Earlier in the week I’d promised to take my son to see the new Disney Pixar film, ‘Up’, on Saturday evening.

By the time we were in our cinema seats, any hopes I harboured that my mind would be taken off the defeat at Sunderland were swept away; typical, then, that the film should be based on the amazing powers of inflatable spheres.

There are definitely grounds for concern with four defeats in nine league games. But I thought Rafa Benítez’s post-match comments were very honest.

[ttt-subscribe-article]