Liverpool’s convincing home win against Aston Villa on Monday night has increased hopes at Anfield that the Reds could have a good Christmas period and make a charge up the table. The performances of the midfield pairing Lucas and Raul Meireles, and of strike duo Ryan Babel and David Ngog, particularly impressed, and Roy Hodgson has, for the first time in a long time, a selection headache about who to start against Newcastle later today. With Steven Gerrard shortly returning to full fitness too, Hodgson will have to consider whether he should break up the successful Meireles-Lucas midfield axis which has been essential in the Reds’ recent upsurge in form. Liverpool really need to get their away form sorted out if they have any pretensions of a Champions League place and today gives them a great opportunity against the Toon Army who have a new manager in Alan Pardew. This week’s blog posts have summed a more positive mood among Kopites, with Alex Hess praising our Brazilian midfielder in the “The Long-Awaited Blossoming of Lucas Leiva” while David Tyrer looks forward to Liverpool’s next 6 “winnable” matches in “18 points that could make or break our season.” Make sure also to check my article which I wrote in tandem with “The Busby Way” Editor Chudi Onwuazor assessing whether Lucas or Anderson is a better player. The only downer this week is the quite outrageous and ignorant article by Alex Beam of the Boston Globe. The article itself is shockingly ill-informed and disrepects the 96 people who lost their lives in 1989, make sure to look at the article written by fellow LFC site “This is Anfield.” Many thanks to David Tyrer, Mark Wilson, Elliott Tunstall, Alex Hess, Chudi Onwuazor and Joe Barnes for writing for the site this week. Have fun reading!