You have to like the way Michael Ballack thinks eh? Or at least the way the press have interpreted his thinking anyway.
Having seen Liverpool’s pretty uninspiring start to the season, with two defeats already and even their win against Bolton at the weekend not entirely convincing, Ballack says “It was a surprise that Liverpool lost twice in the first three games and it gives us extra motivation. All we can do is win games. We have to focus on ourselves and if we play the best we can, we can win the league.”
Obviously, he hasn’t said anything particularly earth shattering – I’d rather he wasn’t talking in terms of us winning the league because that always seems to come back and bite our players on the arse – and in all honesty, Liverpool wouldn’t be our main rivals should we be involved in a title battle this season anyway, but the fact that he’s publicly loving Liverpool’s poor start has to be applauded. I mean, if anything’s going to piss that lot off, it’ll be the press mentioning anything other than shiny halos and knighthoods in connection with the word ‘Liverpool.’
Needless to say then, before Ballack’s sniggers had ever formed into full-blown belly laughing, the headlines are screaming a warning from Dirk Kuyt that our ‘blistering start to the season will soon come to an end.’ Or as The Mail (as unbiased as ever) put it – “Chelsea are top of the table but they will still blow it” – says Kuyt.
Kuyt didn’t actually say that to be fair, although what he did say was “Chelsea are a top side. We knew that at the start of the season and we’ve seen that so far. But every team will struggle this season. At the moment, it’s not important to look at where teams like Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal are because we’ve got to think about ourselves. That is the priority and I’m sure, if we keep winning games, we’ll be up there soon. We will see where we are in a couple of months but, at this stage, it’s more important to think about ourselves and our own performances.”
So in reality, he’s just hoping that at some stage this season, we struggle the way they seem to be right now. But he seems optimistic enough that it could eventually be ‘their year’, stating “Everyone knows we have lost two games early in the season and the only medicine there is to put that right is to win games.”
Personally though, with the dippers coming to Stamford Bridge on 4th October, I hope they don’t get the prescription they’re after.
Blue is the colour
