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'Pool v Gunners: Xabi Alonso watches...
Premier League
Liverpool 1
Xabi Alonso watches from the Anfield stands. I still have nothing funny to say about this. Photograph: Michael Regan/Getty Images
Preamble: This is a difficult game to call. The form of both teams has been inconsistent to say the least. While injuries have made the Arsenal medical room resemble something a little like the a Crimean War field hospital, making Arsene Wenger – if the metaphor is be stretched past breaking point to ludicrous point – a little like the new Florence Nightingale as he wanders the wards, sighing, tutting and shaking his head.
Arsenal could be without ... deep breath … Diaby (calf), Eduardo (thigh), Fábregas (back), Gallas (h'string), Traoré (h'string), Arshavin (foot), who are all doubtful and Clichy (back, Dec 26), Rosicky (groin, Dec 26), Eboué (h'string, Jan), Bendtner (groin, Jan), Gibbs (foot, Feb), Van Persie (ankle, Mar), Djourou (knee, Apr) who are all injured. And they haven't been playing well of late – since beating Standard Liege at the end of November, they've scored two and had seven put past them in four games in all competitions. That's a stat skewed by Wenger's use of his kids in Europe and the League Cup but, with the squad nearly down to its bare bones, it's upon those kids he might be having to rely. Having said that, Wenger's use of his substitutes in the Champions League should mean his first team is fresh.
Liverpool, finally, have a full squad from which to choose from – if, as it appears, Fernando Torres and Alberto Aquilani, are back to match-fitness. They also have something to prove after their Champions League displays.
And the stats appear to be on their side: they're unbeaten in their last four league games (though have won just once), Arsenal's last league win at Anfield came in 2003.
This is normally a goalfest, with 46 goals scored in the sides' last 11 meetings, while Arsenal have not kept a clean sheet at Anfield for over 10 years. Which means today, it's going to be 1-1, doesn't it?
Meanwhile, is it suspicious that both Clichy and Rosicky are set to return from injury on Boxing Day? A cunning ploy, perhaps, to ensure they can tuck into the turkey with impunity.
The big news is ...: Fernando Torres will start. Aquilani won't. Well, that's not actually big news, is it? Minor news might have been more accurate. Or perhaps point of interest, because it's not news, really. Not in the strictest sense. Footballer plays football game isn't, really, the sort of thing on which the great newspapers have been based. But it's all we've got.
Sigh.
Those teams in full for you:
Liverpool: Reina, Johnson, Carragher, Agger, Aurelio, Mascherano, Lucas, Kuyt, Gerrard, Benayoun, Torres.
Subs: Cavalieri, Aquilani, Insua, Ngog, Degen, Skrtel, Dossena.
Arsenal: Almunia, Sagna, Gallas, Vermaelen, Traore, Fabregas, Song Billong, Denilson, Walcott, Arshavin, Nasri.
Subs: Fabianski, Diaby, Eduardo, Vela, Ramsey, Silvestre, Wilshere.
Referee: Howard Webb (S Yorkshire)
So Fabregas, Arshavin, Gallas and Traoré are all back in the squad, despite having minor niggles that could have kept them out, while Theo Walcott will get a start and a chance to prove that he is the talent that everyone keeps bleating that he is. Given his injury record - and stunted comebacks so far - what money on someone like Mascherano to send him hobbling from the pitch in the 27th minute?
Aquilani, the saviour of Liverpool and the man who will solve all problems everywhere, ever, is not fit enough to start. Perhaps he'll be ready for Christmas. That's a good day for saviours to make their long-awaited appearances.
It's 50 years since the arrival of Bill Shankly at Liverpool and the great man's achievements are many and great. Surely the one he'll be most pleased with is the honour Liverpool's lord mayor will be bestowing on him in a couple of days. He'll be made an honourary citizen of Liverpool. 28 years after he died. It doesn't get anymore honorary than that.
An email (it is allowed, by the way): "I forsee the gods of Karma paying out on Arsene here, thanks to his latest suggestion of calling in the dogs of law regarding Robin van Persie's injury while representing Holland," reckons Evan Kennezar. "Add this to Alex Ferguson's time keeping rant yesterday there seems to be barely a week where one of the big managers isn't throwing toys out of the pram for some reason. Does Sportsbet offer odds on post match whinging? I reckon today would be less than evens given the two in charge."
Arshavin thinks the team need to be sharper at the front and has repeated Fabregas's calls for Wenger to buy a big striker for them to play off up front. He does say that "we are probably the best around the box though", which does seem to reinforce the old cliche that Arsenal are, like a flirty celibate, more interested in making a pass than scoring.
In the Sky studio: Jamie Redknapp shifts in his seat, aggresively angles his crotch at the camera, and says there may be a scientific reason for Aquilani not being on the pitch today. If there's one person you want lecturing you about science, it's got to be Jamie Redknapp, the notorious physicist, chemist and Alexander Agassiz Medal winner.
Clippity-cloppity, clippity-cloppity go the players' studs as they carry their players onto the pitch. Kick-off is just seconds away, which means it's a good time for Sky to go to the ads. If only we could do the same. The worry is that you wouldn't come back.
we're off: Arsenal, in blue, kick-off and more or less immediately concede posession to Fernando Torres. He runs with it for a bit, before Arsenal get it back. Nasri runs with it for a bit and then gives it back to Liverpool. This sort of things goes on for another minute or so.
2 min: "Wenger brought it up a little while ago, but what is going on with the injury list at Arsenal?" asks Dave Konopka. "Is Colin Lewin secretly a Spurs fan? I'm thinking that Arsene should sign someone in the mold of Tony Adams or Vinnie Jones solely to test the durability of potential signings. At the end of the physical, go out to the pitch and see how many tackles from Mr. Adams/Jones he can endure. I'm putting the over/under at five. More than that, and he's good to go. Less and he'll pick up an injury every two weeks." It's not a bad idea, that. And it would spare us from whatever Adams is going to serve up on the Today programme.
3 min: Walcott wins a corner, his pace giving Aurelio a brief brown shorts moment. The ball comes in to Song, but is cleared by a big Liverpool head putting in a big Liverpool header.
4 min: Nasri gives the ball away to Gerrard who, with unerring accuracy, plants an early cross, intended for Torres in the box, squarely onto the 'arris of Traore. A ring stinger, if you will.
6 min: It's been a frenzied start, so far, with much charging about at high velocity and very little in the way of anyone getting their foot on the ball. Walcott nearly managed to get on the end of a long ball played over the top but ran, instead, into Carragher, who may or may not have known exactly what he was doing in standing stock still and letting the winger thump into him.
7 min: Daniel Colasimone sounds worryingly close to ending it all now. "I think we have reached that depressing time of the season where we realise, with 99% probability that Manchester United or Chelsea will win the Premier League, Inter will win Serie A, and Barcelona will pip Real Madrid to La Liga," he says. "No matter how much jibber jabbering goes on between now and the end of the season, we all know that's pretty much how it's going to play out. You can probably throw in the fact that Brazil will win the World Cup, after beating somebody like Germany in the final." Shall we just go home now?
10 min: Still nobody seems to have got on top of this game yet, but it has been pretty physical so far. Well, physical in the sense that there's been lots of running around and Mascherano has been putting in a lot of tackles.
Almunia, perhaps, has been reading the opinions of Daniel Colasimone in the seventh minute. He receives a back pass and simply slams it into touch with insouciance of an existentialist French writer. "Pah," he seemed to say with that kick, "we're all going to die anyway".
12 min: Arshavin loses the ball on the edge of Liverpool's box and the home side counter-attack immediately and skillfully. Gerrard charges up the pitch and plays Torres into the box. With just the keeper to beat, he tickles a tame shot to Almunia's left, which the Spaniard falls on easily.
13 min: Liverpool break again and, once again, it's through Gerrard and Torres. This time the striker plays Gerrard in and Gallas goes in with all the recklessness of a berzerker on amphetamines. The defender clears the ball, but sends Gerrard tumbling onto his head with the sort of challenge that could easily lead to a penalty. Gerrard goes suitably mental when he doesn't get one.
16 min: Arsenal need to be very careful of Liverpool's attacking threat. That's twice they've broken from within their own half, leaving Gallas and Vermaelen as exposed for The Gunners as the man who used to wander around a Hammersmith graveyard, showing his man bits to any and every passer-by.
18 min: Torres earns himself a really soft free kick. He dribbled past Song, who wasn't making much effort to take the ball off him and seemed to run out of puff. He settles for half sitting, half falling to the ground after using Song's trailing leg as a step on his way to the ground. Gerrard swings the free-kick over and it is cleared.
19 min: Rafa seems to be wearing a Barbour jacket on the touchline. I quite like a Barbour jacket. Walcott, on the pitch, isn't wearing a Barbour jacket. He knocks the ball to Sagna who was charging up the right, and he pings the ball across. It's cleared for a corner and, from it, Arsenal work the ball back into the box which Arshavin dinks delicately behind for a goal-kick.
20 min: "Afternoon," writes Phil Sawyer. "What is the point of Dirk Kuyt?"
22 min: Arsenal's defence panics again. Another counter-attack from Liverpool left Johnson with the ball in the Arsenal penalty area. With three players to cross to, he freezes, shuffles it from foot to foot, and passes to Gallas. Repeating the favour, Gallas passes it back to Johnson who is so impressed with his former Chelsea colleague's benovolence that he allows Arsenal to clear the ball.
24 min: In answer to your question Phil Sawyer, that's the point of Dirk Kuyt. He's just earned Liverpool a corner, from which they launch several attacks into the box. The corner lands on Agger's head, but is cleared, Gerrard's follow-up ball into the box should be an easy claim for Almunia and, as the keeper goes up, Kuyt and Lucas bundle past him, knocking him over, but failing to put the ball into the goal.
25 min: Gerrard launches another free-kick into the box, which is thumped back out. It falls to Glen Johnson, and his long range stinger is diverted behind for a corner.
26 min: "Was that Gallas tackle a penalty or not, then Tom?" asks Pete Brooksbank. "I reckon not, because Gerrard had just effectively booted the ball off for a goalkick - but I seem to be in a minority of one here ... does the fact Stevie was never going to get the ball actually matter?" I don't think it was a penalty, but it was very, very close. And given some of the soft decisions the referee has given since, you sense he could have given it.
27 min: Mascherano is limping towards the touchline after a knock. William Gallas is on the side of the pitch too, with a hip problem. Both could be off shortly.
28 min: Ah. Mascherano is back. And he's wearing a ludicrously long pair of shorts.
29 min: Kuyt knocks the ball back to Gerrard on the D. His shot is blocked by Song and that's about the fifth good chance Liverpool have had to score. Aside from Torres's weak shot when put through by Gerrard earlier, they've hit them all well too. Only last-gasp Arsenal defending has prevented the ball from getting nearer the goal.
30 min: "Re. the penalty claim," emails Niell Mullen. "Perhaps Howard Webb thinks the defending player must first make contact with the ball in order that a penalty is given. As with Gomes at Old Trafford last season."
32 min: There's a big gap between the Arsenal midfield and their strikers, and it's that more than anything that is causing them problems. It's simply too easy for the Liverpool defence to see passes that are being telegraphed a long time in advance. The gap also gives Liverpool's players time to pick out their midfield higher up the pitch and play good, incisive, if long, balls to them.
34 min: Johnson plays the ball into Torres who finds himself subject to the scrutiny of Gallas. The striker goes down, landing on his face in the penalty area, but play is quite rightly waved on. Johnson, Gerrard and Torres are playing well for Liverpool.
35 min: "I like Barbour jackets too," says Ben Richter.
36 min: Denilson lofts a gently floating shot at Reina from distance. The keeper plucks it from the air like a spaceman in anti-gravity reaching for candy-floss. Nasri makes ammends a second later. He hits a shot that goes wide of the post but at least carried with it the vague threat of menace, unlike Denilson's effort.
38 min: Arsenal are still struggling to string passes together but they're being helped by the fact that Liverpool keep finding Torres who looks a notch or two short of full match sharpness. In the crowd is Xabi Alonso, yawning his face off, and smiling. Not sure why and I can't think of anything funny either. You can make your own gags.
40 min: Arshavin's right that Arsenal need a big man up front to hold the ball up. They're crying out for a physical target man today. "I'd like to see Bobby Zamora be the big unit at Arsenal in January primarily because I think he'd look hilariously out of his depth," says Ben Dunn. "You can just imagine him recieving the ball 20 yards out after intricate build-up play involving the entire Arsenal team, the mascot and subtle flick-on from Wenger, only for him to welly it all the way to Highbury while shouting 'Ave it!'."
GOAL! Liverpool 1-0 Arsenal (Kuyt, 40) Put that in your pipe Phil Sawyer. Denilson gave away a free-kick a good long way out (and Denilson needs to be careful, he's got one yellow-card already) and Gerrard swang it in to about the penalty area. Almunia, cementing a display in which uncertainty has been his motto, came out and neither fisted the ball nor caught it. It fell instead to Kuyt, who taps it home from 12 yards. Wenger, on the touchline, goes mental and shouts at the fourth official. God knows why.
45 min: Walcott is sent sprawling by Aurelio, a challenge which earns the Liverpool man a yellow card. Fabregas whacks the ball into the box and Gallas and Vermaelen go up for it, but Johnson can clear into touch. "I don't think Rafa's jacket is a Barbour," writes Dave White. "It's an ill-fitting M&S imitation (fill in your own joke about Rafa's forays in the transfer market here)."
Peep, peep: Torres battles for the ball in the corner with Traore and he does so in a way that would please the sort of marauding army that, once upon a time, marauded through the Eastern edges of Europe, i.e. with an impressively wild flaying of arms and legs. Traore falls on the ground, gets back up, and then clears the ball. "If you, me, Ben Richter and Rafael Benitez went off to buy some jackets, would that make us a Barbour-shop quartet?" asks Kuyt-bashing Phil Sawyer. "I'm sorry, I'm so very very sorry." And with that dreadful pun, it's half-time.
The great penalty debate that doesn't matter quite so much anymore now that Liverpool have scored, but why let that stop us, eh? A selection of your opinions:
"Howard Webb is an embarrassment of a referee. A blind man would get more right than he does," says Duncan McVerry, whose email sign off says something about his company building deeper more meaningful relationships between people, so we can assume this is not company time if these are the sorts of opinions with which he luxuriates at the weekend. "The fact that Gerrard wasn't going to get the ball doesn't matter. If you punch someone in the box when the ball's at the other end of the pitch, it's still a penalty," he adds.
"So it's not a penalty if the ball is likely to go out of play then eh?" is Niall Mullen's contribution. "Which law is that?"
"Let's just stop talking about it and get on with the rest of the game," is the opinion of someone claiming to be Howard Webb who is probably not Howard Webb in my email inbox.
"Stevie's lost control of the ball but William Gallas was clumsy. That was a definite penalty," says Jamie Redknapp. Now talk among yourselves.
Right, second-half ahoy: Arsenal need to join up the midfield with the attack and a good way of doing that would be to have someone to hold the ball up nearer the Liverpool back-four, who are sitting deep enough to counteract Walcott's pace as he tries to take the ball over the top. Liverpool need to, more or less, keep doing what they're doing. Lucas and Mascherano biting in the middle, Gerrard and Torres running free and fast on the counterattack, the defence being physical enough to deal with Arsenal's lightweight attack. Perhaps all they need to change is Benayoun's contribution. He has more or less gone missing so far.
Peep, peep: We're off again. No changes. "Is Rafa the Barbour of Seville?" emails Henry Loveless (a streak that seems likely to remain with puns like that). "Except he's from Madrid, and managed Valencia. Sorry."
46 min: Gerrard crosses from out on the right and, with the ball coming at him at waist-height, Almunia elects to punch rather than catching. He gets it away well enough but still.
48 min: Sagna crosses the ball from the right and Arshavin goes up for it. He needed to go up a lot more than that, though, as he's well short of connecting with the ball. His height was against him there. Fabregas takes up the ball and aims a shot at goal through Agger's legs. It's an easy one for Reina though.
49 min: "Alonso's the only one who doesn't have a blurry face in the picture above," writes Craig Ward. "Some sort of Invasion of the Body Snatchers type scenario going on here."
GOAL! Liverpool 1-1 Arsenal (Johnson OG, 49) Fabregas plays it to Nasri on the right, he crosses in low and dangerously in front of the goal and the ball takes a slight diversion off Carragher and meets Glen Johnson as he comes charging back to deal with it, only to dribble into the back of the net.
52 min: In the seven minutes since half-time, Arsenal have seemed more positive but that was still against the run of play. Still, the decision to switch Nasri to the right may be about to pay dividends.
53 min: Fernando Torres glides past half of the Arsenal team, running the ball into the box from the left. He beats three men, gets to the byline, looks up and thinks, "Ah, why not?" and shoots. The ball, from a ridiculously tight angle, goes straight into Almunia's arms.
55 min: Mascherano slides into Fabregas, who was twisting like Jive Bunny and trying to win the ball, only to plant his studs into the Spaniard. He's yellow carded and he and his short little legs wander off with no complaints.
GOAL! Liverpool 1-2 Arsenal (Arshavin, 57) What a goal! Arshavin collects a nothing ball on the edge of the penalty area. Takes a touch and simply spanks it into the top left corner. Reina had no chance. That was an exceptional piece of football from the Russian.
60 min: That goal came from nowhere. So much for my theory Arsenal need a big man up front. Meanwhile Kuyt goes down in the box clutching his eye. It did look like Traore caught him (outside the box) but there was no malice in it.
61 min: Torres glances the ball just wide of the left hand post. But the bigger story is that two Arsenal payers have gone down in agony. Nasri looks the worst off and he's getting some attention on the pitch.
63 min: Benayoun twists and turns inside the box, turning Sagna inside out. But he takes too long and can't get the shot away. If you like pictures of ongoing football matches, you could do a lot worse than click on this link, which is a gallery of this ongoing football match.
64 min: Alberto Aquilani has just been summoned from the bench by Benitez. He comes racing down from his lonely seat in the stand and the manager whispers something in his ear. If he comes back carrying a tray of drinks, it would be no real surprise given his contribution so far this season.
65 min: Torres is getting a bit over-excited in his efforts to turn this score around. He runs all the way back into his own half and chops Song down as he tries to wrestle the ball from him. Meanwhile, here comes Aquilani. Onto the pitch, that is. Not carrying drinks.
67 min: Kuyt plays a long ball to Torres, from the left wing to the right wing. The Spaniard can't control the ball, though, and it goes out for a throw-in. There's something a little uncontrolled about Liverpool's play at the moment. They need to settle down, because they have been by far the better team today and should be able to turn this around if they use their heads.
70 min: Diaby is on for Walcott, returning from injury. Meanwhile, on the pitch, Torres crosses for Kuyt but Traore is there ... to nod the ball straight up into the air and into Kuyt's path. The Dutchman can't capitalise, though.
73 min: Arshavin dribbles to the edge of the Liverpool box and aims a long-range shot at the goal. He hits it straight at Reina, though. On the touchline, Benitez demonstrates conclusively that his is not a Barbour jacket. It's far too flimsy, but does possess a brown corduroy collar. Why have a jacket with a brown corduroy collar unless it's a Barbour? "I followed instructions and looked at the ongoing pics, and from my vantage point across the Atlantic in Toronto, his coat looks like a flasher's mac," reckons Chris.
75 min: Almunia makes a ludicrous attempt to stop the ball going behind for a corner. He leaps up in the air, carries the ball into touch, then jumps back in. Perhaps, and this is only gentle advice, he would have been better coming out to claim the cross in the first place? Form the corner, the referee blows-up (not literally), for an offence and Arsenal clear.
75 min: "Wow. The MBM is now graced with live pics?" appluads Thierry Salvet. "When does the Guardian's live broadcast get online?" Just as soon as that nice Mr Murdoch lets us.
80 min: I had just typed a really descriptive entry that summed up Aquilani's contribution, Gerrard's efforts, what Liverpool need to do to win and how Arsenal can counter them. And some bloody technical issues deleted it all. Suffice to say it was the best mbm entry you would ever have read. And now it's lost forever. Ngog is on for Benayoun. And not before time.
81 min: Arshavin gets a yellow card for treading on Aurelio's toes, which is not the sort of entry that gives much credence to my previous claim of writing the best mbm entry of all time.
82 min: Glen Johnson is off Philipp Degen is on. Meanwhile Nasri has flattened the saviour of Liverpool. Gerrard looms over the free-kick. He floats it in, from a central position, and it's very simple for Arsenal to clear.
83 min: Deggen and Kuyt combine (via some inept Arsenal defending) to allow the former to break into the corner. He puts in the perfect cross for someone to meet at the back post. All of the Liverpool players are at the back of the box, on the penalty spot, or at the near post. Where they are resolutely not is at the back post.
84 min: Given Liverpool's recent habit of letting in last-minute goals, it's not looking good for the home side here. On the pitch, Gerrard is getting a bit petulant.
87 min: Traore is limping and he wanders over to the bench to have a quick word with Wenger. Almunia launches the sort of Route One ball up the pitch for Arshavin on that will give his manager sweating, screaming nightmares. That is very much not the Arsenal way. Perhaps sensing that, Arshavin lets it go out for a goal kick.
87 min: Traore is coming off for Silvestre. A loose pass from the saviour of Liverpool means Fabregas can run along the touchline and into the corner, where presumbaly he was hoping to see out three minutes plus injury time.
88 min: "Watching Arsenal lead at Liverpool is like having sex with my missus," writes Ian Gleadell. "It's sweaty and awkward and you pray that Fernando Torres doesn't show up."
89 min: Deggen and Kuyt combine again, but they meet a solid wall of blue shirts. It's played back to Carragher who puts in a deep, floating cross to the back post. Torres goes up but it would have been some header if he'd scored from there.
90 min: Arshavin shoots from range but the ball is deflected behind for a corner. The Russian goes hobbling off, perhaps with a dead leg, perhaps with something more serious. There's four minutes of added time.
90 min+2: Liverpool throw everyone forward only for Gerrard to repeat his first half trick of finding the backside of an Arsenal defender from close range. The man with the stiniging behind this time is Song.
90 min+2: Arshavin is coming off, Ramsey is coming on. That's more of a time-wasting substitution than an injury-based one.
90 min+3: Arsenal are simply hoofing the ball back down the pitch every time they get it. Eventually they decide to keep hold of it and it's a tactic that lures Gerrard into concedeing a free-kick. The Liverpool captain looks desperate at the moment.
Peep, peep: It's all over. Liverpool's misery continues.
I'm off: Thanks for your emails. I would write more, but the site appears not to be working very well. That does mean that Liverpool are still in seventh. On the same number of points as Birmingham. Arsenal, meanwhile, were a little bit lucky there as they probably weren't the better team. But, given their injury list, they won't mind a bit of luck. Join me at about 6.30pm for rolling coverage of the Sports Personality of the Year. Provided the site's working by then.
Liverpool 1
- Kuyt 41
- Johnson (og) 50,
- Arshavin 58
- Tom Bryant
- guardian.co.uk, Sunday 13 December 2009 10.48 GMT
Xabi Alonso watches from the Anfield stands. I still have nothing funny to say about this. Photograph: Michael Regan/Getty ImagesPreamble: This is a difficult game to call. The form of both teams has been inconsistent to say the least. While injuries have made the Arsenal medical room resemble something a little like the a Crimean War field hospital, making Arsene Wenger – if the metaphor is be stretched past breaking point to ludicrous point – a little like the new Florence Nightingale as he wanders the wards, sighing, tutting and shaking his head.
Arsenal could be without ... deep breath … Diaby (calf), Eduardo (thigh), Fábregas (back), Gallas (h'string), Traoré (h'string), Arshavin (foot), who are all doubtful and Clichy (back, Dec 26), Rosicky (groin, Dec 26), Eboué (h'string, Jan), Bendtner (groin, Jan), Gibbs (foot, Feb), Van Persie (ankle, Mar), Djourou (knee, Apr) who are all injured. And they haven't been playing well of late – since beating Standard Liege at the end of November, they've scored two and had seven put past them in four games in all competitions. That's a stat skewed by Wenger's use of his kids in Europe and the League Cup but, with the squad nearly down to its bare bones, it's upon those kids he might be having to rely. Having said that, Wenger's use of his substitutes in the Champions League should mean his first team is fresh.
Liverpool, finally, have a full squad from which to choose from – if, as it appears, Fernando Torres and Alberto Aquilani, are back to match-fitness. They also have something to prove after their Champions League displays.
And the stats appear to be on their side: they're unbeaten in their last four league games (though have won just once), Arsenal's last league win at Anfield came in 2003.
This is normally a goalfest, with 46 goals scored in the sides' last 11 meetings, while Arsenal have not kept a clean sheet at Anfield for over 10 years. Which means today, it's going to be 1-1, doesn't it?
Meanwhile, is it suspicious that both Clichy and Rosicky are set to return from injury on Boxing Day? A cunning ploy, perhaps, to ensure they can tuck into the turkey with impunity.
The big news is ...: Fernando Torres will start. Aquilani won't. Well, that's not actually big news, is it? Minor news might have been more accurate. Or perhaps point of interest, because it's not news, really. Not in the strictest sense. Footballer plays football game isn't, really, the sort of thing on which the great newspapers have been based. But it's all we've got.
Sigh.
Those teams in full for you:
Liverpool: Reina, Johnson, Carragher, Agger, Aurelio, Mascherano, Lucas, Kuyt, Gerrard, Benayoun, Torres.
Subs: Cavalieri, Aquilani, Insua, Ngog, Degen, Skrtel, Dossena.
Arsenal: Almunia, Sagna, Gallas, Vermaelen, Traore, Fabregas, Song Billong, Denilson, Walcott, Arshavin, Nasri.
Subs: Fabianski, Diaby, Eduardo, Vela, Ramsey, Silvestre, Wilshere.
Referee: Howard Webb (S Yorkshire)
So Fabregas, Arshavin, Gallas and Traoré are all back in the squad, despite having minor niggles that could have kept them out, while Theo Walcott will get a start and a chance to prove that he is the talent that everyone keeps bleating that he is. Given his injury record - and stunted comebacks so far - what money on someone like Mascherano to send him hobbling from the pitch in the 27th minute?
Aquilani, the saviour of Liverpool and the man who will solve all problems everywhere, ever, is not fit enough to start. Perhaps he'll be ready for Christmas. That's a good day for saviours to make their long-awaited appearances.
It's 50 years since the arrival of Bill Shankly at Liverpool and the great man's achievements are many and great. Surely the one he'll be most pleased with is the honour Liverpool's lord mayor will be bestowing on him in a couple of days. He'll be made an honourary citizen of Liverpool. 28 years after he died. It doesn't get anymore honorary than that.
An email (it is allowed, by the way): "I forsee the gods of Karma paying out on Arsene here, thanks to his latest suggestion of calling in the dogs of law regarding Robin van Persie's injury while representing Holland," reckons Evan Kennezar. "Add this to Alex Ferguson's time keeping rant yesterday there seems to be barely a week where one of the big managers isn't throwing toys out of the pram for some reason. Does Sportsbet offer odds on post match whinging? I reckon today would be less than evens given the two in charge."
Arshavin thinks the team need to be sharper at the front and has repeated Fabregas's calls for Wenger to buy a big striker for them to play off up front. He does say that "we are probably the best around the box though", which does seem to reinforce the old cliche that Arsenal are, like a flirty celibate, more interested in making a pass than scoring.
In the Sky studio: Jamie Redknapp shifts in his seat, aggresively angles his crotch at the camera, and says there may be a scientific reason for Aquilani not being on the pitch today. If there's one person you want lecturing you about science, it's got to be Jamie Redknapp, the notorious physicist, chemist and Alexander Agassiz Medal winner.
Clippity-cloppity, clippity-cloppity go the players' studs as they carry their players onto the pitch. Kick-off is just seconds away, which means it's a good time for Sky to go to the ads. If only we could do the same. The worry is that you wouldn't come back.
we're off: Arsenal, in blue, kick-off and more or less immediately concede posession to Fernando Torres. He runs with it for a bit, before Arsenal get it back. Nasri runs with it for a bit and then gives it back to Liverpool. This sort of things goes on for another minute or so.
2 min: "Wenger brought it up a little while ago, but what is going on with the injury list at Arsenal?" asks Dave Konopka. "Is Colin Lewin secretly a Spurs fan? I'm thinking that Arsene should sign someone in the mold of Tony Adams or Vinnie Jones solely to test the durability of potential signings. At the end of the physical, go out to the pitch and see how many tackles from Mr. Adams/Jones he can endure. I'm putting the over/under at five. More than that, and he's good to go. Less and he'll pick up an injury every two weeks." It's not a bad idea, that. And it would spare us from whatever Adams is going to serve up on the Today programme.
3 min: Walcott wins a corner, his pace giving Aurelio a brief brown shorts moment. The ball comes in to Song, but is cleared by a big Liverpool head putting in a big Liverpool header.
4 min: Nasri gives the ball away to Gerrard who, with unerring accuracy, plants an early cross, intended for Torres in the box, squarely onto the 'arris of Traore. A ring stinger, if you will.
6 min: It's been a frenzied start, so far, with much charging about at high velocity and very little in the way of anyone getting their foot on the ball. Walcott nearly managed to get on the end of a long ball played over the top but ran, instead, into Carragher, who may or may not have known exactly what he was doing in standing stock still and letting the winger thump into him.
7 min: Daniel Colasimone sounds worryingly close to ending it all now. "I think we have reached that depressing time of the season where we realise, with 99% probability that Manchester United or Chelsea will win the Premier League, Inter will win Serie A, and Barcelona will pip Real Madrid to La Liga," he says. "No matter how much jibber jabbering goes on between now and the end of the season, we all know that's pretty much how it's going to play out. You can probably throw in the fact that Brazil will win the World Cup, after beating somebody like Germany in the final." Shall we just go home now?
10 min: Still nobody seems to have got on top of this game yet, but it has been pretty physical so far. Well, physical in the sense that there's been lots of running around and Mascherano has been putting in a lot of tackles.
Almunia, perhaps, has been reading the opinions of Daniel Colasimone in the seventh minute. He receives a back pass and simply slams it into touch with insouciance of an existentialist French writer. "Pah," he seemed to say with that kick, "we're all going to die anyway".
12 min: Arshavin loses the ball on the edge of Liverpool's box and the home side counter-attack immediately and skillfully. Gerrard charges up the pitch and plays Torres into the box. With just the keeper to beat, he tickles a tame shot to Almunia's left, which the Spaniard falls on easily.
13 min: Liverpool break again and, once again, it's through Gerrard and Torres. This time the striker plays Gerrard in and Gallas goes in with all the recklessness of a berzerker on amphetamines. The defender clears the ball, but sends Gerrard tumbling onto his head with the sort of challenge that could easily lead to a penalty. Gerrard goes suitably mental when he doesn't get one.
16 min: Arsenal need to be very careful of Liverpool's attacking threat. That's twice they've broken from within their own half, leaving Gallas and Vermaelen as exposed for The Gunners as the man who used to wander around a Hammersmith graveyard, showing his man bits to any and every passer-by.
18 min: Torres earns himself a really soft free kick. He dribbled past Song, who wasn't making much effort to take the ball off him and seemed to run out of puff. He settles for half sitting, half falling to the ground after using Song's trailing leg as a step on his way to the ground. Gerrard swings the free-kick over and it is cleared.
19 min: Rafa seems to be wearing a Barbour jacket on the touchline. I quite like a Barbour jacket. Walcott, on the pitch, isn't wearing a Barbour jacket. He knocks the ball to Sagna who was charging up the right, and he pings the ball across. It's cleared for a corner and, from it, Arsenal work the ball back into the box which Arshavin dinks delicately behind for a goal-kick.
20 min: "Afternoon," writes Phil Sawyer. "What is the point of Dirk Kuyt?"
22 min: Arsenal's defence panics again. Another counter-attack from Liverpool left Johnson with the ball in the Arsenal penalty area. With three players to cross to, he freezes, shuffles it from foot to foot, and passes to Gallas. Repeating the favour, Gallas passes it back to Johnson who is so impressed with his former Chelsea colleague's benovolence that he allows Arsenal to clear the ball.
24 min: In answer to your question Phil Sawyer, that's the point of Dirk Kuyt. He's just earned Liverpool a corner, from which they launch several attacks into the box. The corner lands on Agger's head, but is cleared, Gerrard's follow-up ball into the box should be an easy claim for Almunia and, as the keeper goes up, Kuyt and Lucas bundle past him, knocking him over, but failing to put the ball into the goal.
25 min: Gerrard launches another free-kick into the box, which is thumped back out. It falls to Glen Johnson, and his long range stinger is diverted behind for a corner.
26 min: "Was that Gallas tackle a penalty or not, then Tom?" asks Pete Brooksbank. "I reckon not, because Gerrard had just effectively booted the ball off for a goalkick - but I seem to be in a minority of one here ... does the fact Stevie was never going to get the ball actually matter?" I don't think it was a penalty, but it was very, very close. And given some of the soft decisions the referee has given since, you sense he could have given it.
27 min: Mascherano is limping towards the touchline after a knock. William Gallas is on the side of the pitch too, with a hip problem. Both could be off shortly.
28 min: Ah. Mascherano is back. And he's wearing a ludicrously long pair of shorts.
29 min: Kuyt knocks the ball back to Gerrard on the D. His shot is blocked by Song and that's about the fifth good chance Liverpool have had to score. Aside from Torres's weak shot when put through by Gerrard earlier, they've hit them all well too. Only last-gasp Arsenal defending has prevented the ball from getting nearer the goal.
30 min: "Re. the penalty claim," emails Niell Mullen. "Perhaps Howard Webb thinks the defending player must first make contact with the ball in order that a penalty is given. As with Gomes at Old Trafford last season."
32 min: There's a big gap between the Arsenal midfield and their strikers, and it's that more than anything that is causing them problems. It's simply too easy for the Liverpool defence to see passes that are being telegraphed a long time in advance. The gap also gives Liverpool's players time to pick out their midfield higher up the pitch and play good, incisive, if long, balls to them.
34 min: Johnson plays the ball into Torres who finds himself subject to the scrutiny of Gallas. The striker goes down, landing on his face in the penalty area, but play is quite rightly waved on. Johnson, Gerrard and Torres are playing well for Liverpool.
35 min: "I like Barbour jackets too," says Ben Richter.
36 min: Denilson lofts a gently floating shot at Reina from distance. The keeper plucks it from the air like a spaceman in anti-gravity reaching for candy-floss. Nasri makes ammends a second later. He hits a shot that goes wide of the post but at least carried with it the vague threat of menace, unlike Denilson's effort.
38 min: Arsenal are still struggling to string passes together but they're being helped by the fact that Liverpool keep finding Torres who looks a notch or two short of full match sharpness. In the crowd is Xabi Alonso, yawning his face off, and smiling. Not sure why and I can't think of anything funny either. You can make your own gags.
40 min: Arshavin's right that Arsenal need a big man up front to hold the ball up. They're crying out for a physical target man today. "I'd like to see Bobby Zamora be the big unit at Arsenal in January primarily because I think he'd look hilariously out of his depth," says Ben Dunn. "You can just imagine him recieving the ball 20 yards out after intricate build-up play involving the entire Arsenal team, the mascot and subtle flick-on from Wenger, only for him to welly it all the way to Highbury while shouting 'Ave it!'."
GOAL! Liverpool 1-0 Arsenal (Kuyt, 40) Put that in your pipe Phil Sawyer. Denilson gave away a free-kick a good long way out (and Denilson needs to be careful, he's got one yellow-card already) and Gerrard swang it in to about the penalty area. Almunia, cementing a display in which uncertainty has been his motto, came out and neither fisted the ball nor caught it. It fell instead to Kuyt, who taps it home from 12 yards. Wenger, on the touchline, goes mental and shouts at the fourth official. God knows why.
45 min: Walcott is sent sprawling by Aurelio, a challenge which earns the Liverpool man a yellow card. Fabregas whacks the ball into the box and Gallas and Vermaelen go up for it, but Johnson can clear into touch. "I don't think Rafa's jacket is a Barbour," writes Dave White. "It's an ill-fitting M&S imitation (fill in your own joke about Rafa's forays in the transfer market here)."
Peep, peep: Torres battles for the ball in the corner with Traore and he does so in a way that would please the sort of marauding army that, once upon a time, marauded through the Eastern edges of Europe, i.e. with an impressively wild flaying of arms and legs. Traore falls on the ground, gets back up, and then clears the ball. "If you, me, Ben Richter and Rafael Benitez went off to buy some jackets, would that make us a Barbour-shop quartet?" asks Kuyt-bashing Phil Sawyer. "I'm sorry, I'm so very very sorry." And with that dreadful pun, it's half-time.
The great penalty debate that doesn't matter quite so much anymore now that Liverpool have scored, but why let that stop us, eh? A selection of your opinions:
"Howard Webb is an embarrassment of a referee. A blind man would get more right than he does," says Duncan McVerry, whose email sign off says something about his company building deeper more meaningful relationships between people, so we can assume this is not company time if these are the sorts of opinions with which he luxuriates at the weekend. "The fact that Gerrard wasn't going to get the ball doesn't matter. If you punch someone in the box when the ball's at the other end of the pitch, it's still a penalty," he adds.
"So it's not a penalty if the ball is likely to go out of play then eh?" is Niall Mullen's contribution. "Which law is that?"
"Let's just stop talking about it and get on with the rest of the game," is the opinion of someone claiming to be Howard Webb who is probably not Howard Webb in my email inbox.
"Stevie's lost control of the ball but William Gallas was clumsy. That was a definite penalty," says Jamie Redknapp. Now talk among yourselves.
Right, second-half ahoy: Arsenal need to join up the midfield with the attack and a good way of doing that would be to have someone to hold the ball up nearer the Liverpool back-four, who are sitting deep enough to counteract Walcott's pace as he tries to take the ball over the top. Liverpool need to, more or less, keep doing what they're doing. Lucas and Mascherano biting in the middle, Gerrard and Torres running free and fast on the counterattack, the defence being physical enough to deal with Arsenal's lightweight attack. Perhaps all they need to change is Benayoun's contribution. He has more or less gone missing so far.
Peep, peep: We're off again. No changes. "Is Rafa the Barbour of Seville?" emails Henry Loveless (a streak that seems likely to remain with puns like that). "Except he's from Madrid, and managed Valencia. Sorry."
46 min: Gerrard crosses from out on the right and, with the ball coming at him at waist-height, Almunia elects to punch rather than catching. He gets it away well enough but still.
48 min: Sagna crosses the ball from the right and Arshavin goes up for it. He needed to go up a lot more than that, though, as he's well short of connecting with the ball. His height was against him there. Fabregas takes up the ball and aims a shot at goal through Agger's legs. It's an easy one for Reina though.
49 min: "Alonso's the only one who doesn't have a blurry face in the picture above," writes Craig Ward. "Some sort of Invasion of the Body Snatchers type scenario going on here."
GOAL! Liverpool 1-1 Arsenal (Johnson OG, 49) Fabregas plays it to Nasri on the right, he crosses in low and dangerously in front of the goal and the ball takes a slight diversion off Carragher and meets Glen Johnson as he comes charging back to deal with it, only to dribble into the back of the net.
52 min: In the seven minutes since half-time, Arsenal have seemed more positive but that was still against the run of play. Still, the decision to switch Nasri to the right may be about to pay dividends.
53 min: Fernando Torres glides past half of the Arsenal team, running the ball into the box from the left. He beats three men, gets to the byline, looks up and thinks, "Ah, why not?" and shoots. The ball, from a ridiculously tight angle, goes straight into Almunia's arms.
55 min: Mascherano slides into Fabregas, who was twisting like Jive Bunny and trying to win the ball, only to plant his studs into the Spaniard. He's yellow carded and he and his short little legs wander off with no complaints.
GOAL! Liverpool 1-2 Arsenal (Arshavin, 57) What a goal! Arshavin collects a nothing ball on the edge of the penalty area. Takes a touch and simply spanks it into the top left corner. Reina had no chance. That was an exceptional piece of football from the Russian.
60 min: That goal came from nowhere. So much for my theory Arsenal need a big man up front. Meanwhile Kuyt goes down in the box clutching his eye. It did look like Traore caught him (outside the box) but there was no malice in it.
61 min: Torres glances the ball just wide of the left hand post. But the bigger story is that two Arsenal payers have gone down in agony. Nasri looks the worst off and he's getting some attention on the pitch.
63 min: Benayoun twists and turns inside the box, turning Sagna inside out. But he takes too long and can't get the shot away. If you like pictures of ongoing football matches, you could do a lot worse than click on this link, which is a gallery of this ongoing football match.
64 min: Alberto Aquilani has just been summoned from the bench by Benitez. He comes racing down from his lonely seat in the stand and the manager whispers something in his ear. If he comes back carrying a tray of drinks, it would be no real surprise given his contribution so far this season.
65 min: Torres is getting a bit over-excited in his efforts to turn this score around. He runs all the way back into his own half and chops Song down as he tries to wrestle the ball from him. Meanwhile, here comes Aquilani. Onto the pitch, that is. Not carrying drinks.
67 min: Kuyt plays a long ball to Torres, from the left wing to the right wing. The Spaniard can't control the ball, though, and it goes out for a throw-in. There's something a little uncontrolled about Liverpool's play at the moment. They need to settle down, because they have been by far the better team today and should be able to turn this around if they use their heads.
70 min: Diaby is on for Walcott, returning from injury. Meanwhile, on the pitch, Torres crosses for Kuyt but Traore is there ... to nod the ball straight up into the air and into Kuyt's path. The Dutchman can't capitalise, though.
73 min: Arshavin dribbles to the edge of the Liverpool box and aims a long-range shot at the goal. He hits it straight at Reina, though. On the touchline, Benitez demonstrates conclusively that his is not a Barbour jacket. It's far too flimsy, but does possess a brown corduroy collar. Why have a jacket with a brown corduroy collar unless it's a Barbour? "I followed instructions and looked at the ongoing pics, and from my vantage point across the Atlantic in Toronto, his coat looks like a flasher's mac," reckons Chris.
75 min: Almunia makes a ludicrous attempt to stop the ball going behind for a corner. He leaps up in the air, carries the ball into touch, then jumps back in. Perhaps, and this is only gentle advice, he would have been better coming out to claim the cross in the first place? Form the corner, the referee blows-up (not literally), for an offence and Arsenal clear.
75 min: "Wow. The MBM is now graced with live pics?" appluads Thierry Salvet. "When does the Guardian's live broadcast get online?" Just as soon as that nice Mr Murdoch lets us.
80 min: I had just typed a really descriptive entry that summed up Aquilani's contribution, Gerrard's efforts, what Liverpool need to do to win and how Arsenal can counter them. And some bloody technical issues deleted it all. Suffice to say it was the best mbm entry you would ever have read. And now it's lost forever. Ngog is on for Benayoun. And not before time.
81 min: Arshavin gets a yellow card for treading on Aurelio's toes, which is not the sort of entry that gives much credence to my previous claim of writing the best mbm entry of all time.
82 min: Glen Johnson is off Philipp Degen is on. Meanwhile Nasri has flattened the saviour of Liverpool. Gerrard looms over the free-kick. He floats it in, from a central position, and it's very simple for Arsenal to clear.
83 min: Deggen and Kuyt combine (via some inept Arsenal defending) to allow the former to break into the corner. He puts in the perfect cross for someone to meet at the back post. All of the Liverpool players are at the back of the box, on the penalty spot, or at the near post. Where they are resolutely not is at the back post.
84 min: Given Liverpool's recent habit of letting in last-minute goals, it's not looking good for the home side here. On the pitch, Gerrard is getting a bit petulant.
87 min: Traore is limping and he wanders over to the bench to have a quick word with Wenger. Almunia launches the sort of Route One ball up the pitch for Arshavin on that will give his manager sweating, screaming nightmares. That is very much not the Arsenal way. Perhaps sensing that, Arshavin lets it go out for a goal kick.
87 min: Traore is coming off for Silvestre. A loose pass from the saviour of Liverpool means Fabregas can run along the touchline and into the corner, where presumbaly he was hoping to see out three minutes plus injury time.
88 min: "Watching Arsenal lead at Liverpool is like having sex with my missus," writes Ian Gleadell. "It's sweaty and awkward and you pray that Fernando Torres doesn't show up."
89 min: Deggen and Kuyt combine again, but they meet a solid wall of blue shirts. It's played back to Carragher who puts in a deep, floating cross to the back post. Torres goes up but it would have been some header if he'd scored from there.
90 min: Arshavin shoots from range but the ball is deflected behind for a corner. The Russian goes hobbling off, perhaps with a dead leg, perhaps with something more serious. There's four minutes of added time.
90 min+2: Liverpool throw everyone forward only for Gerrard to repeat his first half trick of finding the backside of an Arsenal defender from close range. The man with the stiniging behind this time is Song.
90 min+2: Arshavin is coming off, Ramsey is coming on. That's more of a time-wasting substitution than an injury-based one.
90 min+3: Arsenal are simply hoofing the ball back down the pitch every time they get it. Eventually they decide to keep hold of it and it's a tactic that lures Gerrard into concedeing a free-kick. The Liverpool captain looks desperate at the moment.
Peep, peep: It's all over. Liverpool's misery continues.
I'm off: Thanks for your emails. I would write more, but the site appears not to be working very well. That does mean that Liverpool are still in seventh. On the same number of points as Birmingham. Arsenal, meanwhile, were a little bit lucky there as they probably weren't the better team. But, given their injury list, they won't mind a bit of luck. Join me at about 6.30pm for rolling coverage of the Sports Personality of the Year. Provided the site's working by then.
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