Arsenal-Liverpool: All To Do in the Second Leg

With yesterday's 1-1 at Ashburton Grove, it's the Scousers who will be the more satisfied team.

They came here and got exactly what they wanted from the north London clash, an away goal.

We started off well, and as usual had all the possession and created a few chances. Robin Van Persie missed one early on, with only Reina to beat.

After Adebayor's opener in the 24th, Liverpool almost immediately got back on level terms, through the ever impressive Steven Gerrard, who slid a cross through for a combination of Kuyt and Clichy to scramble home.

Bad defending again on this one, I feel Gallas should have gone for the loose ball, before Gerrard could repossess, and the run of Kuyt again was not dealt with adequately.

The defence has been suspect in recent outings, and is definitely a cause for concern.

The equaliser unsettled us, and we struggled to shake it off for the remainder of the first. Going into half time you felt that we could always score more, as Liverpool had very limited penetration up top, and it was us with all the possession.

At the start of the second half, Theo was introduced and RVP withdrawn, apparently he's got a thigh strain, the extent of the injury is yet to assessed, but we are led to believe that his withdrawal was pre-cautionary.

It was us again who started brightly on the re-start, we had all the verve, and at times the penetration to go through an astute Liverpool defence, who employed the "away team tactics" as an experienced exponent of the art.

We trudged on, and the Kop were lucky on two occasions. The first of them was when the Dutch referee refused to give a penalty when Hleb was held, and muscled to the ground by Kuyt in the box. It looked a sure shot penalty, but we have seen these not given.

However, we have only seen them not given when the ref was unsighted, in this case though he was all of a few feet away and in clear view of the incident, and refused to give it.

Terrible refereeing, I must say appalling!

The second was when Bentdner who came on for Eboue (why does Arsene pursue with Eboue, you wonder?) and seemingly cleared a Cesc Fabregas shot off the line.

But in the Dane's defence, he had his back to the goal. And tried to get out of the way, sadly though he couldn't.

We were hands down the better side on the day, and just a touch unlucky. I think we bossed it and it was Liverpool who were on the ropes for the majority of the game.

We played well for the most part, but once again failed to get the result. I'm not letting my head drop though, I feel we can do the job at Liverpool.

In an ideal situation we would have liked to go into the Anfield game having won this, that would ensure that Liverpool do not sit back. A score draw suits them quite perfectly. That said, it would be hara-kiri for the Scousers if they expect to sit back for the full 90 in the second leg.

We have breached their lines yesterday, and will be more determined to do it come the second leg.

I really hope RVP's situation isn't too bad. Despite him spraying his shots in the last couple of games, he possibly could make the difference with his passing and movement.

Arsene Wenger was pleased with the performance yesterday while feeling a little cheated with the result and said:

"Well yes, I feel we were not well paid for what we produced tonight. To finish a game like that 1-1 is, of course, disappointing. But we produced a performance we wanted, overall we had the chances to win the game and Liverpool created very little tonight."

As it stands though we have it all to do at Anfield, but I'm doggedly sure we will do it.

Before that though, both teams will have to put in a repeat performance at Ashburton on the weekend as we build up to the second of the three games.

I feel that the EPL game though will have little impact on the way the CL tie will pan out.

More on the ongoing Kop saga tomorrow. Take it easy.