JustChelsea.com

Roy Hodgson has had a difficult start to his Liverpool career with just one point from games against Arsenal and Man City. He was expected to make amends against newly-promoted West Bromwich Albion and with Fernando Torres back in the team it should have been easy for the Reds.

Robert Di Matteo was quite pleased with his team, despite losing to a Torres blaster. “Big disappointment. I thought we put in a very good performance today and kept them very quiet.” he said.

The ex-Chelsea striker Joe Cole has had a rough start to his career at Anfield. He somehow managed to get sent off against Arsenal on his debut, and now he has missed a penalty in his second match.

But at least Liverpool have taken a slender lead in this Europa Cup Qualifier, but it is never easy to go away to Turkey and return with a result. Roy Hodgson was more upset about a last minte disallowed goal than the penalty miss.

In a very interesting season opener, new Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson was given a baptism of fire at home against Arsene Wengers young Arsenal team. Both of these teams are expected to be challenging Chelsea for homours this season.

It was a game of two sendings off, for Joe Cole and Arsenal new-boy Laurent Koscielny, and two goalkeeping errors. Manuel Almunia forgot to cover his near-post for Liverpool’s opener (through Ngog) just after the start of the second half, and Pepe Reina bundled the ball into his own net right at the end to give Arsenal a point.

The spokesman for the Chinese corporation that is close to taking over Liverpool Football Club has promised that they will wipe out Liverpool’s debt, and give them the ransfer funds to make them one of the biggest clubs in the world again.

Marc Ganis, a partner in Sportscorp China Ltd said today: “The key question is, what would we get from an investment in Liverpool? The answer is long-term growth, while we position the club with the biggest in global football,” he said.

Liverpool were already 2-0 up but they didn’t give their supporters any heart attacks as they eased through to the next round of the Europa Cup. N’Gog scored yet another one to give Roy Hodgson a striking dilemma when Fernando Torres returns to fitness, and Steve G got his first of the season from the penalty spot.

Liverpool’s season started early this year with the qualifiers for the Europa League, and their aim must be to get past their semi-final exit from last season.

They started without their big stars who were still resting after their World Cup exertions but they still managed to comfortably win by two goals to nil.

The ex-Chelsea midfielder Joe Cole believes he has made the right decision in going to Liverpool, and feels that he can give them the best years of his life in the next few years, and thinks he can help them to regain the title that they desperately want.

”The target of a club like this is the number one place,” said Cole.

In a very strange turn of events, it seems the bookies have taken so much money on Fernando Torres to go to Chelsea that some bookies have stopped taking bets!

VitalFootball’s Chelsea site said this afternoon: Odds have gone in from 2/1 to 1/3 with some bookies that Fernando Torres will move to Chelsea this summer.

The Real Madrid and Holland midfielder Rafael Van Der Vaart has issued a come-and-get-me plea to both Chelsea and Liverpool amid reports that he is unlikely to be guaranteed first-team football at Real Madrid next season.

The Dutchman says that he would like a move to the Premiership, and preferably at Stamford Bridge or Anfield. He said: “I have heard of the interest from Liverpool and Chelsea – and that is very flattering.

The Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp has revealed today that he believed that he had an agreement with Joe Cole that he would join Tottenham before the ex-Chelsea star went to the World Cup, but he changed his mind at the last minute when he was offered more money by Liverpool!

“We are disappointed to miss out on Joe Cole because he was a great free transfer – he must have had a better offer from Liverpool,” Redknapp said.