Premier League - Match #10

Liverpool 1 Gerrard
Arsenal 1 Fabregas

Arsenal returned to the summit of the Barclays Premier League after coming back from behind at Anfield. I was having this feeling all week that the meeting with the red half of Merseyside would be a tough test indeed.

Facing Liverpool during their so called 'crisis' would never be just another walk in the park. With their captain Steven Gerrard in a really determined form to restore the belief of a successful season is still within reach, Arsenal would be deemed 'fools' had they under-estimate the home side.

True enough, it was Gerrard who broke the dead-lock in the eigth minute, after Matthieu Flamini had lost possession to the England international. Manuel Almunia made the first of a series of important saves during the match.

The ball found its way to Xabi Alonso who was fould by compatriot Cesc Fabregas right at the edge of the box. A tap by John Arne-Risse was all Gerrard needed to blast the wall past Almunia.

I believe, had the wall did not break immediately after the tap, Alex Hleb would have blocked the effort.

Rafa Benitez certainly had Liverpool in an attacking mode with a 4-3-3 formation but Fernando Torres, Dirk Kuyt and Andriy Voronin failed to impress.

Arsenal began to take control of the midfield with their usual pass and run football. Unfortunately, the final ball did not fell too kindly for them.

Striker Manu Adebayor is really having a bad spell since starting on a very bright note since the season started. He needs to step-up in order to get the critics off his back. His opposite number

Fabregas missed a glorious opportunity to level the score when he took the the rebound from Manu Eboue on first time, when he could afford to take an extra touch with all the home defenders at sea.

Theo Walcott was brought on for Tomas Rosicky in the 66th minute and he immediately injected a bit of an extra pace to the Arsenal attack.

Peter Crouch who scored a hat-trick in the same fixture in March came on at the start of the second half for Torres who did not make the impact his manager was hoping for. The lanky England striker tested Almunia twice with one of them forcing the Spaniard to make a smart save.

Then Niklas Bendtner and Gilberto Silva came on for Eboue and Gael Glichy. The Brazillian took Flamini's place with the versatile midfielder moving to left-back.

Jaime Carragher was perhaps the luckiest man in football at the moment, especially in the penalty box. Just as it was the same against Everton's Joleon Lescott last week, the England defender pulled Fabregas down and the replay suggested it was a foul and a penalty should have been awarded.

But with ten minutes to go, Arsenal who were looking for the crucial pass finally got it through Hleb. Bendtner was making a run but he strayed too far behind the Liverpool line. The Belarussian waited for just a bit longer before picking up Fabregas who just toe-poked it past Pepe Reina.

The match could have gone either way, with Fabregas hitting the post and Bendtner repeating the same action by Fabregas earlier on the rebound. Captain William Gallas then produced a crucial block on an attempt by Gerrard who had latched on a wonderful lay-off by Crouch.

In the end, both sides shared the spoils though Arsenal perhaps thinking they deserved more from the match than just the single point.

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