Liverpool and Arsenal Prove Soccer Is Interesting

Anyone who thinks soccer is boring clearly wasn’t watching Liverpool against Arsenal yesterday.  Granted, these sorts of matches don’t happen every day.  And granted, these are two of the most entertaining clubs in Europe.  But this match alone would have made a fan of even the most ardent of detractors.

It started easily enough, with both teams testing the waters early on.  Liverpool definitely looked the better side from the beginning, but Fabianski seemed to have recovered from his awful outing in his previous match, and looked alert and active in goal.

The Gunners managed a bit of luck before halftime, taking a 1-0 lead by capitalizing on a lack of clearance by Liverpool’s defense.  Arshavin’s finish off the bottom of the crossbar wasn’t the prettiest, but it was just the setup for what he was to provide later on.

While the first half contained some good attacking soccer (along with some poor defending), it was the second half that really got crazy.

Only a few minutes after the restart, Liverpool seized an opportunity conceded by a poor Arsenal clearance, tying the game at 1-1.  I’ve often said that Arsenal play better down a goal than up one, and the short time it took Liverpool to equalize seemed to support this.

At this point, you still couldn’t tell that this game was going to become what it did, but you could definitely see a shift in momentum in Liverpool’s favor.  And around the 55th minute they managed to get ahead, capitalizing again on a defensive mistake by the Arsenal side.

Down 2-1, Arsenal brought Theo Walcott on as a sub with a bit under half an hour left.  When you see Walcott come on you can only expect the pace to pick up.  And that it did.

Just a couple of minutes later Arsenal scored again.  And once again it was Arshavin with the strike.  He stayed up after Liverpool got the ball, and stole a pass right at the edge of the box.  Uncontested from close range, he left Reina with no chance.  So far, it was four goals off four mistakes at the back.

But more was to come, as Arshavin completed his hat trick only three minutes later.  He again showed a presence in the penalty area that Arsenal have been lacking lately, finding himself uncontested again.

That’s 3-2 for Arsenal.  But there was more time to play.

Only three more minutes on, Liverpool’s Fernando Torres took a fantastic first touch just outside the box, patiently placing the ball right where he needed it.  This time it was Fabianski left without a prayer as the score was leveled again at 3-3.

After about the 75th minute or so, the game had become a breathtaking display of back and forth attacking soccer, both teams attacking and counter-attacking fluidly.  Liverpool looked to go ahead on a very well taken corner in the 82nd minute, and Arsenal just managed to keep it even with Gibbs heading the ball clear off the line.

It remained even, despite the constant attacks from both sides, until the end of regulation.  But just after the clock turned over to 90 minutes, Walcott started a break, counter-attacking the very forward playing Liverpool side.  With one man left ahead of him he, spotted a teammate streaking up the middle, and played the ball to him perfectly for a one-on-one with the goalkeeper.  Again it was Arshavin.  Goal number four for him.

Surely, after the amazing display from the Russian, and with Arsenal now up 4-3 it had to be over.  They had to be destined to take the win after that.

Liverpool kept up the barrage, though, through a strangely long allotment of stoppage time, and in the 93rd minute, with a frantic attack in the Arsenal penalty area, Benayoun put home the final equalizer.  Again, the Gunners failure to clear the ball cost them.

Truthfully, Liverpool did look the better side for the majority of the match.  But while it would be easy to place the credit for Arsenal’s effort solely on their four-time goal scorer, each of Arshavin’s goals was the result of a solid team effort.

For Liverpool, Benayoun, Kuyt, and Torres looked great, while for Arsenal Arshavin and, to my mind, Nasri did well.  Fabianski dealt well with most of the barrage of shots fired his way, but it’s hard to give too much credit to a keeper when four goals pour into his net.