Of spilt milk and Klopp complacency
the second half but there was to be no Alamo, City were allowed to run down the clock and could have helped themselves to a couple more.
Even Mourinho acknowledged the title race is “probably” over as only Spurs among the other contenders didn’t drop points. And this is not even halfway through his second season, by which time he’s normally assembled the right ingredients and found the winning recipe.
Defensive solidity is his default setting but unless he switches to a more positive way of playing, patience could be about to run out among the faithful.
Indeed, there will be those asking whether he, himself, might be losing his touch.
Earlier, just 50 snow-splattered kilometres away, there was even more grumbling about a home manager. Jurgen Klopp’s decision to bench Roberto Firmino and Philippe Coutinho seemed like tempting fate beforehand: if it was rotation, it had spun off its axis by the end.
As often happens when the cavalry are belatedly called, it was too late, the opposition heels were already dug in and the late winner remained tantalisingly elusive.
And it was not just the Brazilian duo but Emre Can and Giorginio Wijnaldum, who were rested. It left a side devoid of its best creators to prise open a Sam Allardyce-drilled defence. And choosing Dominic Solanke over Firmino was to choose a donkey over a thoroughbread.
Liverpool should have been home and hosed but for a criminal piece of selfishness by Sadio Mane, but Klopp didn’t help by taking off none other than Mo Salah!
You don’t need to be an armchair Freud to feel that Klopp’s uncharacteristic rage over the penalty was in part anger at his own stupidity. He screwed up.
This is the Premier League, you’re facing Allardyce in a Merseyside derby. This column is a big fan of the German manager but for this stumble, he should blame no one but himself.
So much, then, for Super-derby Sunday or whatever they called it.
The appetizer was better than the mains, Southampton and Arsenal providing far more entertainment. Only four countries didn’t show the much-hyped evening and, in truth, they didn’t miss much.
• BOB’S latest book, Living the Dream (about British clubs meeting foreign billionaires) is currently on sale at Borders, MPH, Kinokuniya and Popular bookstores.