In the build-up to tomorrow night’s game vs Arsenal, I’ve compiled a list of five of the most exciting matches between Liverpool and Arsenal.
FA Cup Final: Liverpool 2-1 Arsenal
The Michael Owen final. Not much else needs to be said. The performance of that day wasn’t great, yet with players like Owen, in the form he was in during his Liverpool career, you always had a chance.
Liverpool, losing the game 1-0 with 16 minutes to go thanks to a Ljungberg goal, looked well and truly out of the game, but two goals in eight minutes from Owen sent the Liverpool team into hysterics.
Owen, latching onto a long-ball ball from substitute Patrick Berger, left Tony Adams and Lee Dixon for dead to help Liverpool lift the FA Cup which sat alongside the League Cup and the UEFA Cup in 2001.
A performance to forget but a result that will go down in history in one of Liverpool’s most memorable seasons.
Premier League: Liverpool 4-4 Arsenal
In a game that is more memorable for an Arshavin four-goal performance than anything Liverpool did, this match sent Liverpool to the top of the league, but also dealt a bitter blow to Rafa Benitez’s title ambitions in the same movement.
Eight goals spread across three scorers, it was Torres and Benayoun who got the goals for the Redmen. A rollercoaster of emotions, it all looked to be over when Arshavin scored in the last few minutes to put Liverpool’s title hopes to bed, yet Yossi scored to give a lifeline in the hunt to beat United to the title.
Billed as game of the season by most people, Liverpool fans will have had their heart in their mouth from minute one to minute 90 (+5).
Premier League: Liverpool 4-1 Arsenal
If Michael Owen’s two goals made the FA Cup final the ‘Michael Owen final’, then this was the ‘Peter Crouch performance’. Liverpool needed a win to leapfrog Arsenal into third-place in the league, and Arsenal needed three points to consolidate their position in the table. For these reasons alone it makes this result a huge one, but with Crouch’s perfect hat-trick (left, right and headed goals) it means this game will always be remembered for the efforts of the fondly remembered big-guy.
Agger was the scorer of the other goal on 60 minutes, but will anyone ever truly remember that in amongst the England international’s cluster of strikes? I think not.
Champions League quarter-final: Liverpool 4-2 Arsenal
In a game that could match any for pure madness, this was an encounter that no team was ever truly in charge of. Liverpool, aiming for another semi-final v Chelsea, conceded first, with Abou Diaby scoring before Liverpool legend Sami Hyypia scored to make it 1-1.
Torres scored before a young Theo Walcott ran the length of the pitch to assist Adebayor in dragging Arsenal back into the game. Liverpool cult hero Kolo Toure, playing for Arsenal at the time, gave away a penalty that Gerrard scored and a certain Ryan Babel finished off the game that will go down as another Liverpool v Arsenal classic for the neutral, but a nail-biter for supporters of either side.
Premier League: Liverpool 5-1 Arsenal 1
This is the one, isn’t it? After just over 20 minutes Liverpool were ahead by four goals, in which time I saw grown men in a pub looking around like they were living in a dream world, and Arsenal fans looking like they were in a nightmare. Martin Skrtel scored a couple before Raheem Sterling got a goal and Daniel Sturridge did too, and there was a party atmosphere in every Liverpudlian household across the land.
In a stand-out performance during a sparkling season, Liverpool fans will be hoping that it’s more of the same on Monday night in a match that is already seeming crucial in our bid for top four.
