After the emotion of uncommon defeat, exhaustion had taken hold at Highbury, but yesterday Thierry Henry's remarkable hat-trick revitalised Arsenal's flagging season.

"I did fear they would react like a wounded animal," said Gerard Houllier after Arsene Wenger's side tore his Liverpool apart yesterday.

The Liverpool manager was evoking the traditional view, that an animal reacts to being hurt by lashing out at all around, instinctively protecting itself from further harm. Yet as anybody who's ever watched Animal Hospital could confirm, some creatures take one on the nose and just sit there bamboozled. That kind of animal is more like Liverpool.

For the second time this season, Houllier's side lost to Arsenal despite having held an early advantage.

Wenger confessed afterwards to fears that the matches which ended in FA Cup and Champions League exits to Manchester United and Chelsea might have destroyed his side's campaign.

Fear would have turned to dread at half-time, when the Gunners went in 2-1 down to Liverpool, but that gloomy mood was emphatically dispelled as Henry took his league tally for the season to 25 goals, the second a masterpiece of dribbling and finishing.

"This was a vital game for us," said Wenger, whose team are this morning seven points clear at the top of the Premiership with seven to play, starting with tomorrow's trip to Newcastle.

"Lose today and Easter could have been a change of position for us. Now, whatever happens, we stay in command.

"When your confidence drops you can always quickly lose your game. How quickly you bounce back is always better. I felt it was a big mental test and we made it more difficult for ourselves to be down at half-time.

"It shows the human qualities of this team when they have their backs to the wall."

Wenger admitted that even after Henry's five seasons under his tutelage at Highbury and the striker's formation with him at Monaco, goals such as the 26-year-old's second - Arsenal's third - still surprise him.

"For the third goal he takes the ball in the middle of the park and walks it through to score," he enthused.

"He makes it look easy but when you know at that level how difficult it is to beat players like that you are astonished."

Arsenal have used fewer players in the Premiership this season than any other top-flight side and Henry admitted this result masks the fatigue endemic in the team.

"It was just about commitment and mentality," said Henry. "We are exhausted but you'd never know that from the way we played in the second half. It looked like we'd rested for 10 days. It's about how much you want it.

"We've been down but we're not dead yet. We showed that once again after two massive games like that.

"We lost two games in four days and everyone was thinking we're not a good team any more. People had forgotten that we had not lost in the league. We let the FA Cup and Champions League go but we don't want to give up a season's work."

Houllier, meanwhile, has earned a reputation as a man with an unending list of excuses but here, he was gallant in defeat.

"Arsenal were simply stunning," he said. "Not many sides could compete with them on this form. They came out more aggressive and determined in the second half than we did. I have to put my hands up and praise them. Football is sometimes about taking time to admire those you are up against."

You can't knock the sentiment, though Liverpool fans might wish some of their players had saved their admiration for when the ball was out of play.

When Thierry Henry skipped through the defence for his second goal, he faced not one strong challenge, merely the sight of a bedazzled Jamie Carragher reeling on his heels and bringing down Igor Biscan as he did so.

Liverpool are no longer the defensive force of the past few seasons. Biscan and Sami Hyypia, whose early headed goal proved the first of two false dawns, are no nearer forming an effective central-defensive partnership than during their poor opening to the season.

On the positive side, Michael Owen's form appears good, after the confident manner in which he despatched skipper Steven Gerrard's exquisite 30-yard pass to put Liverpool 2-1 up, though England may stand to benefit more than Liverpool.

Certainly there seemed nothing in the performances of the other forwards - Emile Heskey, El Hadji Diouf, Kewell or Milan Baros - to even hint that Liverpool's last result had been a free-flowing 4-0 win.

"I have to tell my players that they don't play teams like Arsenal every week," said Houllier, who probably didn't intend his words to sound like a statement of inferiority.

The truth is, though, that Liverpool meekly failed another test at Highbury, and the next few matches will prove exactly what kind of animal they are.