Liverpool 1 Arsenal 0: There were only three minute left when Liverpool at last broke the resistance of the outstanding Jens Lehmann. His save from one substitute Dietmar Hamann was excellent but he could not prevent another, Luis Garcia, from converting the rebound from an angle.
Lehmann, who had earlier saved a penalty, had also dived to tip an overhead kick from Harry Kewell round the post in the 76th minute. He could not, however, quite deny this game the drama expected of it.
Even if it had not been the 10th anniversary of the death of Bob Paisley, the greatest manager Liverpool and, for that matter, English football has known, this would still have been an occasion redolent of the game's traditions. These, after all, are clubs of noble lineage, even if their aspirations are slightly less august than they have sometimes been.
A little run of poor form for Liverpool was hardly brought to a triumphant end by a workaday win at Wigan, and Arsenal feel the sort of ache for fourth place, and the access it brings to the Champions League, that they would once have reserved for the Premiership title itself.
Each team was competing with the other, but also trying to bring itself into tune.
That task was of an intensely personal nature for Robbie Fowler, making his first start at Anfield for Liverpool since being transferred to Leeds late in 2001. All that keenness did not immediately ferry him to the heart of the action and it was a piece of slight indulgence by the referee Graham Poll that invited Rafael Benitez's side to assume the lead after 32 minutes.
Emmanuel Eboue, the Ivorian right-back making his first Premiership start for Arsenal, was deemed to have fouled Fernando Morientes after the striker's interchange with Kewell. Some officials would have called it a hearty shoulder charge but Liverpool were awarded a penalty. Lehmann, in the middle of his best season since coming to this country, dived to his right to turn away Steven Gerrard's attempt at a conversion.
The German had earlier made at least as impressive save from his team-mate Philippe Senderos when the centre-half stooped and miscued a header. Liverpool, whether aided inadvertently by opponents or not, were generally on the attack and, as usual, experiencing difficulties in converting moves into goals. Morientes, assured of selection by Peter Crouch's heel injury, was once more a disappointment before the interval.
Arsenal, despite being forced by injury into fielding semi-experimental line-ups these days, mostly dealt with the Liverpool pressure and would even have enjoyed the lead had Emmanuel Adebayor not been given off-side incorrectly when he broke free and rounded Jerzy Dudek.
The Togolese striker will, for all that, need time to be assimilated into a side that has lacked anyone with the traits of a target man for so long that the players have forgotten how to utilise his strengths fully.
Even if several players were not absent, Arsene Wenger would still be engaged in reshaping a team in need of a degree of refurbishment. His focus on long-term interests, however, has not been compromised by the demands of Premiership action and, after the first signs that Abou Diaby's form might dip, the 19-year-old midfielder was protectively named among the substitutes.
With Freddie Ljungberg and Robert Pires on either flank, this was a seemingly audacious selection for such an away fixture. Arsenal seldom tapped that potential, however, because their presence in central midfield was tenuous.
Liverpool continued to show more threat, particularly, after 51 minutes, in a flashback to the best days of Fowler. With one touch of his left foot he took a Gerrard cross to spin away from Senderos before shooting tamely with his right.
Morientes could have addressed Liverpool's immediate concerns after Gerrard had rounded the Arsenal defence on the left, but a flicked header flew narrowly wide in the 63rd minute. Wenger's team, then, were doing little more than getting some practice at meeting the sustained pressure that will be even more severe when they meet Real Madrid in the Bernabeu next week.
LIVERPOOL: Dudek, Finnan, Hyypia, Carragher, Riise, Gerrard, Sissoko (Luis Garcia 84), Alonso (Hamann 72), Kewell, Morientes, Fowler (Cisse 80). Subs Not Used: Carson, Traore. Goals: Luis Garcia 87.
ARSENAL: Lehmann, Eboue, Toure, Senderos, Flamini, Ljungberg, Fabregas, Silva, Pires (Hleb 79), Adebayor, Henry. Subs Not Used: Almunia, Diaby, Larsson, Djourou. Booked: Ljungberg.
Referee: G Poll (Hertfordshire).
