Liverpool 3-6 Arsenal – 09/01/07 – (Carling Cup) 10 January, 2007

What an extraordinary game. Well we thought that the game on Saturday was good but this was something else. We started with Kolo partnering Djourou at the back as captain with Hoyte and Traore on the wings. Then the midfield had Denilson on the left, Walcott on the right with Song and Fabregas is the middle. Upfront we had a partnership of Aliadiere and Baptista. Every player on the pitch played well, there was not a single one that played badly…including Song.

The strike partnership worked beautifully and we were extremely tight at the back as on Saturday. Denilson was in an unfamiliar position in left midfield but he was excellent too there and I never noticed he’s a great crosser of the ball. The game started just like it did on Saturday with Liverpool having most of the possession but Arsenal coping with their pressure. Mark Gonzalez picked up a serious injury early on and the game was stopped for about 5 minutes. That turned the game for Arsenal and we were away. There’s only really time to talk about the goals so here you go:

Jeremie Aliadiere opened the scoring in the 27th minute out of nowhere. The ball was in defence with Kolo Toure but the skipper saw Aliadiere up front and played a wonderful long-ball up to him which he took down beautifully to be one-on-one with the ‘keeper. Dudek saved his first shot but Jeremie was able to snatch the rebound and go past Dudek to slot it in the empty net. 1-0 to Arsenal, a good start for the young guns.

The lead was short-lived though, Fowler equalized 5 minutes later. Song was booked for a sloppy challenge outside the box giving Liverpool a free kick in a dangerous position. Fabio Aurelio shot and Almunia saved well down to his right but the ball went to Luis Garcia just wide of the goal. He played it back in and Fowler scored with this little back-flick right in front of Almunia and it would’ve been a very difficult save to make. 1-1 now and you wondered how the youngsters could bounce back.

Baptista regained out lead in the 40th minute with a brilliant free kick. With a similar attempt a few minutes earlier Julio mucked up a pass to Toure for one of his belters but this one was all his. You could see the look in his eyes as he was about to take it; he was just standing there breathing heavily like a beast. He knew he could score it and I said he would to my mates at the pub, and so did Arsene Wenger to Pat Rice. I had known that The Beast is a superb free kick taker and a lot of people we expecting this to go it. He hit it over the wall with an unbelievable amount of dip and bend and it went right in the bottom left corner leaving Dudek stranded. 2-1 up, now the challenge was to keep the lead and not give it away like we did last time.

There was added time in the first half of 6 minutes because of that bad injury at the beginning and we scored two goals in those 6 minutes. The first came from none over than Alex Song. When I saw him in the box for the corner I was like oh god what’s Song doing there and then started explaining how shit he was and as I was talking Song netted our third! Denilson whipped in a great free kick and it missed the heads of about 3 players and the insane Dudek who’d flung himself in the air to get it. The ball came down the back post where it bounced in of Song’s arm. I don’t think Alex knew a great deal about it but he’d scored! Alex Song had scored! It wasn’t a handball, he didn’t stick his arm out or anything, it just hit him, but I don’t think that’ll worry Alex too much.

Baptista added the forth just before half time. Alex Song on confidence from his goal played a great ball to Julio who did some nice little tricks to confuse the defence and then played a ball into Aliadiere. Baptista continued his run and he was open in the middle for a shot at goal. All Jeremie had to do was square it to the Beast and he tapped it into the net to take us to 4-1 up at half time.

10 minutes into the second half and we won a penalty, it just wasn’t Liverpool’s day. It was a bit of a dubious decision and you might say Hyypia got the ball when he tripped Aliadiere. The Beast didn’t care though and placed the ball on the spot hoping to complete his hat trick. He shot to the left and it was a comfortable height for Dudek to make the save. No hat trick for Baptista just now but it didn’t take much longer for it to come.

Just before the hour mark The Beast did manage to get his third. Djourou defended well right by the corner flag stealing the ball off Bellamy, he then played the ball to Cesc who delivered a great long ball to Aliadiere on the left and we were the complete opposite end of the pitch in a matter of four seconds. Jeremie got past one defender and played a great square ball to Baptista who was unmarked 30 yards from goal. He took a couple of touches and powered the ball right into the bottom corner to complete his hat trick, it was an excellent goal and Dudek had no chance in saving. Out of The Beast’s three goals so far it was hard to pick the best one.

5-1 up surely game over but the Anfield faithful inspired there team to go on a bit of a comeback. In the 67th minute a free kick was played in by Alonso from the right into the box, it went deep and was headed back in. Then it was nodded it Gerrard on the edge of the box who unleashed one of his specialist volleys into the opposite corner of the net. A stunning goal to take the score to 5-2. No ‘keeper in the world would’ve been able to save that sweetly struck bullet by Gerrard.

At 5-2 we were still three up but Liverpool were pushing for a comeback. In the 79th minute Hyypia made up for his terrible defending by scoring a header taking the score to 5-3. The ball was crossed in from the left and Sami was there at the near post to nod it in. I wondered if the youngsters could maintain that 2 goal lead and with 10 minutes + extra time there was every chance for Liverpool to complete an incredible comeback.

Julio Baptista got his 4th and Arsenal 6th to put the game to bed with 5 minutes of normal time remaining. We were defending near the corner flag again and I think it was Toure who smashed the ball to the other end. Cries of ‘HOOF’ rang around the stadium, not sure what set of fans it was from but we scored from that hoof. The long-ball went down the right wing and Aliadiere sprinted from the centre to get it, look here when they show the replay to see how incredibly quick is. So he ran over and got the ball and did brilliantly to muscle out his defender, then he squared the ball centre for the charging in Baptista to slot the ball in and make it Arsenal 6, Liverpool 3. It’s not everyday you get to say that. The credit for the gaol has to go to Aliadiere though; he did really well in that move and in the whole game. If it weren’t for Baptista’s 4 goals he’d be man of the match by a long way.

So the final score was 6-3 and you can see all of the goals here. A magnificent display from the youngsters and I’d be very exited about the future if I were you. With the exception of Cesc and Kolo all of these players were reserve or youth players and to put 6 past Liverpool is some achievement. Okay, the home team didn’t have their strongest team out but it was one that included Gerrard, Dudek, Alonso, Hyypia, Gonzalez, Garcia, Carragher, Bellamy and Robbie Fowler. Another positive thing was the return of Abou Diaby, he cam on in the 73rd minute and got a good run out. It was nice to see him back playing and I thought he played quite good for the time he was on the pitch. I look forward to seeing him playing some more over the course of the season.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted us to win this one but I was absolutely loving the game and now looking forward to playing Spurs. I’m quite sure Wenger will play a reasonable side for the two-legged semi final against Spurs but we’ll think about that nearer the time.

Next up it’s Blackburn on Saturday, another one of our bogey ties but hopefully we can find confidence from these two wins at Anfield to win at Ewood Park. We beat them 6-2 down here but it won’t be so simple up at Blackburn. Build up that in the week. Thanks for reading, have a good day.