Arsenal Answer All The Questions In Anfield Thriller
Oct 28th, 2007 by 'holic
“I had my doubts, but they have gone. Your boys will win this league, no question,”
The words are not mine. A Scouser back on a short stay from Spain is in my local. We have watched the game together. There are a bunch of Liverpool fans in the pub and handshakes are exchanged at the final whistle. His words are typical. They know they have pinched a point off a very good side, even though they led for so long.
The words may have belonged to another, but they sum up all of our pre-match concerns. We hadn’t played any of the ‘big four’, and six of our nine unbeaten games had come at home. Come on, admit it, you were wondering just how good this young Arsenal side was. Now we know. For the second time this season the Gunners may have had to settle for a share of the spoils in the north-west, but the performance has sent a message to the Premiership. We are the finished article.
What made it all the more special was the fact that Arsenal had to come from behind. Barely seven minutes had elapsed when Gerrard drilled a right footer through the visitors flimsy wall. From that moment on Liverpool were restricted to counter-attacks as Arsenal once again produced a pass and move master class at speed.
That is not to dismiss the hosts lightly. From one such break Gerrard again went close, bringing out the best of the excellent Manuel Almunia, who justified his selection with an outstanding display. Most of the action was at the other end, however. Emmanuel Adebayor was twice denied by Reina, and Hyypia cleared off his line from Rosicky.
The second-half saw more of the same with Emmanuel Eboue thumping his best effort against the post, Cesc Fabregas screwing the rebound wide. The little Spaniard would not be denied with little more than ten minutes remaining, converting a pass from the master creator that Alexander Hleb is becoming. There was still time for Fabregas to secure all three points, but in a carbon copy of the earlier incident he struck the post, and the rebound was missed by substitute Nicklas Bendtner. At the other end too there was excitement as William Gallas stretched to deny Gerrard the opportunity to claim a dramatic triumph.
So the compliments of the Liverpool fans are accepted as confirmation of what the afternoon has told us. Arsenal are back on top of the table, albeit only on goals scored, although we have a game in hand over Manchester United. The chance will come on Saturday to put daylight between us and the defending champions. I can’t wait, and I have a feeling that is exactly the spirit in the dressing-room too. We are the real deal!
11 Responses to “Arsenal Answer All The Questions In Anfield Thriller”
While I think it early days to start talking about winning the league the longer the boys go unbeaten the stronger the belief that they will win something. Anfield is never an easy place to go and get a result and we are already up on last years league performance agains them away. This could be a defining result like the 0-0 against manure the season we went unbeaten. I
thought Liverpool were they usual boring long ball shite and I cannot think now when was the last time they had a better footballing team than us and it must be pre george graham. For us to go there and they play like the away team says a lot for their progression under benitez. EIE RIP THE BEAR
Too early to tell. Both sides were wasteful, and ‘pool had the better chances. Arsenal’s style sometimes flatters to deceive, the ‘wait till the player approaches, turn and pass/go the other way quickly’ does NOT result in a number of clear cut chances against a top team.
Notice too, how ‘pools midfield started to dominate so Gilberto had to come on to help out golden boy fabs, and out of sorts Flamini.
‘pool should and could have won in my opinion. The early goal shaped the game, so any long ball criticisms are based out of ignorance EIE.
Well done Liverpool, for your enormous contribution to a very entertaining match, as Mr Onion said Pool started “dominating” the midfield and it was that domination that was so convincing that at the final whistle my suspicions were confirmed that you will NOT be serious title contenders for the current season, despite the summer spendingspree.
“Flatters to deceive” You have got to be kidding me, mate! Maybe one day, Pool’s midflied may flatter to deceive me into thinking that they can actually string a passing attack together!
Mr Onion – the match stats do not support your view of the game. If the ‘Pool midfield were ‘dominating’ we would not have 63% possession and BTW we were the away side, although ‘Pool played like they were.
Can’t believe u said that ‘pool had the better chances. Didn’t u see how we were denied by the post TWICE? and how we were denied a penalty after Carragher pulled down Cesc in the box? and how we missed TWO chances infront of an open goal?
The game could have gone either way. But i must say, Liverpool are having about 40% luck and Arsenal are having merely 10% luck. Only if we were equally lucky, the game could have ended 4-1!
Liverpool 1-4 Arsenal of course!
Well first of all pool was very lucky and very fortunate to get the opening goal, imagine if he didn’t….Arsenal dominated the midfield and the tempo/pace of the match. Pool were restricted to counterattacking football once they had scored. And to say that pool had more scoring chances than Arsenal had is totally ludacris and false. I’ll even go as far as to say ignorant-because the stats are there for all to see.
-Liverpool Vs Arsenal : Passing success: 73 vs 83.5 // Possession: 36.8 Vs 63.2 // Territorial Advantage: 48.6 Vs 51.4.
Basically, owned.
Good luck pool in your boring, negative, uncreative football. Gooner 4lyf
Gotta agree with Passenal here. Not only did we have 63% possession away from home, but it was at Anfield of all places. The mickeys produced some fine sighters, but they weren’t real chances. The only chances they had, one was scored, the other denied by an awesome William Gallas. One of the reasons we are so good is that we practise a techinque called, for want of a better phrase “resting on the ball”, which mean the player in possession of the ball gets to catch his breath, take stock, and let the other players run around like knob heads.
There is a reason we score so many late goals, it’s not because we are lucky, but because our players rest on the ball and (because we have so much possession) run the other team into the ground.
Did anyone see Caragher blowing out of his arse today. Make no bones about it, Liverpool will feel this match in the morning where as our players will be much fresher.
There should have only been one winner today, and that was the guys with the cannon on their chests!!!
Mr Onion has not only lost the plot but must have seen a different game to the one I saw on TV. There were some very tired looking scouse defenders who looked to embody their team perfectly i.e. hanging on in there on their last legs praying for the whistle to blow and escape unbeaten from an Arsenal team that was not at its best.Paul says it well with his comment about Caragher.We made up for the off day with hard work and should have had all three points.lets see what next week brings.
It was an exciting game. For me, Arsenal were the better side, and had the better chances to win the game. The lads weren’t at their very best, and seemed a bit nervy early on, but eventually they played well.
The thing to do now is use the next six games to get the recent form back to WWWWWW.
Mrs Cusop was not amused.. .. Wenger played a very smart 4 5 1 and then ratcheted it up at the end.. With a 4-4-2… Its amazing how so few coaches can play a 4 – 5 – 1 in an attacking style … I hate Wenger even more now.. Anyway I will pull up my comfy chair as we prepare for the Spanish Inquisition at the lane..