Football Daily isn’t suggesting standards at Chelsea have slipped in recent years, but the quality of their players who miss penalties in shootouts against Liverpool certainly appears to be on the slide. Before last night, footballing royalty such as Arjen Robben, Geremi, Tammy Abraham, César Azpilicueta, Mason Mount and even goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga had all missed from the spot in four consecutive post-match deciders against Liverpool across 19 years and four different competitions. On Wednesday, a flame-haired Argentinian irritant, a striker we’d never previously heard of before yesterday and a defensive liability whose boots increasingly look to have been welded on to the wrong feet each added their names to the roll of shame. Valentín Barco, Emanuel Emegha and Wesley Fofana, take a collective bow.
The reaction when Fleetwood made the final penalty was the best example I’ve ever seen of pandemonium! – Jim Geissman
A few random thoughts from one of the Wednesday fans who saw Harry Kane’s first goal at Orient (Tuesday’s Football Daily). Main after match conversation topics were how we’d shipped four goals in the second half, our new signing Gary Madine, and those people on the balconies of the new flats who watched the game for free. Without cameras I’d have no recall of Harry Kane’s goal but funnily enough I do genuinely remember Dean Cox having a very good game. We’ve talked about it loads since, but I don’t think any of us at the time thought Kane stood out in that game. Which just goes to show. A thoroughly deserved award for a career of consistent & often under-appreciated excellence. And what a superb motto: “Work in silence. Let success be your voice” – Alan.
The Friedkin Group want to sell and squad investment has dried up but Carabao Cup is still an opportunity for silverware
A European challenge plus a concerted effort to end a trophy drought that will soon stretch into a 32nd year were Everton’s stated aims for this season, although that was before the club’s owners turned the taps off in the transfer market and announced they were looking to sell up. An abrupt change of direction and ambition from The Friedkin Group (TFG) has not altered the demands on David Moyes, however. It is as you were for the Everton manager, regardless of the tools at his disposal.
Newcastle’s visit to Hill Dickinson Stadium in the Carabao Cup fourth round on Thursday – when they will be backed by 7,732 fans after Everton allocated their opponents 15% of the ground – is timely on several counts. It is, first and foremost, an opportunity for Moyes’s team to advance in a competition that Everton have never won and edge closer to realising one stated aim for the campaign. It is also a chance to restore positivity after consecutive defeats against Chelsea and Arsenal, Everton’s only losses of the season.
Chelsea must have been resigned to their fate as soon as the shootout arrived at Anfield. Four times they had faced Liverpool on penalties previously and four times they had lost. Number five was confirmed when Wesley Fofana’s wild effort sailed high into the Kop and sent Andoni Iraola’s side into a Carabao Cup quarter-final against his old club Bournemouth.
Fofana was not the only culprit as Chelsea’s catalogue of penalty misery against Liverpool gained a new chapter alongside the 2007 Champions League semi-final, the 2019 Uefa Super Cup final and the FA and League Cup finals of 2022.
Basque pals Andoni and Xabi embrace warmly … but so much for friendship, because Chelsea turn Liverpool around, so the home side are kicking towards the Kop in this first half. They’re not huge fans of that. They kick off.
The teams are out! Liverpool in red, Chelsea in blue. These lads always look good when they play each other. We’ll be off in a couple of minutes!
Teenager was maybe harshly sent off in the Carabao Cup tie but his reaction was a mistake he will learn from, while his manager might also have regrets
Mikel Arteta’s reaction said it all. As Max Dowman trudged towards the touchline after becoming the youngest player sent off in a League Cup match at 16 years and 300 days, the Arsenal manager could not help himself.
Arms folded across his chest like an angry father who has caught his teenage son sneaking in after midnight, Arteta leaned over and aimed a few choice words in Dowman’s direction before the forward headed sheepishly down the tunnel. What he said remains unknown, although that hasn’t stopped the amateur lip-readers speculating on social media. “Get in the changing room. Now,” appears the most likely guess.
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