Result: Arsenal 4-1 Liverpool
Latest
14.44
Arsenal gathering some serious spring-time momentum. Chelsea are four points ahead at the top, with two games in hand - could Ars.....no, probably not.
90 min +4
Full time! Not so much a battering for Liverpool here, as a live dissection. Four sumptuous finishes - from Bellerin, Ozil, Sanchez and Giroud - were the main difference, three of which came in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it spell at the end of the first half. Raheem Sterling was an intermittent threat for Liverpool, who only posed Arsenal serious problems when Daniel Sturridge was introduced for the second half. Jordan Henderson's penalty was a mere consolation for Liverpool, and their misery was compounded by the sending-off of Emre Can. From Arsenal, though, that was very easy on the eye.
90 min +1
GOAL! Arsenal 4-1 Liverpool (Giroud) With Liverpool tiring, the space opens up for Giroud to accept a pass, reach the edge of the area, and bend a left-foot finish past Mignolet to seal it for Arsenal. Four beautifully-taken goals today, it has to be said. And I've said it.
89 min
POST! Santi Cazorla slides a shot off the left-hand post after some neat build-up play. Mignolet was well beaten there.
88 min
Arsenal stay in the hunt for a fourth goal, but Welbeck can't get his shot away from a Giroud knock-down. They're now seeing this out quite comfortably against the ten men of Liverpool.
86 min
Mignolet's now doing Cruyff turns in his own six-yard box, to give this game a final flourish.
84 min
RED CARD! Emre Can goes right through Welbeck, and rightly receives his second yellow card. Off he trudges, contemplating his suspension for Liverpool's FA Cup replay against Blackburn in midweek.
80 min
Welbeck races through on the counter-attack but Sakho drives him wide, allowing Mignolet to smother.
79 min
Liverpool now upping the tempo considerably, although Sterling seems to be carrying a knock of some sort. Emre Can sums up their urgency by overhitting a cross, and Arsenal can regroup to see this game out.
76 min
GOAL! Arsenal 3-1 Liverpool (Henderson pen) Henderson steps up and Ospina guesses correctly, but can only palm it into the side-netting. A glimmer of hope for the visitors...
75 min
PENALTY LIVERPOOL! Sterling touches it past Bellerin in the box, and is scythed down - it's a stonewaller. Henderson to take...
73 min
Mesut Ozil is applauded off, and Danny Welbeck will have 17 minutes or so to put the icing on this Arsenal cake.
72 min
Emre Can steadies himself for a screamer from 30 yards, as the ball rolls into his path, but his shot flies exactly where everyone expects: Row Y.
70 min
Hector Bellerin's impressive afternoon copybook is blotted with a yellow card for halting Raheem Sterling's progress on the break.
67 min
Raheem Sterling goes down in the Arsenal box, and gives a look of hope rather than expectation to the referee. Nothing doing.
66 min
A lovely shot of Sanchez's exocet missile that gave Mignolet very little chance and made it 3-0:
64 min
Flamini's first act is to introduce his studs to the ankle of Joe Allen. Referee Anthony Taylor was unsighted, but Liverpool get the free-kick anyway.
62 min
I bring you more Carragher gold. Again, very much Mignolet-themed:
60 min
Arsenal will imminently replace Aaron Ramsey - who has a knock - with Mathieu Flamini, who will single-handedly shut up their shop for the day.
56 min
Liverpool respond, again through Sturridge. Some fancy feet eventually result in a pull-back to Emre Can, whose right-foot drive is beaten away at the near post by Ospina for a corner (which Liverpool waste).
55 min
Save! Painfully easy for Arsenal, as Giroud strolls in to the area to meet a lofted cross. It looked like 4-0 all the way, but Mignolet palmed his header over the bar. A yard either side, etc, etc...
53 min
Sturridge makes his first contribution, releasing Sterling in the area and his cross is gathered by Ospina before Sturridge can get there.
51 min
Ramsey and Cazorla exchange several passes on the edge of the area, before the ball falls to Giroud on the half-volley, and he stings Mignolet's palms. At the other end, Sterling works a half-chance on his right foot but (like his contract demands) it's high and wide.
49 min
Cazorla's free-kick is bravely headed over by a diving Jordan Henderson, who gets a boot to the head in the process. Meanwhile, Arsenal have replaced Laurent Koscielny - presumably injured - with Gabriel.
48 min
Liverpool begin the half by appealing for fouls that don't exist, which more or less represents the flailing depseration of a team that suspect there's no way back. Emre Can goes into the book for a combination of fouling Cazorla and then protesting his innocence with a little too much vigour.
46 min
The second half begins. Sterling has retreated to a left-wing position to accommodate Sturridge.
13.46
Daniel Sturridge will indeed be entering the fray. Markovic's decision-making rewarded with a seat on the bench for the second half.
13.45
Jamie Carragher is consistently great fun, whatever the score:
Half-time
Three gorgeous goals in eight minutes have buried Liverpool's afternoon barely after it had begun. Arsenal began with gusto, pinning Liverpool in their own half, and should have led earlier than they did. Back came the visitors, though, and Lazar Markovic will be ruing his errant pass to Sterling that would have broken the deadlock. Bellerin cruised into the Liverpool box to put Arsenal 1-0 to the good, before fine strikes from Ozil and Sanchez put the Gunners into a seemingly unassailable position at the break. Sturridge will almost certainly be trotting on for the second half, but it may be too late already. Arsenal set to leapfrog Manchester City and have a grab at Chelsea's coat-tails.
Here's Raheem Sterling indulging in some of that earlier ruing...
...before Mesut Ozil produced one for the nay-sayers:
45 min
GOAL! Arsenal 3-0 Liverpool (Sanchez) Aaron Ramsey's excellent, incisive pass is teed up by Sanchez, onto his right foot, and he absolutely welts it through the hands of Mignolet from 20 yards.
44 min
Jamie Carragher unhappy with Liverpool's No.1 there...
Mignolet been brilliant today but can't get beat like that on your side from a free kick.
— Jamie Carragher (@Carra23) April 4, 2015 42 min
Liverpool rocking now, and Kolo Toure hurriedly boots over his own bar as Arsenal press for a third before half-time. Olivier Grioud nods the subsequent corner wide.
40 min
GOAL! Arsenal 2-0 Liverpool (Ozil) Gasps of appreciation around the Emirates! Arsenal win a free-kick, 25 yards out, right of centre, and Mesut Ozil curls one right inside the far post.
37 min
GOAL! Arsenal 1-0 Liverpool (Bellerin) Arsenal's right-back saunters into the area, jinks past a half-hearted Moreno challenge and bends a left-foot shot into the far corner, beyond a despairing Mignolet. His second goal for Arsenal - the other completed a rout against Villa - and both have been taken with impressive aplomb.
34 min
Arsenal's early steam seems to have dissipated, while Liverpool have belatedly gathered some semblance of shape. Sanchez continues to work away tirelessly, but the visiting defence are crowding him out in the final third.
32 min
Ozil shows a glimpse of what he can do, gliding past three Liverpool players to get Arsenal away from their own corner flag, before Alberto Moreno floors him.
29 min
Coutinho releases Sterling in the area, who cuts back on to his right foot to clip a cross to the far post, where Henderson is busting a lung to arrive. Alas, the cross just skips away.
26 min
Sakho is limping and clutching his left ankle. Running it off seems a tall order right now - he looks in a bit of trouble.
24 min
Delightfully open game, this - plenty of space available for both teams in the middle, which will perhaps concern Rodgers more than Wenger. Sterling, though, evades Koscielny with a wonderful first touch but his shot is dragged wide. In keeping with the match's theme so far, that chance came about from a misplaced pass in a risky area.
21 min
Liverpool tails are up, despite Markovic's profligacy, and Coutinho bends a shot narrowly past Ospina's right-hand post.
20 min
Chance for Liverpool! Coutinho releases Markovic, who draws Ospina out but then, terribly, tries to square the ball to Sterling - and it's overhit. That was abysmal, I must emphasise.
17 min
Sterling briefly toys with the Arsenal defence from the left, but his eventual cross is met by absolutely nobody and Arsenal clear with ease. Liverpool now stringing some consecutive passes together, which is an improvement.
16 min
Brendan Rodgers scribbling furiously into that little notepad. Might be on his third page by now, on the evidence so far.
13 min
Raheem Sterling adjudged offside as he races onto a lofted through-ball. Replays suggest otherwise, but it was too tight to call in real-time and...just leave the poor assistants alone, alright?
11 min
Kolo Toure gifts the ball to his former employers once again, and Arsenal stream forward. Only some neat Joe Allen footwork gets Liverpool out of their latest penalty-area pickle.
10 min
Raheem Sterling is clutching his right boot. An early injury certainly isn't in the script. He should be OK.
9 min
Arsenal enjoying the lion's share of the possession, if we all accept that a lion would let his enemies have 24% of its dinner. Liverpool just about gathering their collective breath now, though.
8 min
Liverpool caught out again, by the linesman flags for a foul by Giroud.
4 min
Mignolet to the rescue! Kolo Toure gifts the ball to Aaron Ramsey, who races through onto his left foot and is, like Cazorla, denied by the forearm of Mignolet. This time, though, he needs Toure to come in and toe-punt clear. Liverpool are under siege.
3 min
Arsenal slip into their passing stride immediately - the ball's been caressed left, right, left and right again. Suddenly, Santi Cazorla picks up the ball on the right side of the area and fires a low shot to the far corner, which Mignolet stops with a strong arm, gathering at the second attempt. A smart one, that, my goalkeeping manual tells me.
1 min
We're off and under way at the Emirates. Arsenal will go second if they win, and Alexis Sanchez tries to give them the perfect start - his right-foot shot slams comfortably wide.
12.43
The teams are emerging from the tunnel! Meanwhile...memories:
12.38
A quick reminder of how football's scripts and curses operate: Arsene Wenger's Manager of the Month award has surely rubber-stamped Arsenal's defeat today, while the aforementioned Sterling is firmly pencilled in for a late Liverpool winner. Maybe.
12.31
Brendan Rodgers' turn on the mic - he says he had no hesitation in picking Contract Rebel Raheem Sterling (that's his full name), despite fears over where his head's at. Rodgers used the word "relaxed" at least five times in his press conference on Thursday. He's relaxed about it all, okay?
12.28
Sell your shares in Dejan Lovren, because his stock is plummeting:
12.26
There are banners outside the Emirates today, supporting the Twenty's Plenty campaign to persuade Premier League clubs to drop their ticket prices for travelling supporters - more on that here.
12.22
Ian Wright is being enthusiastic about Mesut Ozil. My colleague JJ Bull was equally effusive recently, suggesting that Ozil's critics are missing something rather beautiful:
12.18
Arsene Wenger speaks. He's being very cautious about declaring Arsenal's title challenge alive and well, so he offers the usual stuff about his players staying focused on their own results and seeing what happens.
12.10
Some semi-useful statistical context here, courtesy of Opta and Sky Sports News. Arsenal's record on home turf against their fellow Premier League high-flyers isn't great:
...but Liverpool's record on their visits to the red half of North London is even worse:
12.05
Arsenal's match programme describes young substitute Matt Macey as "a confident, athletic goalkeeper, who began his youth career as a striker". What a moment of footballing realisation that must have been.
12.01
Stoke City goal machine Jonathan Walters has introduced some much-needed levity to the deadly serious Raheem Sterling contract saga, as Project Babb report:
11.54
Some pre-match tactical observations, as some try to enter the labyrinthine football mind of Brendan Rodgers:
11.52
Real potential for a goalkeeping baptism of fire at the Emirates this lunchtime:
11.50
Piers Morgan is in the BT Sport studio, somehow relegating Robbie Savage to the second-most unappealing human being on my screen at this current moment.
11.46
Team news! No instant surprises in either team, at first glance...
Arsenal: Ospina, Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Coquelin, Cazorla, Ramsey, Ozil, Alexis, Giroud
Subs: Macey, Gibbs, Gabriel, Flamini, Rosicky, Walcott, Welbeck
Liverpool: Mignolet, Can, Toure, Sakho, Allen, Lucas, Moreno, Henderson, Coutinho, Markovic, Sterling
Subs: Jones, Johnson, Lovren, Sturridge, Manquillo, Borini, Brannagan
11.44
Hello! Now, I realise it's customary to set the scene here, for a fascinating-looking fixture between Arsenal and Liverpool, but the Telegraph's photo archive is a wonderful place. There's a picture of Paul Gascoigne with a traffic cone on his head, Tim Sherwood doing a post-industrial fashion shoot for Burton (with Martin Keown) and...what, this? Oh this is just former Liverpool and England defender John Scales posing as James Bond.
10:00
Morning all. Arsenal versus Liverpool is always one of the Premier League's red-letter days, but the events of the past week have made it a must-watch today. Raheem Sterling's decision to go public on his Liverpool future - or lack of it - in a television interview has caused huge controversy on Merseyside and beyond, with opinion split between those who think he behaved badly and those who think he behaved really badly. At least he has the chance to make some sort of amends at the Emirates today - and, who knows, a decent performance might even make Arsene Wenger change his mind about not making an offer for him this summer? Adam Hurrey will have all the build-up to the game from 11.30am, but in the mean time, have your say on whether Sterling really was justified in turning down a mere £100,000 a week to stay at Anfield...
0 nhận xét:
Đăng nhận xét