13 is the Magic Number, as Liverpool Move Further Ahead at the Top

Arsenal stumble, Liverpool march on

Paul Tomkins, Andrew Beasley, Daniel Rhodes and other TTT regulars will give their thoughts on the match for 24 hours after the game, so the article received via email is unlikely to be the final version. There's statistics from the match and videos too.

Post-Match Thoughts

Paul Tomkins

Thirteen Points, and thirteen, the number Liverpool have to play every week when the PGMOL wheels out its worst goons as “ref” and “VAR” (scare quotes required, these are men on a mission).

Thirteen is also possibly the number of kilometres Dominik Szoboszlai ran (by half-time), the number of graceful turns Ryan Gravenberch made, the number of times Mo Salah did something special, the number of times Luis Díaz left someone for dead, the number of times Alexis Mac Allister looked like a World Cup winner, and the number of yellow cards Bruno Guimarães should have had, in yet another shitshow of officiating (he, like Dan Burn, got none).

Thirteen is also possibly Wataru Endo’s tackles per 90, when extrapolated. And the number of touches Raheem Sterling has had in an Arsenal shirt, where he’s presumably being paid a fortune as one of their attacking options that they apparently don’t have (as they have no one, except all the ones they have).

Thirteen is also the IQ of the Newcastle fan beaming with schadenfreude when Szoboszlai’s shot curled narrowly wide at 1-0, his arms held outstretched to mock the miss, to have a good laugh at the Hungarian guy who, at the time, was already making his team look like a non-league outfit. Whoever you are, well done – you really won that one. Seriously, I’ve seen smarter plankton.

It was Liverpool in third gear against the Geordies, but a Rolls Royce in third gear is still a Rolls Royce. Newcastle’s own sensational Silver Shadow was out with a minor injury, but would look quite nice in this Liverpool side next season.

The majority of my analysis and the analysis of the others follows for paying TTT Main Hub subscribers only.