Five Things to Ponder

Before tomorrow's North London Derby...

1) Liverpool. I'm impressed, I have to say. I said at some point last season that Liverpool's weaknesses were a lack of good wide play and a general overdependence on Gerrard and Torres. Well, those two have both struggled with injuries, and Liverpool has rolled. Albert Riera has been a fantastic addition, giving them width on the left, and the much-maligned Dirk Kuyt is playing incredibly hard and very well (and often doing it on the wing as well, which I admit I didn't think was possible). However, let's look closely at what's going on here: a long unbeaten run to start the season, lots of thrilling come from behind victories against teams that had no business taking the lead in the first place, a hard fought and impressive 1-0 win over Chelsea... minus the impressive victory against United, this looks an awful lot like Arsenal's start to the season last year. Just saying.

2) Maradona. TLOCA would like to extend a warm welcome back to professional football and general relevance to one of the true all-time greats of world football. Juan, just for the sake of your homies in sky blue, let's hope Maradona manages Argentina the way he's been managing his personal fitness for the last few years. Also, is it a conflict of interest if the coach's daughter is dating one of his star strikers? Based on simple genetics, the child of this union is going to be no more than 5'7" and probably the greatest attacking threat soccer has ever known.

3) Ronaldo (the original one). Simply for this quote and headline. Good luck, buddy.

4) 'Appy 'Arry Redknapp. Tottenham have burnt through yet another decent coach and are now ready to ruin the heretofore proud career of another. I (and many others) knew this would happen. And a columnist at the Times has now documented the phenomenon in a serious publication. Arsenal fans should be worried, however, as Spurs are now on their longest win streak of the season and brimming with confidence.

5) Joey Barton. Apparently, he scored a penalty today. Whatever. I'm making a new rule - from here on out, we at TLOCA will not mention anything Joey Barton does on a football field. I don't care how outrageous or amazing it is. It'll be like it never happened. Which is how it would be if he were in jail, where he belongs.