THINK of Liverpool v Arsenal and what’s the first match that springs to mind? Yeah, we’ll ignore that one. What else? Robbie Fowler’s 4-minute and 35-second hat-trick in 94? The treble he scored against them at Anfield just 16 months later? What about Peter Crouch’s hat-trick in the 2007 4-1? Neil Mellor’s belter of a winner in 2004? The 2001 FA Cup Final? The Champions League quarter final? Or what about…

Liverpool FC 4 Arsenal FC 4 – Tuesday, April 21, 2009.

Attendance 44,424.

I would always go for Liverpool FC 4 Arsenal FC 4. Let me try to explain why.





Article Opening Idea 1

I’m laughing and crying on Walton Breck Road on Tuesday 21st April, 2009 at 10pm. Laughing and crying. I can’t stop doing either. I know I have to go and meet people but I can’t stop laughing and I can’t stop crying. I’m not laughing so hard that I’m crying. I’m doing both of these things, independent of one another because of the football match I’ve just watched. This is hysteria.

I know it’s over.

What a way to go.

I know this is it.

That was perfect.

I know it’s over, truly I do.

What a game. What a game of football. It was a joy. Yossi Benayoun –

Article Opening Idea 2

They were the last gang in town. Liverpool’s 08/09 side. They were a walking heist movie. They were Benitez’s Fourteen. They’d spent the season getting themselves into outrageous pickles and they kept coming out from these pickles on top with style, with panache. They had character. They had charisma. In an era in which footballers have become increasingly bland Reina, Arbeloa, Carragher, Hyypia, Aurelio, Alonso, Mascherano, Kuyt, Riera, Benayoun, and Torres all seemed like they had more than that. They had personalities and character points and flaws. And the captain. The captain had got himself arrested for battering a fella in Southport over Phil Collins. He hadn’t been that interesting in years.

Somehow they played the best football in the country for a season but they didn’t have the same might as their rivals, for a variety of reasons. Primarily this – there wasn’t enough of them. They were a gang, not a squad.

On 21st April 2009, needing a goal to take the score from 3-3 to 4-3, Liverpool replaced Dirk Kuyt with Nabil El-Zhar. This was one of the many things Liverpool 4 Arsenal 4 told us along with –

Article Opening Idea 3

It had been a madcap adventure. My friend Dan rang me after one brilliant Saturday: “What happened last night, I don’t remember, all I know is my face hurts from laughing so much.”

Every weekend there was something else. Defeat was so rare and it was building. We were in our late twenties and both city and football club were in fantastic shape. You couldn’t not enjoy this. It was pulsating. It was the time of your life –

Article Opening Idea 4

If you weren’t there, you’ll never know how mad 08/09 was for Liverpool supporters. We didn’t expect a title challenge. We hoped for one. You always did back then, but I don’t think anyone genuinely expected a serious title challenge. Much of the season the team seemed much more convinced than the supporters. Liverpool went and won at Chelsea in late October and the next game, a midweek game against Portsmouth, the crowd went into absolute meltdown after Liverpool went 1-0 up late on through a Gerrard penalty. Men in their forties behind me were screaming “Don’t panic, fuck’s sake Liverpool, don’t fucking panic. Whatever you do stop panicking!” I turned round screaming “Stop fucking panicking, yeah? Stop fucking panicking.” This was happening all round the ground. Heads had gone. Liverpool FC saw out a run of the mill 1-0 home win against Portsmouth.

They were booed off after a home draw with West Ham United saw them go top in December.

Walking out of a draw at Wigan Athletic away in January people were openly saying Benitez had to go. Liverpool were two points off the top.

I didn’t go to Pompey away. I have friends who did and got into fights with fellow supporters. About Benitez. Liverpool won 3-2 with a last-minute winner. I listened to 606. The first caller was a Liverpool supporter saying he wished Liverpool had lost that game to teach Benitez a lesson. He should go now. The week before Liverpool had beaten Chelsea 2-0 at home. Liverpool had just scored a last-minute winner away from home against Portsmouth to go top of the league. The manager needed teaching a lesson and needed sacking.

A section of Liverpool supporters loudly booed Lucas Leiva on to the pitch against Sunderland. Ah, The Liverpool Way. Seen as the manager’s player you see. Liverpool won the match 2-0.

Fourteen days later, there’s a city rumour. The day Liverpool play Real Madrid in the Bernabeu. A city rumour. Not an internet rumour but a city rumour. These count for something. He’s gone. Benitez has gone. He’s been sacked. Something has gone on. He’s gone. He’s gone.

Liverpool won 1-0 in the Bernabeu and would go on to vanquish Madrid 5-0 over two legs.

On 21st April 2004 –

Article Opening Ideas 5

They speed by too quickly to be recounted. Benitez’s brilliant, righteous fury reacting to Arsenal’s fourth or Arbeloa and Carragher getting into it at West Brom or Kuyt at Hull or Viduka scoring four against us at Elland Road. They are all there. Since Houllier arrived and cleaned up this town it bears down on this game. It sits in the centre, connecting all the ley lines of Liverpool’s football energy for a decade or more. All the lines go into this game and then they split back up again – it’s Liverpool’s footballing monolith and will be until there are more genuine adventures, more heists, until something takes off and someone else cleans –