Robin Van Persie struck twice, did nothing more, but it was enough for Arsenal to secure another come from behind victory, beating Liverpool who simply couldn’t find the net despite, once again, being clearly the superior team against a Champions League club, the first team to beat Liverpool at Anfield this season.
Van Persie made it 25 league goals despite the fact that Arsenal barely made any attempt at scoring or controlling the game. Liverpool created most of their chances in the first half. The biggest early moment was the penatly that Luis Suarez won, unfairly, by diving over a fantastic Szczesny, who stopped Dirk Kuyt’s penalty kick and his abysmal rebound effort.
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Liverpool kept it coming, and eventually, a Jordan Henderson cross, in one of his better games in the red shirt and the right wing, met Laurent Koscielny who mishit the clearance and scored for Liverpool. Robin Van Persie made it 1-1 later after some terrible Jamie Carragher coverage, proving to everyone just how sorely missed Daniel Agger will be during the next few weeks.
Luis Suarez? Another one of those games were he does everything right but the finish. The post? He got reacquainted with his old friend, as Liverpool’s framework numbers grew to something around the 25, far more than any other club in England this season. Maybe even in Europe. Bad luck, or forwards problems? Probably a bit of both.
While Arsenal looked nothing like the team that thumped against Tottenham in Sunday’s 5-2 smashing, Liverpool looked just like the team that missed and missed and blew points away all season long at Anfield. This time, they got bitten late in the game by a terrible offside trap, a combination of Martin Kelly and Jamie Carragher, again. Robin Van Persie produced another sublime finish from Song’s cross in a shot Reina probably should have stopped if he was a little bit more concentrated.
People may talk about Wenger’s problems, but his team showed a lot of bravery and toughness, especially his two centre back and goalkeeper, who withstood quite a lot of pressure and aggression. Liverpool are an aggressive team again, but Dalglish, troubled by injuries as well, has yet to find the right combination up front, or rid his team of the habit of strictly crossing whenever Andy Carroll is on the pitch. He fell asleep on the sub watch aswell, putting in Craig Bellamy way too late instead of bringing more fresh pressure on the defensive gunners.
Arsenal get some separation (temporary at least) from Chelsea and get closer to Tottenham, while Liverpool’s dreams of this season being about more than just the Carling (or even maybe the FA Cup) probably ended today when Van Persie struck for the second time.