LIVERPOOL FOOTBALL FANS

Mario Balotelli did not have a debut to remember for his new club Liverpool after he failed to score, despite numerous chances, against Tottenham during the weekend. The £ 16 million signing was making his debut after having completed his move a few days ago. He was expected to make an instant impact especially given that he is not new to the Premier League. Further, Liverpool at Tottenham have scored a number of goals in recent times. Last season, the fixture finished as a 5-0 victory for Liverpool followed by a 4-0 win at Anfield thus bringing a 9-0 aggregate victory over Tottenham.

Balotelli had a number of chances to open his account for Liverpool with the striker receiving a number of chances especially in the first half. However, the 24-year-old was guilty of some poor finishing, but manager Brendan Rodgers refused to criticise him after the match. Rodgers said that he was extremely pleased with the performance showed by Balotelli. Raheem Sterling the scoring for Liverpool before Steven Gerrard doubled their advantage with a penalty. New summer signing Alberto Moreno scored a goal from left back.

Liverpool will be extremely happy with the result, as it helped them overcome a disappointing 3-1 defeat against Manchester City last week.

“He was excellent. I thought the two boys up front and Raheem in behind were a constant threat. He’s a good guy, he’s worked well this week and I think everyone could see the team effort as he was pressing as much as he could. He was very good,” said the Liverpool manager about Balotelli’s performance against Tottenham. “I think he’s flexible and we’ve tried to develop him to not just be a wide player but to also be able to play on the inside – and I thought he was excellent,” said Rodgers about Raheem Sterling.

Video clip Score: five / 5

Video Score: 5 / 5

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Premier League giants Liverpool are pondering legal action against FIFA, the sport’s governing body after star striker Luis Suarez was slapped a four month ban from all football activities following his bite on Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini during the World Cup match against Italy.

The Uruguayan striker has already left Brazil and returned to his homeland following the ban which sees him miss the country’s next nine international games as well as well as a fine of £ 66,000. But the Anfield club believes the punishment is too harsh on them, particularly when the incident happened while he was on international duty.

With the Premier League’s Player of the Year banned from all activities in football as well as administrative duties till October 26^th, he will miss the first thirteen matches of the club’s season, a similar scenario to last season when he was banned for ten matches following his bite on Chelsea player Branislav Ivanovic.

The ban will see Suarez not being allowed to use the training facilities of Liverpool or any other club and also prevents him from entering football stadiums during this time.

The club’s view is that the punishment is harsh for them and they have been left in a vulnerable situation as they have to cope without their star striker for so many matches. The player’s lawyer has claimed that the Italian and English media blew the bite out of proportion and this prompted FIFA to hand such a harsh penalty on the player and the player as well as the football association of Uruguay will appeal the decision.

But the ban doesn’t mean that he cannot be transferred and that comes as a good piece of news for Barcelona who have been trailing the Liverpool striker for some time and are expected to swoop for him.

Online video Score: four / five

Tottenham were ripped apart by a very sleek looking Liverpool team, who ran out 4-0 winners against the London outfit. Tottenham came into the match with a very poor record against the top four rivals this season. They had managed just one point from the seven matches played and this run also included just one goal scored. Hence, there was not much expectations of Tottenham, but this is not expected to be dismantled by Liverpool so easily either. Luis Suarez once again found himself on the scoresheet to score a record 29th goal of the season for Liverpool.

Brazilian midfielder Philippe Coutinho and Jordan Henderson also got on the scoresheet, but it was all started by an own goal from Younes Kaboul. This was the eighth consecutive victory for the Reds and it is one that has undoubtedly put them on the path towards the title. They have moved top of the table with only six matches remaining. Even though Brendan Rodgers was still sceptical about a potential title at the end of the campaign, he praised the Liverpool team for their impressive play in front of goal.

The club still have matches against Manchester City and Chelsea at Anfield, which is perhaps the reason for Rodgers downplaying expectations.

“The idea was to stay in the game as long as we could but at 2-0 the game is dead and buried. It does appear we have a problem against the top four. The statistics don’t lie. We have to address it. To go where we need to go, we need to get points from those above us. I’m going to learn more about my players from up there. When the team is not doing well, the fans want to see me. I am not shirking responsibility,” said Tottenham manager Tim Sherwood.

Online video Ranking: four / 5

Video clip Ranking: 4 / 5

Online video Rating: four / 5