'Nothing short of incredible' are my words to describe Saturday's Barclays Premier League matches, and as it turned out, perhaps Chelsea's 6-0 demolition of title rivals Arsenal was a catalyst for Liverpool as they faced Cardiff City in South Wales. The Reds got six goals for themselves in this one, but it doesn't reflect the tough times they had this afternoon. Brendan Rodgers seems to be switching between Philippe Coutinho and Raheem Sterling in the Starting XI, having dropped the England international in favour of the Brazillian. This however was the only change to an away side that was bang in form and seeking a sixth consecutive League victory.
Liverpool got off to a very shaky start as Cardiff pressed them high up the field within the first few minutes, while Steven Gerrard also picked up a yellow card for a challenge on Frazier Campbell. The former Man United man had caused the Reds a lot of problems throughout the first half, starting with a pass that turned out to be an assist as he found Jordan Mutch who fired it into the bottom corner to put the home side 1-0 up in the 9th minute.
The first half was poor though for Liverpool and again more defensive problems too, but I was also disappointed with some of the play on the left side and to be perfectly honest the game was calling for Raheem Sterling, who I think should of started the game again today.
Liverpool came out for the second half a completely different team however and it started off when Suarez had a chance to score from a free kick on the edge of the box, but failed to score. They took their chance shortly after though when the Reds cleverly used the fact that Cardiff were down to nine men to their advantage, when the corner that followed was delivered into the box, Martin Skrtel got on the end of it to make it 3-2.
The Liverpool fans were on their feet throughout the second half. "We're gonna win the league" and "We are Liverpool" belted out proudly from the section of travelling Kopites, who were travelling to their sides third consecutive away game. Somehow the scares weren't over though as Cardiff gained some momentum after Kenwyne Jones nodded the ball to Mutch who found the net to make it 3-5 in the 88th minute. But it proved to be too little too late as Suarez bagged his hat trick and his 28th goal of the season, equaling Robbie Fowler's record set back in the 95/96 season to make it 6-3 to Liverpool.
So they did get their sixth consecutive win, didn't they?! Just incredible, and what a way to seal their third win of three consecutive away games, of which was always going to be a big ask, but they managed to collect all nine points, scoring an incredible 12 goals along the way. The 12 goals are just a handful out of the magnificent 82 goals that Liverpool have scored this season, and you would think that there is still more to come with eight games still to play. Why can't we win the title? A game in hand on the leaders and still to play Chelsea at home, at this stage is definitely something to think about. What more do you want me to say! I will leave you with the fact that Liverpool are second and are four points behind Chelsea who are first, oh and also this is what Brendan Rodgers said after the game.
"We were probably a little bit too deep in the first half; we gave too much space to their players that were a threat - Fraizer Campbell and Craig Bellamy did very well in the opening period of the game," he reflected."We lost the ball once or twice too cheaply. But we were still an offensive threat; at half-time we just shortened the pitch a bit more and reinforced our idea to dominate the ball. Obviously that led to our creation of chances."We showed great resilience today, mentally, and again showed our offensive power. We all stayed very focused and composed."It was an outstanding result for us. Some elements of our game were very good today, against a newly-promoted team, which are always difficult to play against."
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