Match Reports
Liverpool 1-2 Arsenal A Thierry Henry penalty in first half injury time, and a second Arsenal goal scored by Freddy Ljungberg after the break helped Arsenal to a valuable Premier League win and moved them above Liverpool in the league. The game was played at a fast pace throughout and it took Arsenal less than 15 seconds to get the ball into Liverpool's penalty area with Henry providing a cross which Carragher put out for a corner. Arsenal had most of the ball in the first quarter of an hour, though were unable to trouble Dudek, who had only a couple of crosses to deal with. Kanu had Arsenal's first good chance but sliced his shot high and wide at the Kop end. At the other end, Gary McAllister curled a free kick onto the roof of the net, and an Owen shot which beat the keeper and Ashley Cole's attempted goal-line clearance only looked to be helping the ball into the net, but the Arsenal left back hooked his right foot back and somehow got the ball clear despite part of it having crossed the line. Owen had already wheeled away in celebration but the linesman had not flagged and the goal was not given. A long range shot by Berger went high and wide, and a similar effort followed from Riise shortly afterwards, which was equally off target. But after 37 minutes, a controversial moment in the match occurred. Giovanni Van Bronkhorst ran into the area and after losing possesion, went down under a slight shoulder barge by Hyypia. Referee Paul Durkin saw it as a dive and brandished the yellow card to the Dutchman, who had already been booked and was therefore given his marching orders. Ten man Arsenal stepped up a gear though, and went ahead just before the break. In the final minute of added on time, Ljungberg knocked the ball past Dudek, who crashed into the Swede, bringing him to the ground. A penalty was given for the foul, although no further punishment was issued to Dudek, probably because the ball had been knocked further away from goal and it could not have been classes as a clear goalscoring opportunity once Ljungberg had played the ball. The penalty itsself was a clear chance however, and Henry made no mistake in putting Arsenal ahead. 3 minutes into the second half, Owen had the chance to level things. A careless ball back by Pires gave the ball straight to Owen and he wriggled his way through three Arsenal defenders to give himself the space for a shot, but with Keown making a last gasp attempt to block the ball, it proved to be enough to put off Owen and the shot was a couple of yards wide. Just a few minutes later, Henry came close to doubling the lead with a shot from the edge of the box which curled just wide. But Ljungberg did double the lead less then 60 seconds later. A dreadful pass by Gerrard went stright to Pires who ran the entire length of the left side of Liverpool's half teasing Gerrard, before crossing to the near post for Ljungberg to fire in. The two goal lead lasted just a couple of minutes though, as Litmanen hit back for Liverpool, heading in from a mis-hit shot by Owen which turned into a perfect far post cross. There was no doubt that Liverpool had the best of the last half hour, but other than a Berger shot which deflected just inches wide, there wasnt too much which troubled the Arsenal keeper, who was happy to waste as much time as possible, as where all the Arsenal players, a couple of whom earned themselves yellow cards for their efforts. In the end, the game was settled thanks to a couple of careless individual mistakes - Dudek for conceding the panalty, and Gerrard for giving the ball away so easily for the second goal, with one of a number of badly misplaced passes by the England star in today's game. Arsenal now move above Liverpool in the league, but Liverpool still have a game in hand which is away to Southampton and which could potentially see them move level on points with Newcastle. But there are a number of games for each side at the top of the league before then, and Liverpool will have to improve on their recent results if they are to remain as Championship contenders going into the New Year. View match pictures from this game!
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