Arsenal 1 Liverpool 0:ARSENAL HAVE their relief and, with it, a timely reminder their title pursuit might still be credible. Arsene Wenger had demanded a response of his team last night, and proof they boast the mental fortitude to rouse themselves and recover from costly defeats to the division's leading lights. In this victory, the Frenchman has his encouraging evidence.
This was hardly the scintillating display the manager would normally crave, but the persistence and conviction his players displayed were still admirable. Wenger, too, could draw heart from the toils of those above his side last night which has edged them marginally back into the Premier League race.
Arsenal were rugged and, eventually, rewarded. Liverpool had been hinting at their own riposte in recent weeks, but Rafael Benitez has never seen his side prevail here and this was a dispiriting loss. The substitute Ryan Babel’s swerving attempt in the dying seconds was touched on to the bar by Manuel Almunia, but that was as close as the visitors came. The sense of despondency will pursue Liverpool back to Merseyside. For Arsenal, as ecstatic as the visitors were enraged at the final whistle, hope has merely flared again.
Wenger had spied cause for optimism in the fixture list that remains for his team – “Mathematically, it is still possible that we can win the title,” he had said in the build-up – but both these managers are haunted by the reality that Champions League qualification may now constitute the height of their domestic ambition.
Recent back-to-back defeats to the top two had deflated Arsenal. Wenger had mustered his troops, urging them to embark on a run as impressive as the 10-match unbeaten sequence that had carried their challenge until Manchester United punctured them here. Yet an initial anxiety had still choked their game.
Perhaps they had been too desperate to appear unaffected by recent traumas, but their angst manifested itself in uncharacteristic failings: Cesc Fabregas’s under-hit pass from a promising position on the edge of the area; Gael Clichy’s risky header across his own area from an innocuous punt downfield; Andrei Arshavin’s nasty lunge with studs plunging into Lucas Leiva’s ankle; or Emmanuel Eboue’s wildly inaccurate cross from the by-line.
Nicklas Bendter’s first start since October at least offered a focal point to the attack and, after a rare flurry of class as Liverpool retreated into defence, it was the Dane who thrashed Arshavin’s slipped pass over the bar.
Yet for long periods, this was a shabby mess of a contest. Liverpool’s forays forward lacked rhythm, reliant upon Steven Gerrard’s leggy bursts through the centre or Emiliano Insua’s willingness to improvise from left-back but the match drifted.
The chances eked out of the muddle had been snatched and rarely clear-cut, even if they became more frequent as urgency set in after the interval. Lucas Leiva, bursting on to Dirk Kuyt’s flick, battered over the bar while William Gallas summoned a wonderful recovering tackle to deny David Ngog as he prepared to shoot. Arsenal’s centre-half might have been more accurate with a free header from Fabregas’s first-half free-kick, but was left to curse Tomas Rosicky’s heavy touch as the Czech bore down on goal following Arshavin’s slide-rule pass.
The Russian’s form has lulled in recent months when necessity had him marooned in an orthodox striking role that has nullified his impact. Theo Walcott’s introduction at his expense at least offered the home side more threat on the counter, though it was from the opposite flank that the home side finally found reward.
Fabregas’s break and Bendtner’s brawn and slipped pass squeezed Rosicky away from Insua. The Czech’s cross was ideal, Abou Diaby trundling into the void between Martin Skrtel, Kuyt and Philipp Degen – on for Jamie Carragher – to plant a close-range header into the corner.
ARSENAL: Almunia, Eboue, Gallas, Vermaelen, Clichy, Fabregas, Song, Diaby, Nasri (Rosicky 33), Bendtner (Sagna 81), Arshavin (Walcott 67). Subs not used: Fabianski, Denilson, Traore, Campbell. Booked: Clichy, Bendtner, Fabregas.
LIVERPOOL: Reina, Carragher (Degen 54), Skrtel, Agger, Insua, Lucas (Babel 78), Mascherano, Kuyt, Gerrard, Maxi, Ngog. Subs not used: Cavalieri, Riera, Aurelio, Spearing, Kelly. Booked: Maxi, Degen.
Referee: Howard Webb (S Yorkshire).
