night's game against West Ham at Anfield, Liverpool's fans in the KOP gave a message of support for Liverpool fan Michael Shields.

Shields was wrongly convicted and jailed abroad, details of which can be found on his family's campaign website.

I want to really talk about the actions of the FA over the last 24/48 hours. Ipswich's David Norris was charged by the FA for showing support for his jailed colleague. In his case, the colleague in question was responsible for death by dangerous driving and does not deserve, in my opinion, any public support. He was completely responsible for his actions and got what he deserved. Unfortunately for Michael Shields, as well as protesting his innocence, the real perpetrator has actually made himself known, signed a confession and said to the Bulgarian authorities that he will take the punishment he deserves, only to be ignored.

As a Liverpool fan, I could easily be called biased, but if an Everton or Man Utd fan had wrongly been jailed, I would expect the clubs to take a similar approach. Liverpool have actually done this before, just not before a televised game to my knowledge, so why the FA are getting their knickers in a twist is beyond me. Liverpool's official site was actually asking for volunteers to help lay out the cards in the KOP a few days before the event, so even though the club didn't ask the FA, it was information that was publicly available.

Had Liverpool been in contact with the FA, it's pretty clear that they would have been unhappy with the prospect of a club showing interest in a slightly controversial topic.

On Thursday, the case may take another step forward and I sincerely hope it does.

I for one am glad that Liverpool Football Club, the players, staff and the fans took the time to acknowledge the situation and to show some support and I am nothing but honoured to call myself a fan.

If you have the time, please visit the website and see if you can help.

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The frustration amongst Liverpool fans is obvious and understandable. The problem we had last year was the inability to turn draws into wins and just generally take our chances. Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard did their share, but not many others put the ball in the back of the net often enough.

Without Torres for much of the first 15 league games, the side was still wasting chances but grinding out wins, the 0-0 against Stoke a rare blip it seemed. Since the defeat at Tottenham, we've experienced a couple more 0-0 draws at home and it is these results that make it difficult to see the title coming home.

It is essential that the lads begin to take their chances. Torres could well be out until the new year, and would be if I had my way so that his hamstring would have a chance of healing completely, so Keane, Kuyt and the others all need to take their chances. I was certain that Keane would have had a few more by now, especially after seeing his first two goals at Anfield close up!

Ryan Babbel has been crying out for a starting place, despite being ineffective against Spurs in the League Cup, and it may be time to give him a chance up front. Alongside a clever player like Robbie Keane, he could well be a player that gets us a few goals. He has pace to burn and generally makes good movement and isn't scared to take players on.

Robbie Keane continues to get himself into good positions so we may even see the fruits of his labour sooner rather than later. 90 minutes might do him good too.

I had a blast this past Saturday. After taking my sweet time getting out of bed and out of the house, we made our way up to Liverpool around 10.30am. I tested out the possibility of twittering with my mobile so that I could micro-blog throughout the day.

The first part of our journey was pretty easy, making a stop just before Birmingham. We didn't stop again until we were maybe 70 miles from Liverpool. The Roadchef services we visited was a little shit to say the least, but I just needed to stretch my legs. I checked in with the friend I was meeting there and once we knew where he was, we made the rest of our journey. It wasn't too long after we left the motorway that we found ourselves looking at the slightly visible roof of Anfield from less than a mile away.

After parking up, we made our way up Anfield road and were soon outside Anfield.

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I admit it's not the most exciting hobby, but I do like to buy football (soccer) shirts. As well as defining my fashion sense during my college and university days (and a lot of my evenings), they provide a sense of history.

A lot of clubs might experience a short burst of success, be on the brink or dominate regularly and owning a shirt from that era is a nice way to recognize their achievements.

As a Liverpool fan, I'm almost duty bound to buy their home kit every two years. My fiancé and sister have one (courtesy of me) and I own around 15 shirts from other nations and teams.

Among them are kits for AS Roma, India, Brasil, Italy, Spain, PSG, Real Madrid and Barcelona.

One thing I have yet to do, and would love to, is buy kits with even more meaning. So far I have a Brasil kit which actually means quite a bit to me because of it's limited edition nature and features. It has the World Cup final venue from 2004 embroidered onto it. It also features a 5th star, but under the confederations badge, rather than on top like their post 2004 final shirts feature. Small details, but things I like.

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Got them today and super duper excited about it! :)

Chelsea were not at their best, but I didn't ever really see Liverpool reach their peak. Alonso's goal had a touch of fortune about it, but with an effort tipped over the bar from Gerrard and an Alonso free kick coming back of the post, I don't think anyone could argue that Liverpool had the better chances and were well worth their lead and victory.

Off course, Mourinho would have argued that they were cheated in some way, but Scolari and Benitez had little to say about each other and so much to say about the result, just the way it should be.

The result puts the Reds clear at the very top of the league, and awesome place to be after you've beaten two major rivals early on in the season.

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