2019-2020 PL: Watford vs. Liverpool

(The Guardian) Preamble
--Hello and welcome to live coverage of Watford v Liverpool from Vicarage Road. Even allowing for the received wisdom that football is a funny old game, it would be seriously bizarre if Liverpool were denied their first title for 30 years because of a pandemic.

If the coronavirus does not end the season early, Liverpool need 12 points from their last 11 games to clinch their first Premier League title. They could still do it at Everton on 16 March, the third of those 11 games, should Manchester City drop points in the meantime. For the time being, their focus is on beating Watford and extending their lead to 25 points. Yawn, meh, 25 points.

Hang on, 25 points?! I’m not sure Liverpool are getting enough credit. You might not like them, you might think the Premier League is a bit naff, you might be sick of the sight of Jurgen Klopp’s teeth, but come on: they’ve won 35 of their last 36 league games FFS! That has never happened before in Europe’s biggest leagues. In fact, their record this season - P27 W26 D1 L0 - belongs in Sunday League football.

There is one difference. A team with 26 wins from 27 in Sunday League football would have a goal difference of around +200. Liverpool’s is a mere +47, and 13 of their 26 victories this season have been by a single goal – many of them requiring late winners. That might be the reason for the slightly muted response to win after win after win; it feels like Manchester City received more effusive praise two years ago when they regularly thumped teams by four or five.

I also think there’s an element of everyone - even Liverpool fans - struggling to get their head around such unprecedented threepointery. Or maybe the world is full of Expected Goals disciples. Liverpool are second in the xG table, although an Expected Win tonight will move them within two Expected Points of Manchester City.

I’d argue that Liverpool having to work so hard for many wius actually enhances rather than diminishes their achievement. The soundbites may be cheesy but they’re also true: Liverpool are mentality monsters, the toughest in English football for a long while.

Watford played well in a 2-0 defeat at Anfield in December, so you never know what might happen tonight. But 106 points from the last 108 available should give you a pretty good idea.

Kick off is at 5.30pm.

(The Guardian) “I don’t want to bore you with my whole train of thought,” says Mac Millings. “But I was going to do a Leap Year XI, and then the afternoon results came in, and Watford are playing Liverpool, and I ended up doing a Death one instead. Don’t worry, I’m fine, and everything is going to be fine:

--Pepe Reinacarnation
--Johnny Heavens
--Cemeterry Butcher
--Robert Huthanasia
--Gunnar Valhalle
--Death Johnson
--Johnny Met God
--Djibril Decissé
--St. Peter Crouch
--Purgatore André Flo
--Luis Boa Mortality.

St. Peter Crouch.....

.....we're close to kickoff; for Liverpool, the march to a title continues apace....

Time...for some football. liverpool scarf-1 liverpool scarf-1

....and we're underway from Vicarage Road....

(The Guardian) 5 min Deulofeu cuts infield from the left and hit a low shot that goes a few yards wide of the near post. Alisson had it covered.

(The Guardian) 8 min “Sitting in theology seminar reading MBM, hoping not to be caught,” writes YOU THERE I KNOW YOU’RE READING THE MBM ARE MY SEMINARS THAT BLOODY BORING. “But I don’t think the Reds need a prayer from me to spank Watford, god bless their yellow hearts. Onward Liverpool!!”

I think this will be a tough game for Liverpool, and they’ll win 3-1.