Bad omen

As befits a side experiencing their first year of European football for a while, our record in the league game immediately following a UEFA Cup match is pretty poor.

(14/8 Midtjylland 0-1) 17/8 Aston Villa (a) 2-4
(28/8 Midtjylland 1-0) 31/8 Sunderland (a) 3-0
(18/9 Omonia 2-1) 21/9 Portsmouth (h) 6-0
(2/10 Omonia 2-1) 5/10 Liverpool (h) 2-3
(6/11 Twente 3-2) 9/11 Spurs (h) 1-2
(27/11 Schalka 2-0) 30/11 Man. United (h) 0-1
(3/12 PSG 0-0) 6/12 Fulham (a) 1-1
(18/12 Racing 1-3) 21/12 WBA (a) 1-2

It did start well (loss, win, win is ok) but the further we've got into the season the worse it's got. Which is understandable as our threadbare squad began to tire and we had no recourse to the rotation that the big teams use in these situations. Since the Portsmouth 6-0 we've had three disappointing home defeats, a respectable point at Craven Cottage and then that terrible loss at the Hawthornes.

This suggests that things are weighted even worse against us at Anfield than we first thought. On the plus side, the reverse of this effect could play into our hands: Liverpool play in the Bernabéu on Wednesday night and so may not be at full strength on Sunday. And we'll have Nigel de Jong back into the side.