By Boris Mellor
March 14 2006

According to some reports Liverpool gifted Arsenal the game– they must be having a larf. True Gerrard’s back pass gave Henry a gift of a goal, but this victory was more than deserved. Arsenal dominated this game for much of the ninety minutes.

 It was Arsenal’s forwards who gave away the presents, by failing to put the ball into the net. By 15 minutes they could have been three nil up, but open chances were spurned. After five minutes Henry set up Adebayor, who faced with an almost empty goal skied the ball into the top tier.

But on 15 minutes Fabregas weighted the ball very carefully diagonally across the field to Henry’s feet. Henry sped past the defence to put the ball beyond Reina’s reach.

It was no more than Arsenal deserved. For the rest of the first half the game was a little more even, with Liverpool having the bulk of their chances for the whole game. However there was incompetence about Liverpool’s game, with players often losing, or giving the ball away. It seems they were far more effected by their CL mid week game than Arsenal.

In the second half Arsenal continued where they had left off in the first twenty minutes, and it was almost all one- way traffic. That Liverpool were only one nil down was a gift either from the football gods, or more likely the Gunners poor finishing. I can’t remember Lehmann having a save to make, leastwise not until Gerrard's shot on 75 minutes, it was too hot to handle and Jens did well to punch it into the air. However he must be sick of the sight of Garcia who was waiting to nod it in.

Wenger was furious as the goal came after Fabregas was clearly fouled in the build up. So Liverpool had got their gift. They now became frantic and hammered on Arsenal’s door for the winner. For a while it looked like the game might have tipped their way, but Alonso’s sending off reinvigorated Arsenal who began to respond in kind.

Gerrard fails to see Henry

With six minutes to go Henry got a sniff that Gerrard was going to pass back to Reina, disguising himself as a programme seller, he pretended to take money for a magazine and handbook. Suitably fooled Gerrard calmly passed back, Henry quickly discarded his white sellers coat and cheeky peaked hat, told the punter to keep the change, and sped after the ball. Reina tried to push him wide, but not wide enough. Henry scored from the tightest of angles, turned, held his nose, and ran into the North Bank.

After the match Gerrard admitted he had not seen Henry claiming he was hiding behind the centre backs.

 Yes it was a gift of sorts, but anything less than an Arsenal win would have flattered Liverpool. This was a great Arsenal performance, for most of the match it was Arsenal’s midfield that dominated, only profligate finishing left Liverpool in the game for so long. Liverpool had one shot in the whole of the second half – yet somehow Rafa thought his team was controlling things. Two questions on that: Hey Rafa what are you on? Secondly can I have some?

In WW1 they talked of Lions led by Donkeys – it sort of applies, with a minor alteration to Liverpool. They played like Donkeys led by a Giraffe.

Henry had a brilliant Captain’s game and  it showed with his two goals, Fabregas and Hleb were magic and never stopped running. Arsenal fans hearts stopped beating when Toure fell badly towards the end of the first half, but he fought through the pain to stay on. Lehmann dominated his area, every player contributed, but it was the 18 year old Fabregas who ran the match for Arsenal, what a performance. He made chance after chance. If he changed his nationality to English he might become the first £50 million player in the Premiership.

Things you don’t hear anymore in football (an occasional series) "Henry is a flat track bully who doesn’t show up for the big games".