It’s not the first time that John Arne Riise has scored an own goal for Liverpool this season. Back in January, the Norwegian put the ball through his own net away at Luton in the FA Cup, can he make it a hat-trick before the season is out? Anyway, according to Rafael Benitez in The Guardian, the full-time whistle should have ‘peeped’ well before the Chelsea equaliser.

In fact, the referee appears to be squarely to blame as far as the Liverpool manager is concerned. Apparently, he made a number of decisions against the home team as well as adding far too much injury time on at the end. Was it inevitable that the arbiter would cop some flack from at least one team?

The disgruntled Spaniard said: “It’s difficult to understand. There were 94 or 95 minutes and every decision went against us. All the corners, free-kicks and fouls. But, in the end, it was an own-goal. It’s not the first time. We knew before the game it was going to be difficult [with this referee]. Against Marseille it was more or less the same. You can’t blame the referee for the own-goal at the end but the time? One minute in the first half, four in the second. It’s difficult to explain.”

Benítez also had cause to bemoan the referee for a push by Ashley Cole on the goalscorer Dirk Kuyt inside the Chelsea penalty area, an offence that went unpunished by Plautz. “The first four fouls against us were for pushing,” he added. “I saw one of their players pushing with two hands in the penalty area and nothing given. I’ve seen too many things tonight but I don’t want to say too much.”

You’ve already said plenty Rafa! It’s clear that much of his frustration is down to the fact that it’s now a tall order if Liverpool are to qualify for their third Champions League final in four seasons. It’s been a long time since they won at Stamford Bridge, with them needing a 1-1 draw simply to take the game into extra-time. Any hope for the Reds?

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They’re spending money and they still can’t do squad in the league. Nathaniel takes a look at just how bad the reds can be.

Poor, poor Scousers. Their club haven’t tasted success in the league since most of them were in nappies.

The only victories they have been able to celebrate this calendar year were against Havant & Waterlooville and Luton Town (and it took two attempts to beat the latter). Their front office is controlled by a pair of tight-fisted Yank owners with no understanding or appreciation of the sport and who appear intent on running the team into the ground before selling it on to the highest bidder.

Their famous coach is sure to be sacked by the Sceptic Tanks if he doesn’t quit of his own volition first. Their European campaign is effectively on life support, with only a miracle capable of saving it from an ugly death at the hands of their next opponents Inter Milan, a team widely viewed as Europe’s very best at the moment.

Fourth place in the Prem was once thought of as the lowest this team could possibly go. Now? Senor Benitez claimed (optimistically, one presumes) that experience would carry the Reds into fourth by season’s end. But that was before the defeat at West Ham. While it is true that Manchester United also lost at Upton Park this season, and that Alan Curbishley’s team are not bad (compared to Havant & Waterlooville, at least), this is undoubtedly a new low for the boys from Anfield Road. Unless you also count the Yank owners messing up the new stadium plans.

Surely there is a silver lining in the dark grey clouds that shroud Merseyside? It’s darkest right before dawn, innit? Stevie Gerrard and the boys are certain to use the relatively easy stretch of upcoming games to launch a heroic comeback, the likes of which hasn’t been since since Istanbul, circa May 2005. After all, this team plays best with their backs to the wall, when everybody has counted them out and their chances appear dashed for good.

Wishful thinking, all of it. The issues facing this organisation are not of the short-term variety. The cowboys running the front office have one thing on their mind; leveraging assets, the process by which private equity managers exploit the value of everything under the club’s purview in exchange for massive debt loads to be paid off with future revenues from a yet-to-be determined source.

This means selling players (like Momo Sissoko) who have high tangible values and riding others into the ground if they have no resale value but are even moderately efficient at doing their jobs. It does not involve substantial new investments to improve infrastructure (an ageing back line, for example) unless these improve the company’s “brand” (a new stadium).

Obviously Rafa cannot help this team much now, if he even still wants to. No manager could at this point. The club has a few exciting young players (well, two, one doesn’t even belong to them) but its central cogs (Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher) are creaky and tired, with mostly mediocre players filling in the rest of the spots in the starting 11.

This is a recipe for disaster and Liverpool’s descent appears to only be starting. Where it will stop? Nobody knows.

The Sun reports that Luton boss Kevin Blackwell has fired a shot at Liverpool co-owner Tom Hicks. Blackwell is disgusted by the fact that Tom Hicks admitted to courting Jurgen Klinnsmann behind Benitez’ back, and claims that the Liverpool paymaster is a devious swine. Blackwell said:

“Football is losing all credibility. It’s a disgrace that Tom Hicks has the cheek to go behind Rafa’s back and speak to someone about his job.

“Rafa’s a dead man walking.

“As managers, we accept we’ll lose our job at some stage but there is a way of doing it.

“If the morals of an alley cat persist in the boardroom, then you can’t expect players to show leadership on and off the pitch.

“The board of directors are normally pillars of the community and should set good standards.”

So is Blackwell right, and is Tom Hicks really unusual when you look at his Premier League peers? People like Thaksin Shinawatra, Roman Abramovich, and Daniel Levy aren’t exactly saints either!

The Sun today leads with the headline: “Carragher’s War On Terrace”, apparently there were a group of Luton fans who dressed up as the scousers from the famous Harry Enfield sketches and taunted poor Carra throughout the game. And after the match, when our erstwhile scouse hero was warming-down they hurled more abuse at him. The Sun’s Richard White and Alex West eagerly report that:

“Ex-England player Carragher first shouted at the fans, who were in a box on the terraces, from the pitch. But then he leapt up a fence to confront them.

“Carragher, 29, screamed obscenities and yelled: ‘Come on – let’s have it!’ Security guards had to drag him away.”

The mind boggles at why Luton fans would taunt millionaire Carragher and his teammates for drawing with a team that is bankrupt and about a trillion league places lower than them. We at COS applaud you Mr Carragher!

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