Liverpool (09-11-2013)

Liverpool 4 – 0 Fulham, Premier League (9^th November 2013)

Tea at services (x2): £3-90
Petrol (£40 divided by 2): £20
Parking (£10 divided by 2): £5
Programme: £3
Ticket: £47
Total: £78-90

As I’ve done previously, I’ll include this trip to Anfield to keep a full record of costs across the season. Today, we decided to drive across, as it was getting colder, and that way there would be less waiting around in chilly train stations or bus stops. We opted for the M62 route (rather than the Woodhead Pass) from Sheffield, and though it proved slightly tedious, we made reasonable time (around 3.5 hours I think). I worked out that to get from Sheffield to Liverpool we had actually travelled round or near to 7 cities (Sheffield, Wakefield, Leeds, Bradford, Manchester, Salford, Liverpool), which was bizarre considering its only 62 miles as the crow flies!

 Liverpool were still flying at the top of the league, and given Fulham’s form, this looked like a home banker today. The Reds started brightly with neat interchanges in midfield and excellent control of the game. Nothing dazzling, but they looked comfortably better than this Fulham side. It’s odd to think that barely 3 and a half years ago, Fulham had run Athletico Madrid very close in the Europa League final. The scoring was opened by a header on around 23 minutes – immediately, the announcer said this was Suarez, while it later transpired that this was actually an own goal. Skrtel, an unexpected source of goals, headed in to double the lead on 26 minutes, before Suarez scored the first of his two goals. Three nil up at half-time and top of the league – this was a nice change at Anfield! In a worrying pattern, the second-half petered out. Liverpool made it 4 when Suarez slotted in from Gerrard’s pass, and then proceeded to coast through the second-half comfortably. They can afford to do this at home when leading by such a handsome margin, but I wonder whether they can do this all year, particularly against the bigger guns. Suarez is on fire at the moment, and if he keeps going at this rate, he will break one or more goal-scoring records in the Premier League. Let’s hope this continues into 2014!