By Boris Mellor
June 5 2005

Arsenal fans tired of Liverpool fans singing about their CL exploits asked this simple question, "Have you ever seen football played like this?" And rudely not waiting for the reply provided their own answer "Have you feck."

ARSENAL 3

Pires 25
Reyes 29
Fabregas 90

LIVERPOOL 1

Gerrard 51

Liverpool played the pressing game for the first 15 minutes and had a few chances, obviously hoping to win a quick goal and then shut the game down. It could have worked as Arsenal were slow out of the blocks as usual. But then our midfield got control and the tide began to turn. Now Arsenal came forward and looked increasingly dangerous. After eleven minutes a brilliant Reyes goal, after an excellent Van Persie shot was parried by Dudek, was disallowed for offside.

But Gunners did not have to wait long for the lead, on 24 minutes Vieira was fouled on the edge of the box and Pires curled the ball in for a 25^th minute goal. Now Arsenal really began to play. They were all over Liverpool like a rash, and the Arsenal crowd revelled in the sheer beauty of it all. In four minutes the lead was doubled. Fabregas passed the ball wide, Cole passed it to Reyes steaming in from the left, who outrun his marker, placing his shot beyond the despairing hands of Dudek into the far corner.

Liverpool had gone in with their heads down, but came out in the second half ready to scrap, closing down Arsenal at every opportunity, and not too fussy how they did it. They also started to dive and try to con free kicks. And on the 51 st minute they conned one off Reyes, it didn’t look like a free kick from where I was, but Poll was happy to give it.

Double misfortune followed as Arsenal’s wall was worse than useless, with Fabregas deflecting the ball past Lehmann who originally had it covered. This inspired Liverpool and the Gunners began to get scrappy under pressure. Liverpool now had Cisse and Kewell on and were far more adventurous. A game that should have been wrapped by Arsenal half time was now being defended desperately. Liverpool did most of the attacking as Lehmann made some great saves, and Senderos, and Cole made last ditch tackles.

Arsenal were now hoping to wind down the clock, but in the last ten minutes it was Liverpool’s turn to lose tempo. Now Arsenal became very dangerous on the break, Fabregas had yet another Gunner goal disallowed. But he was the birthday boy, man of the match, and the scoresheet had his name on it in advance. A pass from Edu found Lauren on the right wing, Lauren’s low cross found Bergkamp, who turned on a sixpence threading the ball through a packed defence to Cesc who passed the ball into the net. Highbury celebrated. Champion’s League Everton sang the Clock End.

Liverpool fans claim they are the only team in Europe, but they are not the only team in Mersyside where they are second to Everton.