Mission accomplished, sort of.

Yesterday, Swansea certainly achieved their primary aim of keeping their squad physically intact ahead of Sunday's Capital One Cup final when sending a near-reserve side to Anfield to face Liverpool.

Whether they emerged mentally unscathed or not is another matter entirely though, having been on the receiving end of one of the great pastings in Premier League history.

It may have been 'only' 5-0, but this was unmistakably a harrowing afternoon for Swansea, who had two shots at goal to Liverpool's 35 - the most by any team in Europe's top divisions this season. It

Liverpool under Brendan Rodgers are a team of contrasts. Though their style has undoubtedly improved from last season, their results – which see them out of both domestic cups, impotent against top-10 clubs and now likely heading out of Europe – are undeniably worse. There is a disconnect between the veneer and the substance, the ideal and the reality, and it extends to their manager.

On Thursday night, following a 2-0 defeat away at Zenit St Petersburg that has nearly extinguished their hopes in the Europa League, Rodgers provoked bemusement when claiming Liverpool’s performance on the rutted

Football has a number of deadly sins - breaches of etiquette that bring untold scorn and derision on the perpetrator.

The fact that these rules are largely unwritten matters little, since they are spoken about a lot, mainly by purveyors of unthinking knee-jerk punditry.

There are certain things you MUST NOT do in football, and they run roughly as follows.

- RACISM - Intolerance of racism is clearly a good thing. However, the media's new habit of working itself into an disproportionate lather when one idiot in 40,000 does something contemptible, or when a drunk student sends a moronic tweet,

"Ronaldo is above the rest. If he keeps scoring in this rhythm and stays in this sort of form, he will prove to be the best. Ronaldo is better than George Best and Denis Law, who were two brilliant and great players in the history of United." – Johan Cryuff, April 2008.

First of all, before we go any further, Early Doors is NOT about to try and argue that Cristiano Ronaldo is Manchester United's greatest ever player.

During his spell at Old Trafford he did not show the iconic artistry of George Best or Eric Cantona; the team-lifting fury of Bryan Robson or Roy Keane; or the consistent

The College of Cardinals might want to get on the phone to Steve Clarke and Ben Foster and check their Papal eligibility because how they somehow manufactured a victory for West Brom at Anfield last night was nothing short of miracle.

After withstanding a barrage of pressure and with Foster superb between the sticks, West Brom finally managed an attempt on goal in the 80th minute that was deflected away for the corner which eventually gave them their opening goal and set them up for an unlikely win.

Early Doors hasn't seen smash-and-grab stuff like this since the London riots, but you also

Early Doors pities Sir Alex Ferguson.

Only 72 hours to recover after opening a 12-point gap in the league ahead of a lucrative Champions League tie against Real Madrid?

In such desperate circumstances, who wouldn't feel the whole world was conspiring against them?

Hard as it is to feel sympathy, Fergie does seem to have a point. Of the four teams in Champions League action on Wednesday, only United played on Sunday.

Madrid and Dortmund played on Saturday, while Shakhtar Donetsk haven't played a meaningful game since December, the lucky so-and-sos.

Fergie railed at the Premier League for

Liverpool fans are fond of chanting how they "dream of a team of Carraghers", but in August, for the first time since 1996, they will have to contemplate the reality of a first-team squad without one.

Son James is in the youth ranks, as we saw in 'Being: Liverpool', so the umbilical link to the club remains, and one day there may well be another Carragher gracing the Anfield stage.

Actually that's a fitting title, 'Being: Liverpool', as Carragher, along with his trusty companion Steven Gerrard, has been Liverpool for years now. Not successive American owners or superstar Spanish strikers, but

Wilshere and Lucas (630)There were several differences between the squad Roy Hodgson took to Ukraine, and the team that beat Brazil 2-1 at Wembley last night.

Most were injury or fitness related – Chris Smalling returning in place of Phil Jones, for example – while the likes of Aaron Lennon returned after harshly missing out on the Euros.

But the two stand-out selections are ones ED feels probably make the difference between the bus-parking side of last summer, and the one that took the game to Brazil with some success.

First is the absence of the now retired John Terry. ED will discount personal opinions on whether