Chocolate boy wasn’t put off by his least favoured foot and struck a hard low shot past Reina 1-0. Robin Van Persie is the only player in the Arsenal squad who could have pulled that off

Match Review – Arsenal 1 Liverpool 1 – Premier League

A chance to turn around our season, start a fresh and leave the Fulham’s, Hull and Stoke City’s behind us. Liverpool who are top of the league are coming to the Emirates, a victory over them and we could be within 5 points of the leaders approaching the busy Christmas period. I was pumped, excited and bloody nervous before the game.

The missus was popping out to do the Christmas food shopping and I was left with my three kids, it was ok though, I was going to watch the game uninterrupted and I planned the whole day so that the two youngest would have a lap at 3.50pm. All was going according to plan.

Nasri was in for Diaby as expected, the rest of the side was the same as in previous weeks which I found a little surprising. I thought Denilson would be reinstated in the middle alongside Cesc Fabregas. Ok, lets see how this pans out.

I was expecting another tight affair as a Rafaless Liverpool would surely try and stop Arsenal from playing, especially without their talisman Torres up front. Robbie Keane was given the chance to prove his worth. I still cannot believe that cheque book manager Rafa spent £20 million pounds on a player that he cannot fit in. What’s the betting he comes out with the same crap about Liverpool needed reinforcements in January in attempt to pressure the board in giving him more money to throw away.

Sorry, going off track here.

I did get a twinge in my stomach when I saw Keane on the team sheet. Former Spud, hasn’t scored since 1927, has minus goals to his name and is generally going through a torrid time. Didn’t that just spell goal against Arsenal?

Liverpool started the better of the two sides, we looked a little nervous in possession. It appeared that Liverpool were trying to get joy out of Kuyt in the air against Clichy early on but our super Frenchman did well against that ploy.

The first real chance fell to Liverpool in the 10th minute, Robbie Keane latched onto a long pass, he looked up and found Gerrard on the edge of the penalty area. Gerrard’s strike was straight at Almunia who held comfortably. Robbie Keane was trying to get onto a few long passes that were not really being dealt with by the Arsenal back four and they would soon be made to pay.

It was the Gooners who opened the scoring. Samir Nasri on the left looked up and showed his creativity by spinning a fabulous pass in between Liverpool to Van Persie who pulled off his marker, Van the man took it on his chest and with his next touch dragged it away from Carragher onto his right side. Chocolate boy wasn’t put off by his least favoured foot and struck a hard low shot past Reina 1-0. Robin Van Persie is the only player in the Arsenal squad who could have pulled that off.

That goal lifted so much stress for me, we have scored a goal against a side who have come to contain us, surely it is in our hands now.

The Sky commentators seemed to be more obsessed about Rafa Benitez communication with the Liverpool bench than anything else that was happening during the game. After the 5th time of watching some curly haired dude on the phone I thought enough was enough.

Liverpool started to push forward in search of the equaliser. Steven Gerrard hit a curling free kick straight at Almunia in the 33rd.

Emmanuel Adebayor who was having a decent game received a caution from referee Howard Webb for a late tackle on full back Insua.

Liverpool continued to test Almunia with Gerrard being the latest player to threaten our goal. The Liverpool captain hit a stinging shot that was heading towards Almunia but Gallas got his body in the way and blocked fantastically well.

I was praying that Arsenal could go into half time with the lead intact so we could regroup and go again for the second half. My prays were unanswered. Johan Djourou has been in superb form since he has come into the side and has hardly put a foot wrong, unfortunately for him his foot was put wrong in the 42nd minute. Agger whacked a clearance up field from deep inside his own half towards Robbie Keane, Johan Djourou and Gallas who was covering the other side. Djourou was very square and he did not deal with the long ball and the former Tottenham man ran through on goal, Djourou was chasing him but he wasn’t close enough. It seemed to take an eternity for Keane to reach Almunia and when he did he hit a wonderful half volley high past Almunia. Gutted.

There were many signs that Keane was trying to run onto the early pass and if I was being critical, which I guess I am. Why wasn’t this dealt with, either by the players on the pitch or by the management team. With Robbie Keane up front on his own couldn’t we afford one of the center halves to drop off with another marking him?

I am no defensive coach but from where I was watching it looked like a school boy error. 1-1 so close to half time was a bitter pill to swallow.

From that point, things got from bad to worse. The bad was Kuyt almost setting up Gerrard with a low cross that Gerrard just failed to connect with, if he had it would have been the second for Liverpool.

The worse happened just before half time Cesc and his International team mate Alonso contested a 50:50 ball, Cesc was sliding in while Alonso struck the ball which almost made our chief creator spin around in a full circle. The impact was so hard that you knew he would have been injured from it. It just depended how long for. It appears to be a medial knee ligament injury, but we shall see what the doctors say on Monday.

So there I was trying to find positives out of a deteriating situation when Sky announced that Abou Diaby will replace Cesc for the second half. Ah ha! I thought, Diaby has his chance to shine in the center of midfield alongside a defensive minded player. He will add drive and power for the next few weeks. He now has a chance to grab with both hands.

The second half started and I was perplexed with Arsene’s decision to change the whole of the midfield around and still have Diaby playing of out position. We could have kept the exact same shape. Diaby has played in the center in many Carling Cup matches in the past and has played very well i.e. the final against Chelsea. If Arsene will not partner Diaby with Song then he NEVER will with Cesc.

Liverpool started the game brightly, perhaps given the extra motivation that the Arsenal captain is no longer taking part. Lucas let fly from distance early on which Almunia got down well. Kuyt got himself into another good shooting position that was blocked.

The turning point, well another turning point came on the 62nd minute. Adebayor threw himself in front of the ball to shield it from *Arbeloa (I don’t know why, but that name annoys the hell out of me) and Howard Webb being the pillock that is obviously is decided that it was dangerous play and sent Adebayor off. Anybody with any football sense would have noticed what he was trying to do.

So lets recap, taken the lead against the top team hope that the points difference will be cut to 5 points, Liverpool equalise after stupid defending, Cesc gets a lengthy injured so it seems then Adebayor gets sent off for no reason.

Talk about a downhill match.

All that was needed was a last minute winner for Dirk bloody Kuyt!

It would take a massive effort from the Arsenal young lads to get through this, a big show in character.

From that moment on, Arsenal were fantastic. It was like the Tony Adams, Patrick Vieira, Martin Keown, Ray Parlour of old. Backs against the wall, time to show that we are made of sterner stuff.

Denilson, Alex Song, Robin Van Persie and Samir Nasri were tremendous and put it a super shift. That kind of attitude and commitment would have seen us sitting top of the league today and I really do believe that.

Instead of Liverpool taking the game to us it was the other way round. On 68 minutes, Arsenal poured forward in search of the winner. The ball fell to Song in the Liverpool area but they managed to clear their lines.

Howard Webb started to go card crazy as if he was told in his ear piece that he gets a bonus for ever card he produces. I am sure its probably double your money if it is an Arsenal player.

Steven Gerrard went on a powerful run towards Almunia’s goal which Gallas held off well, Gerrard went down and surprisingly nothing was given. One of the referees few good decisions of the day.

Agger had a few 30 yard strikes scream past Almunia’s post.

The last cheer of the night from the Arsenal supporters who were in fantastic voice was for Emmanuel Eboue who replaced Samir Nasri on the 90th minute. With the teams performance after the red card and the support from the crowd it seems like the club are pulling in the right direction which is great to see.

So what does this mean for our title ambitions? The simple answer to my question is that I do not know anymore. It is looking like a very difficult uphill struggle for us while others have a flat surface. It is probably better for us supporters to think of each game as it comes and forget about the long term.

Next up Aston Villa at Villa Park, we are going to have to be fully committed and passionate for us to get anything from the game because they will certainly be fired up for it. Perhaps we should start the game a man down.

* Apologies to any (other) Arbeloa’s reading this.