Proper football is back and so are Jim Boardman and Jay Reid with a new episode of Scouser Tommies from Liverpool. As always there is plenty to discuss where Premier League Champions Liverpool are concerned, and the all-too-brief leaders of the Anfield Index Fantasy Premier League are ready to chat all about it.
The Reds kicked off the new season with some Friday-night footy, chosen by TV to be the curtain-raiser, and after a long summer waiting to see the Champions in action again it was always going to be a special, under-the-floodlights Anfield occasion.
It was also the first league game since the tragic loss of Diogo Jota and his brother André Silva, and Anfield couldn’t have done more to pay tribute. As Jay points out, it wasn’t only Liverpool supporters – Bournemouth fans also rose to applaud on 20 minutes, also unveiling a special banner in honour of the brothers.
That respect was seen across the country. As Jim notes, there were impeccably observed silences all around the league – even at Old Trafford – with Chelsea players also making a point of showing their recognition. As the lads explain, it’s all too easy to confuse passion for your club with hatred for others, often stoked by both mainstream and social media. But just about every club had players affected by the devastating loss of Diogo and André, and it was genuinely heartening to see so much solidarity in football.
As for the game itself, it was a competitive Anfield debut for four of Liverpool’s new signings, Ekitike, Wirtz and two new full backs, Frimpong and Kerkes. It’s clearly early days for all four of the new boys, but it’s hard not to be excited at what they will bring. As Jay points out, they might have been told about how intense this league is, but Friday night was their first chance to really feel it and it was clear that they wouldn’t all last the course and Slot was cautious in how long he kept them all on the pitch.
Jay and Jim discuss all four goals, and the celebrations, but it wasn’t all one-way traffic. Ekitike scored his first Anfield league goal, Cody Gakpo gave Liverpool some breathing space with the second, and it looked like the job was going to be done with ease. Not the case - Bournemouth got a couple, thanks to Semenya, and two points could very easily have been dropped. Whilst half of that defence is new, and the other half is still getting back off its holidays, as Jim points out there is still clearly some work for the Reds’ boss to do in terms of how his players defend as a team, and how much risk they take in attack when already ahead in a game.
Sadly there was one person at Anfield who, for now we have to say allegedly, was not on the same page as the rest of us as he reportedly hurled racial abuse at Semenya. For Jim and Jay it is simply shocking that anyone thinks it is okay to come to a game at Anfield and act in that way, and that the strongest action has to be taken against anyone caught abusing a player - or anyone else - in this way at the match.
In the end Liverpool came away with all three points, Mo Salah picking up more records as he rounded off the scoring with the fourth, the Egyptian King staying on the pitch and emotionally applauding the Kop after full time.
Mo’s goal was really just the safety net for the win that Chiesa’s goal had pretty much guaranteed. He’s a player who has had little opportunity to show Reds fans what he can do, but who they’ve taken to their hearts from the off. For him to rescue the points for Liverpool on Friday was special, and if this season ends in another title that will be one of the moments that made it possible. Jay says it’s been a while since Anfield was lifted like that, but the finish itself reminded him of one from one very special player not too long ago.
Chiesa’s goal meant Anfield burst into a loud rendition of his song, one that first started to be heard in away concourses earlier in the year, one that had become louder and louder as the season drew to a close. By the time of the parade around Liverpool with the Premier League trophy, it was one of the loudest songs being sung. It’s a song the player has acknowledged his gratitude for, one that has been mentioned on TV before this season, one that is a celebration of a player that Reds fans have taken to heart the way Liverpool fans often take players to heart who aren’t first in the pecking order. Cult heroes and all that.
There has been some opposition voiced about that song - and a couple of lines in particular - this week. Yet, as Jay and Jim discuss, the opposition seems very sudden, completely out of the blue and, although everyone is entitled to an opinion, has completely missed the true sentiment behind it. The same song could be sung, with just a change of club and city, if Liverpool bag a certain striker before the window is out, for the exact same reasons Chiesa’s was created.
Meanwhile, across the park, and then across the city to the docks, it’s not been as good a start as they’d hoped. New stadium, new (old) manager, new signings, new owner, but have the old neighbours changed what they needed to change most of all?
