The final scene of the phenomenal HBO drama ‘True Detective’ sees Woody Harrelson’s character – Marty Hart – utter that sentence with a resigned, pessimistic tone as he looks up at the Louisiana night sky.
As Chelsea left Anfield with a smash and grab three points on Sunday afternoon, those words sprung immediately to mind. In a footballing sense, darkness had indeed overwhelmed the light. A back hole had swallowed a star, if you will. The team that has has lit up the Premier League with their 96 goals and vibrant attacking style was shut down by a nine man defensive wall of pure footballing existentialism. As a result, the destination of the Premier League title no longer resides in Liverpool’s hands. That prize is now Manchester City’s to lose.
First though, we must discuss Chelsea.
Much will be made of how Jose Mourinho’s team went about obtaining their 2-0 victory. The opinions will vary widely. Some will condemn Chelsea’s approach as ‘anti-football’ and lament their laborious time wasting and steadfast dedication to simply stifling Liverpool while trusting to the hope of Rory Delap style long throw ins from the excellent Cesar Azpilicueta. Others will proclaim the performance a ‘Mourinho Masterclass’™. Such is the nature of football and how it can be interpreted.
Wherever your opinion falls on this particular spectrum, the outcome cannot be disputed.
Chelsea won. Liverpool lost.
Across social media, frustration, despair and anger predictably spilled from Reds fans at the final whistle. Yet inside the ground, that most wonderful football ground, the reaction was more appropriate and reasoned. ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ rang out when Willian sealed Liverpool’s fate. It usually does at such moments. Perspective is required and, thankfully, it was evident as the final whistle blew in L4.
Perspective.
It is important to remember that Liverpool shouldn’t really be here. And yet, here they are. Top of the table. In April. Here on merit. On May 11th they will be where they deserve to be, too. The worst case scenario in a fortnight’s time for Brendan Rodgers’ team is a third place finish and guaranteed Champions League football next term.
But who wants to talk about worst case scenarios?
If Liverpool can win their last two games then no team will finish with more points than them. Not Manchester City. They can only match the Reds’ maximum available points total regardless of their eye watering transfer fees, outrageous wage bill and squad as deep as the Atlantic Ocean. Not Chelsea either. Despite this victory, Roman Abramovich’s club can’t finish above Liverpool if the Reds manage to secure even four of those six remaining points on offer.
He may have sprinted down the Anfield touchline like a madman in yet another moment of spotlight seeking, but should Jose Mourinho’s former protege finish above him in the Premier League table, then the Portuguese will take ultimately little solace from this victory. If that comes to pass then ‘The Special One’ will internally view his domestic season as a failure, regardless of what he says to the contrary.
Ah, what he says.
Off the field, Mourinho is the master of narrative. Certainly in this country. Nine years on, he still moans about Luis Garcia’s ‘ghost goal’ in his press conferences. He does so safe in the knowledge that he won’t be reminded of the fact that, had that goal not been awarded, then his side would have been down to ten men and facing a penalty. He can also cheekily ask the press ‘what is time wasting?’ and ‘what is defensive football?’ in the wake of this performance at Anfield which – rightly or wrongly – was indisputably defined by both. He knows he can ask such questions without being pulled up on the fact that he has bemoaned the same such techniques this season when he has been on the receiving end of them. His hypocrisy is rarely challenged.
As Pep Guardiola astutely and forcibly declared during his time as Barcelona manager, ‘In here (the press room) Mourinho is the fucking man.’
Indeed he is. And good for him.
Whatever myopic spin he wishes to stamp on top of it, his side earned a victory at Anfield. That deserves respect.
And yet, in spite of their victory on Sunday, Chelsea remain third favourites in a three horse race while the Reds require just two more victories and a solitary slip from Manchester City to clinch the Premier League crown. Nobody really thought that possible at the beginning of the season. Not even the most wildly optimistic Liverpool supporter.
The mention of optimism brings us neatly back to that final scene from True Detective.
After Marty Hart speaks of the overwhelming darkness in the night sky, his partner Rust Cohle offers a more positive and encouraging perspective to play the series out.
His words should serve as a neat reminder to any deflated Liverpool fan of just how far their team has progressed this season and, crucially, where they can still go.
‘You’re looking at it wrong, Marty. Once there was only dark. If you ask me the light is winning.’
Selhurst Park. Monday night. Liverpool go again.
Mourinho with his usual mind games and deceit (cheating), chelsea parked the bus, we made two mistakes and gave it to them, i have no complaints.
Hopefully Everton will show true class and profesionalism and get a draw or defeat Abu Dhabi Mercenary City as they are more than capable, and hopefully we can win the last 2 games to deservedly win the title.
What a well written article. Thank you Dave. The darkness will lift further if you continue to write articles like this.
I agree with everything you say and would like to add this.
Winning the league this year will be wonderful but I fear for next year if this happens. Will there be the same push for glory from the likes of Gerrard and Suarez if we are crowned champions? Nobody can deny we have come a long way since Christmas 2012 but we have much further to go yet. The hunger of a possible near miss this year could help drive the young Reds to improve and work harder. This is necessary if this team, with all its potential, is to achieve greatness.
We don’t need to add much as 14 of our players are good enough to win the league. Yes changes will come, players will be culled and others added, but what this team needs more than anything is to learn, improve and become more accustomed to each other. It is too early for greatness, I think, we can be better this. Let’s hope the upward trajectory continues next year and the golden sky prevails.
Jose’s reaction at the end shows just how threatened he feels by Brendan. The result doesn’t change that and by the end of the season may well be an irrelevance.
I think mourinho didn’t know any other way 2 beat his student and was actually embarrassed cos he knew wat the outcome would b if he tried any other tactics.Bt we will learn from this loss.Bt 4 mourinho it will b his downfall once again n the Chelsea fans should ask themselves y they think Madrid lost their faith in him cos that unattractive football the fans hate cos a great team would rather go down fighting than go down without a fight. Liverpool till I die. YNWA.
We should not complain against jose’ tacticts. We simply lost to a good tacticijan. The match exposed the mediocrity of some of our players – coutinho, allen sakho, lucas etc . Again, it showed how serious we need to be in the summer to ensure we recruit quality players & not depend solely on SAS & gerrald. Pls, from what i saw of aspas on sunday, he must not play for lfc again.
If Stevie dosnt slip Chelsea could have played till next Tuesday and still not scored!as we all know footballs all about results,fortunately some of us like to be entertained as well ask any real Madrid fan!fuck right off mourinho hypocritical condescending egotistical classroom coach!
Ill never admit that I posted this, but I commend Jose and his Chelsea. We were on an 11 game winning streak… Chelsea did the one thing that the other 11 teams failed to do… frustrate us… although other teams may have breached our defences many times, we were always able to enjoy having the ball.
within 10 minutes, we were already frustrated, and that’s cause chelsea knew if we got a bit pissed off, and they kept a steady, over loaded defense we would panic and loose our creative penetration -mu ch like we have for short periods over the past 11 games when teams did the same as Chelsea – jose just set his team out to do that for the whole 90 minutes. And it worked an absolute treat
Kudos to him
Ill never admit that I posted this, but I commend Jose and his Chelsea. We were on an 11 game winning streak… Chelsea did the one thing that the other 11 teams failed to do… frustrate us… although other teams may have breached our defences many times, we were always able to enjoy having the ball.
within 10 minutes, we were already frustrated, and that’s cause chelsea knew if we got a bit pissed off, and they kept a steady, over loaded defence we would panic and loose our creative penetration -much like we have for short periods over the past 11 games when teams did the same as Chelsea – José just set his team out to do that for the whole 90 minutes. And it worked an absolute treat
Kudos to him
Now you’ll have to deny posting this twice.
We were frustrated by Chelsea players?? really ?? when…?? they could not frustrate us, we were controlling the game all day long, their goal was due to a MISTAKE, a mistake, again a mistake..has nothing to do with Chelsea ability to frustrate us, or we were nervous, not at all, IF IT WAS NOT FOR THAT MISTAKE (which could happen to any one at any time), I can not see for the life of me that Chelsea have the ability to beat us at Anfield..I think the players should put this result behind them, and concentrate on crystal Palace, I am more than confident if we win or 2 games, WE WILL BE THE CHAMPIONS, and tell you what CHAMPIONS WE WILL BE…come on Reds, keep being relentless…WE GO AGAIN..
What a soul lifting write up, we have become so used to winning that a slip {literally} up against the second most expensive club in the league is so hard to swallow! The true test of our character will be our response to this setback in the two remaining matches for us to be able to capitalise on any slip up by city. YNWA!!!
When you see some fans like Tony9ja whinge about jst a result, you begin to doubt their validity of being an LFC fan. & dat you used d collective “We” dosnt even convince me you are one either.. Now, if in your words, Mourinho’s truly a master tactician and he eventually finishes 3rd & subsequently lose d UCL, den you must come back to this site & clarify what a master tactician is.. Simple, he respected LFC, kept his cards close to his chest cz he knew any form of attack will ridicule his team & beatin his chest made him feel like he just became victorios against his age-long enemy, boy !!! he was threatened & relieved of such demoralising feeling afta Willian’s goal… Mourinho would least be thought about, if City manages to slip & LFC eventually come tops… At that juncture, I implore people like you that adore a cynical manager like Mourinho to go give him & Chelsea the “master tactician trofy”.. And the beauty of the whole story is dat we mite still draw @ Palace & win the title, isnt it ?? City only nid to self-destruct @ merseyside like they did 3-weeks ago by loosing 3 maximum points & we wont even nid 6-points again, while we mite finish on 84-pts wit chelsea(wit City finishing on 83) we’lld have disapointed Mourinho with d fact dat our scoring prowess won us d league while making him know that there’s only so much his negativite tactics as a manager could achieve… C’mon you Reds, i see lite @d end of dis m’f**king tunnel… My optimism degree is boiling @ more dan 100¤celcius… Who else belives in d unimaginable ?? Istanbul would be d least of d wondaful miracle we’ve seen…#YNWA
Love True Detective. Love this article. Thanks Dave. Great artistry.