After going to Manchester and Paris last season, Bolton, Fulham and Sheffield this, I finally got to see Arsenal win away. The most incredible away day I’ve ever been apart of. Quite possibly any game, this really was special for me. Growing up I’ve always imagined Anfield as a massive place to win, perhaps bigger than any place. I’m not sure why but it really pleases me when we win there. Games like the 2-1 in 2001, when Van Bronkhorst got sent off, and when Pires hit that cracker in 2003, winning at Anfield has only happened twice during my short time on this planet, and yesterdays win will go down as the Greatest for me. Now I know it’s only the Third round and perhaps singing We’re on our way to Wembley on the way home was slightly premature, but we didn’t care.
So I was up bright and early for 6.30, having only been asleep for 4 hours, so perhaps not that bright. Got a shower, sort of did a preview on here, sorted out my bag and I was off, 2 trains were cancelled, but I had plenty of time, another 2 trains cancelled and I may have been i trouble. Got to Holloway Road, sorted myself out with snacks and drink, boarded the coach and we were off, due to my lack of sleep I wasn’t awake for the duration of the journey. When we got to the services there was as many Liverpool fans as there was Arsenal. Got myself a Ginsters and we were back on the road, it rained pretty much all the way from Emirates to Anfield, and there was word going round that it might get called off. We arrived in Liverpool at about 3.30 with plenty of time, there was already a great atmosphere building around the stadium and it just smelled of a typical 3rd Round FA Cup game. Had to wait in the rain for a while, waiting for the turnstiles to open, finally got in, straight into my seat, not the greatest view I’ve ever been given at a stadium, but I could see everything was right next to the Scousers. So here’s the view from seat 0004 -
This was about an hour prior to kick off, but within 20 minutes the place was half full and buzzing already. By the time the teams had gone in from their warm up to get ready the place was full, and the noise immense. Perhaps most of all, I was looking forward to hearing You’ll Never Walk Alone at Anfield, and the Liverpool fans didn’t disappoint, it was deafening, we tried to out sing them, but I stopped singing in amazement. Henry has talked in the past about how incredible the Anfield atmosphere is, and he was bang on. You could see he loved it when he walked out, spreading his arms out.
So, onto the match, for the first 30 minutes, we hardly attacked the Kop end, and just seemed to let Liverpool come at us, but they never really created anything. They had a few shots in anger and swung in a few crosses, but nothing to suggest we were ever in danger. You could see the Scousers were beginning to get frustrated, as were the Liverpool players. Then came the turning point, our first real good passing move, involving Hleb and Rosicky on the right, looking back at it on the TV, Liverpool left a big space for Hleb and he exploited it perfectly by rolling it into Rosicky who shot, it looped over the keeper and Half of the Anfield Road end went Berserk, I think I went more mad than when I did when Sol scored in Paris. Incredible, 1-0 up at Anfield.
Our joy and our lead was doubled just 8 minutes later when Rosicky got his second of the game, a fantastic individual effort, running in from the left, beating a few players and placing a shot in the bottom right corner, to perfection. 2-0 up at Anfield!!
Shortly after, the half-time whistle came. The Liverpool fans were in shock, as were we, if any of you travel to a lot of away games, you will know who Omar is, well he had his hands on his head. He couldn’t believe it either. After about 5 minutes of the break I was thinking if anyone will ring me, with me thinking a phone call will bring some sort of curse on the team and we were gonna mess it up in the second half, well I did get a phone call minutes later, and almost an hour later my theory was put to bed.
Before this however, the second half kicked off, and we knew Liverpool would throw everything at us, and they sort of did. I had said to myself that if we didn’t concede until the 75th minute, we would be in the 4th round, we fell just 4 minutes short of that target. It came from a corner, Crouch finally got the better of our defence and headed towards goal, and the hard working Kuyt helped it on into the net with a header. I thought they would get a goal, but at 2-0 I just kept saying to myself, they haven’t scored yet, so we’re still going through, but when they got one back, I thought a draw was the most likely result, mainly because we were very tired at this point, but they didn’t really go for it as much as they did in the first quarter of the second half, and they would pay the price. Justin Hoyte had been brought on at this time, as had Julip Baptista, The Beast’s first few touches were awful, but I think the game was in full flow at this point, and it wasn’t the best idea to bring him on, maybe Djourou could have come on and helped out in the centre. We began to see more of the ball again and we looked like we could break away at any time, we did this, clearing a corner or a cross, Rosicky ran with it and just sort of hit and hoped by kicking the ball towards the corner flag, it was a race between Thierry Henry and Jamie Carragher, as we all know, a 2 legged cat could probably beat Jamie in a footrace on his day. Carragher had a big advantage of Henry though and the striker had a lot of work to do, by the time they got to the ball they were neck and neck and Thierry just barged him over onto his arse, sprant into the box, took a few touches, the last little touch being the crucial one past a defender and slotting it past Dudek. 3-1 game over, and I knew I could go nuts without having to worry about us messing up the game. People hugging me, screaming, mocking the Scousers, waving my scarf around, jumping a lot and the biggest smile you can imagine, that’s the only way I can describe the feeling after that goal.
Alot of the Liverpool fans left after this and we had a very nice time wishing them a nice trip home. All we could do was sing and wait for the final whistle, Walcott came on for Henry who was applauded by every Arsenal and Liverpool fan, which is a fantastic testament to his ability. Walcott had a few runs at the Liverpool defence which came of nothing, I think a Walcott goal would have killed me. Liverpool had a couple of corners but the game was well over by the time the added time came up. The final whistle came a few minutes later and we had beaten Liverpool at home, everyone had written us off before the game, and to win the way we did was very special.
I said in my preview it could be a day to remember and it certainly was. There is still a hell of a long way to Wembley, but we have knocked out one of the big boys and hopefully we will get a draw at home in the next round, against Blackpool or Bristol Rovers.
The players came over at the end and Rosicky threw his shirt into the crowd which was a nice gesture. Having said that, I wish the players would come over after every game to say thanks at least, even if we do lose. I forgot to mention in last weeks Sheffield report that the only player to clap the fans after the game was Flamini, just some acknowledgement is very much appreciated and its the least the lads could do for us, after all, we don’t have to travel the length and breadth of the country every week, so hopefully Wenger made a point to the players and they didn’t just do it because we won.
On the coach on the way home, we had a brick thrown at our coach which shattered the tinted window, and it had to be pulled down, luckily it was doubled glazed or it would have been a very cold journey home. Just shows what bad losers and what utter Wankers some Scousers can be, not all of them obviously, but there’s no need for it, just because you got done at home 3-1 by the Cockney boys, and you are out of the cup in third round. Oh yes.
Got back to Emirates about midnight, and headed home. A very long day, but one that will live long in the memory. We have Liverpool again on Tuesday, and to those who are making the long journey back up north, you are crazy. But good crazy. I’m not sure when I’m going away again, I was going to go to Blackburn on Saturday, but I’ve run out of money at the moment, so probably I will go to Villa or Everton, perhaps even Middlesboro.
Block 11 Player Ratings -
Almunia – 7, Eboue – 6, Senderos – 7.5, Toure – 7.5, Clichy – 7, Hleb – 7, Gilberto – 8, Flamini – 8, Block 11 Star Man – Rosicky – 8.5, Van Persie – 7, Henry – 7.5
Subs -
Hoyte – 7
Baptista – 6
Walcott – 5
If you read that all, fairplay. Thanks for reading, and I’ll have something about the Carling Cup game tomorrow.
See ya.
Posted by romfordgooner 