Arsenal 1-1 Liverpool
A late Arsenal penalty denied Liverpool victory at Highbury this evening, leaving Liverpool's title hopes still hanging by a thread.
Reds' boss Gerard Houllier recalled Milan Baros to the line up with Emile Heskey missing the game through injury, while there was also a return to the team for Bruno Cheyrou, with Vladimir Smicer also out injured.
John Arne Riise had the game's first shot on goal when he struck a low shot from outside the area, but it was hit owards the centre of the goal and David Seaman collected the shot comfortably.
Arsenal immediately went on the attack themselves and won a series of corners withing a couple of minutes to put pressure on the Liverpool defence, but their only shot at goal during the spell was a scuffed shot by Gilberto Silva, which the Brazilian put wide.
The Arsenal fans thought they'd seen their side go ahead on fifteen minutes though, when Sol Campbell headed into the net, but Jeff Winter ruled out the goal straight away, after Campbell had climbed on Salif Diao in order to get the height he needed to get to the ball to win the header in the first place.
Arsenal were clearly on top of the game with Liverpool restricted to brief counter attacks, though neither keeper found themselves needing to make a difficult save in the opening twenty minutes.
That changes on 31 minutes, when Silvain Wiltord got behind the Liverpool defince and as Kirkland came rushing off his goal line, Wiltord attempted to poke the ball under his body and into the net but Kirkland made the save and conceded a corner, from which Sol Campbell sent a powerful header towards goal from just 6 yards out, but Kirkland again did well, also managing to keep hold of the ball.
With the likes of Hamann, Heskey and Smicer out of the game through injury, Liverpool's injury worries were increased further in the 33rd minute, as Owen was withdrawn after having earlier signalled to the bench that he had a problem.
El Hadji Diouf was the man to replace him though his only involvement in the first ten minutes of his entry to the action was to win a free kick in front of the dugout, after a foul on him by Vieira.
Cheyrou had the last chance of a first half dominated by Arsenal, but his free kick from the right hand corner of the 18 yard box sailed wide of Seaman's goal.
Liverpool began the second half looking a lot more adventurous, and Cheyrou had another chance in the opening 3 minutes of the restart, when he took the ball from Riise's quick free kick and hit a shot from 25 yards out, but couldn't hit the target.
Moments later, a free kick by Henry was well claimed by Kirkland, who was forced into a double save on 53 minutes, the second of which was a superb stop from a shot by Pires from ten yards out, which Kirkland pushed over the bar after recovering quickly from making the initial stop from Henry's deflected shot.
The match started to swing in Liverpool's favour though, and Arsenal were lucky not to have found themselves a goal down by the hour mark, when El Hadji Diouf just failed to deflect a shot by Baros over the line, with the Senegal forward doing enough to distract Seaman, but Ashley Cole was on hand to clear the ball off the line.
Baros was then involved again on the right as he chased a through ball which Cole tried to shephard back to Seaman, but the Arsenal 'keeper didnt get hold of the ball properly allowing Baros to win back possesion, though from the narrowest possible angle, Baros attempted to roll the ball into the net and saw his shot bounce back off the post and go out for a goal kick.
Arsene Wenger was the first of the two managers to make a second half change, as he brought on Bergkamp for Kanu.
Soon after the change though, Liverpool went ahead, thanks to a penalty from Danny Murphy.
Stsve Gerrard played a fantastic ball behind the Arsenal defence for Baros to get on the end of, and after Baros got into the Arsenal penalty area, he was taken down by Sol Campbell.
Diouf and Murphy debated who would take the spot kick, but Murphy stepped up and placed the ball into the top corner, giving Seaman no chance at all.
The lead was short lived however, as Thierry Henry netted an equaliser with just over ten minutes to go.
Francis Jeffers turned Riise at the edge of the area, and despite minimal contact by Riise on the former Everton man, Jeffers threw himself over in the area and Jeff Winter was quick to point to the spot, also showing a yellow card to Riise as Henry calmly stuck home Arsenal's equalising goal.
Houllier's response was to bring off Cheyrou and Baros, to be replaced by Traore and Biscan, as he clearly set out to make sure Liverpool didn't lose the game, but The Gunners nearly did win the game, after Gilberto Silva missed the best chance of the whole game when he sidefooted the ball wide of goal from less than 6 yards out, with the goal standing empty.
The controversial penalty eventually cost Liverpool three points though, and while the main task was to avoid defeat at the home of the league leaders, there still exists a nine point gap between the two sides and Liverpool must now make sure that their run of nine league games without a win is ended up at St James Park on Wednesday.
