BILLY BUNTER

Weblog: The football punter

I rest my case about Rodgers' ropey Reds

BRENDAN RODGERS sent the kids to Russia in midweek. It makes you wonder why he bothered going himself.

Rodgers clearly couldn't give two hoots about the result and surely given the average age of his squad he only needed to send Supernanny herself, Jo Frost, to keep an eye on them.

The Welshman's priorities were clearly with Sunday's trip to Stamford Bridge, but it won't have done him much good anyway.

Fully rested or otherwise, Liverpool simply can't hold a candle to Chelsea at the moment and the Blues will get their title bid back on track in style.

Speaking of nannies, Roberto Mancini clearly needs someone to keep him in check on the touchline judging by Tuesday's full-time rant at the Etihad.

The ref's refusal to give Mario Balotelli a last-minute penalty compounded Mancini's misery after the linesman put himself in line for the next Specsavers ad by seeing a non-existent offside in the build-up to what would have been City's winner.

Fortunately for Mancini, the odds suggest he won't be relying on such fine margins when Tottenham come to visit.

But Spurs are capable of great things under AVB, as United found to their cost earlier this season, and I reckon this might be a fair bit tighter than that.