Home is where the heart is

When in my last piece I spoke of Anfield being a footballing church I didn't expect to be welcomed by the Liverpool fans with a hastily arranged special Saturday service.
Prior to kick off the reds fans roared to their hymn Never Walk Alone which led me to believe that both sets of fans were going to contribute to a fantastic atmosphere. But while the Claret's played their part they were pretty much subdued for the whole ninety minutes despite the 4-0 scoreline. I'm not even sure Emmanuel Adebayor could've got them going.
I truly believe fans in the higher echelons of the Premier League are spoilt and almost can’t be bothered unless it’s a top four clash or a so called “great European night”. I just hope the Debrecen supporters making the trip from Hungary tonight aren’t overly expectant about the Anfield experience.
Unlike their fans, the Liverpool players were excellent and just like Chelsea two weeks earlier showed us exactly what being in the Premier League is all about. In our wins against Manchester United and Everton were we the team that harassed and closed down forcing our opponents into simple errors, but this time we were played at our own game by a tremendous high tempo Liverpoool.
Our midfield were never in the game as Gerrard, Kuyt, Beneyoun and Lucas tore us to shreds while our under the cosh defence understandably succumbed to some sloppy errors.
The great relief after the game was that we were heading back to sanctuary of Turf Moor after two away drubbings against two of the Premier League’s best. Although Sunderland look a good side, it’s against teams like them that we need to pick up points.
Barring Tottenham at the Lane, the next six games represent a real opportunity to add to our already impressive points tally. October pits us against Birmingham, Wigan and Hull City at the fortress while there is also our long awaited trip to Ewood Park that can’t come quick enough.
Some on the phone-ins and messageboards have unbelievably begun to criticise Coyle and call for drastic changes to the team and his tactics. I’m not sure how that’s possible given our last two opponents and I’m quite sure no matter what personnel or formation we’d have applied the results would’ve been almost identical.
There are one or two players though perhaps pushing for a starting berth, Chris Eagles looked hungry and up for the fight when he was introduced at Anfield while its only a matter of time until new signing David Nugent gets his first start after also looking impressive from the bench last weekend.
But whatever eleven starts against Sunderland on Saturday the game represents our chance to really push on and cement our place in the middle of the table for the next month or so. But for the moment I’m just happy to get back to the Turf and hopefully watching us getting a touch of the ball.