I am Stoke(d) for the weekend!

This could go anywhere and everywhere ... or it could go nowhere at all. I'm just now regaining my head after Saturday. Let's revisit some of that.

First up, the match winner:



Babel cost a lot of money. I'm not going to bother to look up the exact price because, shit man, Liverpool beat Man U on Saturday and I'm gonig to marinate in that goodness for a good long while. I think Babel was something like £11.5 million. Consider that good value on the money for beating United. (Yeah, that sounds a little nutty, but screw it, I'm going with it.)

OK, there's Babel, our own Dutch, Bible-thumping, Merseyside version of "I Belong to Jesus" Kaka. On we go to the type of mistake that usually tortures Liverpool:



Among the finest moments of Saturday was when the Liverpool crowd turned toward the United fans following the own goal and sang: "We've got Wesley, we've got Wesley, we've got Wesley Brown! We've got Wesley, we've got Wesley, we've got Wesley Brown!!!" For once, the words of that song could strike my ears and I'd actually laugh and enjoy it.

I mean good lord, there's a boatload of memorable moments. It got really intense, and I came as unhinged as I can remember. But I guess after Saturday, there's no point pretending anymore, United fans. For two years now, any trip to the bar during a United match has been more of an endurance test than anything else. "Viva Ronaldo," I mean, you guys know every single person who doesn't buy their football shirts at Target looks at you when you sing that and wants to shove a stack of bar napkins down your throat, right? I mean, you understand we want to do that, right?

As I learned in the post-Istanbul "Bullies of the Bar" era, when you're sitting on top of the world after winning the league or a European Cup, getting a little too cocky about it is only going to earn you a long line of enemies. People will be gunning for you, brother. Hard.

Saturday that gun was fired. Point blank. Hard.