Match Report.
On a truly miserable day, the Reds lost their grip on the FA Cup as Arsenal gained revenge for the defeat in Cardiff last May. Referee Mike Riley was the centre of attention, sending off three players, Martin Keown and goalscorer Dennis Bergkamp from the home side and Liverpool's Jamie Carragher in an crazy five minute spell mid-way through the second half.
In-form Dennis Bergkamp nodded home the only goal of the game on 28 minutes following great work down the left from Thierry Henry. The goal came as a big blow to the Reds as they had started the game solidly, looking to repeat Tuesday's magnificently strong display at Old Trafford.
Stand in manager Phil Thompson opted to recall former Highbury favourite Nicolas Anelka, as midweek hero Danny Murphy dropped to the bench with Emile Heskey surprisingly reverting to a right-wing role. After his impressive display against United young full back Steven Wright also retained his place and again looked anything but out of place
Without the influential Freddie Ljungberg, Arsenal struggled to penetrate, despite their positive start. It was Liverpool however, who came closest to breaking the deadlock as Michael Owen broke clear, but hit his shot straight at Richard Wright.
Minutes later, Arsenal capitalised on Owens misfortune to take the lead, seemingly extracting all of the confidence, which the visitors had built up with some fine passing and movement. Bergkamp could have netted again before half time, but was denied due to a miraculous last-ditch challenge from Jamie Carragher.
After surviving the onslaught late in the first half, the Reds withdrew Anelka in favour of the scarcely used Jari Litmanen in search of the guile that would force the breakthrough. However it was the home side who continued to make the running with a succession of counter attacks. Henry came closest to doubling Arsenal's lead, forcing Stephane Henchoz into a magnificent saving tackle. It seemed however, the Reds patience had paid off when Litmanen's superb through ball sent through Owen, only for him to be pulled back by Martin Keown. The referee was left with no choice but to show Keown a straight red card.
Owen came close again from the resulting free kick as John Arne Riise's piledriver was spilled by Wright, the ball rebounded quickly to the 24 goal wonder who failed to control his shot as the ball span wide. It seemed that it was not to be Owens day as he headed over a difficult chance late on. This was not before the real drama unfolded with a further two red cards. Firstly, Arsenal were reduced to nine men as Bergkamp appeared to stamp on Carragher.
Carragher himself was next to go in an unsavoury incident in which a coin thrown from the crowd appeared to hit the Liverpool full back. Carragher then picked up the coin and lashed of back from where it came. Carragher quickly disappeared down the tunnel as he was given his marching orders in an incident which is sure to cost the England man a heavy suspension. Despite dominating possession the reds failed miserably when creating clear cut chances with Owens early miss the only one of note as the home side quite easily held on to gain a famous victory, which was greeted by joyous scenes from the Highbury faithful at the final whistle.
Phil Thompson's men can consider themselves unlucky to come away with the famous trophy ripped from their grasp by Arsene Wenger's side. Two weeks ago they came away from Highbury with a point after producing a far inferior display. In May 2001 Michael Owen had two chances and scored twice, today he had four and failed to find the net with one of them. Such has become the Reds reliance on the European Footballer of the Year that if things don't go his way the same applies to his team.
Day Report andÊÊ The thoughts of the (living dead) boy Smith.
It's 6:30am: Thomas Johannson of Sweden has just lifted the Australian Open Tennis title, but who gives a shit. The Boy Smith and Davey Boy Usher are wide awake, just as they have been all night, follwing a successful visit to The Cavern Club and a night long discussion with my flatmates friend 'Tish', not to mention a viewing of the 'treble winners' video to get us prepared for the trip to North London. In ten minutes time we have to meet Neil and Steve Horton at Moorfields station to begin the four hour plus journey to Highbury - the second in two weeks
Despite both looking like we were thrown of the set of Michael Jackson's thriller video for being overly Zombiefied, we are in pretty high spirits and can envision no other scenario other than the Reds progressing to the fifth round of the FA Cup.
We pick up Dave's cousin Alan in Bootle, who as always is looking in pristine condition without a hair out of place. Discussion is limited, not that I would have heard anyway being in a comatose state that had taken over my body and mind. We arrived at Cockfosters tube station and made our way to Highbury and as the great Elvis Pressley once said
"On a cold and Grey Chicago morn another little baby child is born in the ghetto"
Arsenal fans, - who I once respected join the rest of the entire country in the hate list - have the nerve to sing about us 'in our Liverpool slums' when out of the 50 odd shops, laundrettes and cafés that surrounded the ground, taking a piss on their floor would be below my standards. Despite this we were still able to indulge in some quality chips from the "Gunners Fish Bar".
Not only were the streets of London covered in filth, some of it had negotiated its way into the away end. Following Arsenal's goal, to add to my misery the old scumbag sat behind me on the back row of the stand proceeded to turn around and piss all over the seats. You horrible horrible bastard. I felt sick, the guy obviously hadn't been to a game for about 20 years as he obviously believed that this was appropriate behaviour despite there being around 15 pristine toilets below the stand. His similarly attired low-life friends simply encouraged him "go on la piss arl over it". During half time a friend who looked so fetching in his knock-off lacoste trackie proceeded to light up a fattie, polluting the air with that smelly Shite. That's the problems you have to face when the club receives 5,400 tickets. They fall into the wrong hands.
At half time I was miserable as sin. Still tired, fed up and not wanting to be there, I was cheered a little by the arrival of Jari Litmanen who was warming up on the pitch. "It's gotta be Heskey" I said and for the 35,097th time this season, I was wrong. The Ironic cheers from the cockney goons told me that it was their former icon Anelka who had made way for the mercurial Finn. Why? Heskey produced an utterly brain dead performance, Nic looked sharp and dangerous so logically the Frenchman made way.
But, finally the diamond formation with Jari at the head was to be implemented. "If this works, mate, it could be the start of something big" predicted Dave (who was still predicting we would win with one minute left in the ninety by the way! Sllep deprivation will do that to you I guess!).
It wasn't to be however and revenge was indeed Arsenals. The fans who weren't pissing all over the place, gave a good accounting of themselves. The usual away day classics "fields of Anfield Road" and a weak ass rendition of "Liverbird" got a bit of an airing and the old "1-0 down, 2-1 up" which suddenly isn't so amusing.
On the way home, my snoring seemed to piss off my travelling buddies even more than the game itself, and it was only that which increased the volume of a very, very quiet automobile. I got home just in time to see the F.A Cup draw. Arsenal will playÊ..Gillingham and Bristol Rovers.
As I said in the opening line of my match report, this was a truly miserable day.
Finally, Jamie Carragher is going to be slated from all corners including his spineless caretaker manager who is more like the tabloid press than we could ever imagine. He is the first to build players up when they are playing well but will never come out and defend them when the shit hits the fan. One wonders if he has been taking lessons from our old mate David Maddock? He has blasted Carra, basically echoing what Carra himself said, but why not be a little more like O'Leary, Ferguson and Wenger and maybe defend his players once in a while
Jamie Carragher is one of us and I refuse to condemn him for his actions. I would have done exactly the same. It's easy to say that he acted stupidly, unprofessionally etcÊ.but in the heat of the moment when you are hit by a coin how many of you would have restrained yourselves? If you could you're a better man than me. He said that he let us down? Jamie lad, you have never let us down.
TEAM: Jerzy Dudek; Stephen Wright (Danny Murphy), Stephane Henchoz, Sami Hyypia, Jamie Carragher; Emile Heskey, Steven Gerrard, Didi Hamann, John Arne Riise; Michael Owen, Nicolas Anelka (Jari Litmanen):
