With the fantastic tribute prior to kick off of legendary Sir Tom Finney passing at the grand old age of 91. It was fitting that two great clubs put together a great spectacle for the FA Cup, a tournament that Finney graced with brilliance all those years ago in the fifties.
Arsenal trying to recover from their mauling at the hands of us eight days ago hoped for a more steady start but were almost hit with a double sucker punch when first Gerrard repeated the peach of a through ball that he produced vs Fulham but this time Sturridge screwed the shot at Fabianski who saved it with his rear.
Couple of minutes later a cute little dink over the top found Sturridge who rounded Fabianski only to screw the shot wide into the side netting with his right foot.
Arsenal had literally got out of jail.
With Arsenal's first shot on goal they took the lead, this was through a set-piece given away by Flanagan, a deflected shot from debutant Sanogo fell straight to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain who calmly stroked the ball home as Brad Jones dived in vain to give Arsenal a 1-0 lead against the run of play.
Our attack for much of the first half was on the break, relying on pace and countering from the lively Sterling, whenever Arsenal got men forward. It was not effective, and the opening 45 minutes was more notable for the activity of attention seeking Howard Webb more than anything else.
There was a very quick break from Arsenal after Luis Suarez very nearly scored right after the restart. Oxlade-Chamberlain was played in by Mesut Ozil, Chamberlain shrugged off the returned Daniel Agger with ease and the young winger's cut-back for Lukas Podolski was perfect. 2-0 for the hosts and we were mostly in damage control mode.
We got a second wind and went for it , Arsenal again knowing conceding a goal would mean we were back in the game.
What a silly, silly challenge from Lukas Podolski. We weren't doing much outside of Luis Suarez being a constant threat, so Podolski naturally tracks back and makes an absurd attempt to dispossess the Uruguayan right as he entered the penalty area. Steven Gerrard then did what Steven Gerrard does, and suddenly it was a one-goal match.
With us now on the front foot we then preceded to get an even clearer penalty turned down by attention seeking ref Webb, when Oxlade-Chamberlain bundled over Suarez with Webb only a few yards away with a clear line of sight. Terrible, terrible decision which despite our continued attempts to equalise cost us the cup tie.
Webb tried to level out the poor refereeing decisions when he should have sent off Gerrard for a second yellow when he had clearly fouled Oxlade-Chamberlain
Henderson was brought on for the ineffective Cissokho after 62 minutes which meant a change of tactic with Allen now supported by Henderson to give us a numerical advantage in midfield. Flanagan moved to the left back slot vacated by Cissokho and Raheem Sterling's shift at right fullback was another good one, even if it's not what we're looking for given his success in attack of late.
We had one more late chance with Gerrard's excellent free kick being headed wide by Agger with Arsenal keeper nearly punching his head off at the same time. To some referee's that would also be a penalty but not attention seeking Webb who has again transpired to do everything possible to ensure a 7th loss in a row when he is the referee of our games.
Good job, good effort, arguably better than Arsenal on the day but simply did not put away our several chances when through on goal.
Man of the Match - Steven Gerrard
He was all over the pitch doing the quarter back role and also fighting fires in front of the back four. Again leading by example but was also lucky not to be sent off, took his penalty with aplomb as well.
Critical Eye
Daniel Sturridge poor finishing with two clear cut chances on his weaker right foot within the first five minutes ultimately cost us this FA Cup tie at the Emirates. It may seem a little harsh of me to say this but with the amount of money footballers earn nowadays they should be able to put chances away simply with both feet. I think that's where Sturridge needs to improve his game. It was sad to see him teary eyed at the end of the game but it should drive him on to do better in the final 12 league games to come. The FA Cup still means something to the players.
The FA raves about Howard Webb being the best of the English referees but he is quite frankly extremely poor whenever he has a big game and more often than not makes attention seeking decisions so that he makes the headlines.
Arsenal (4-2-3-1): Fabianski, Jenkinson, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal , Flamini, Arteta, Oxlade-Chamberlain(Gibbs 76), Ozil, Podolski, (Cazorla 69), Sanogo(Giroud 88).
Subs not used: Sagna, Wilshere, Viviano, Gnabry.
Booked: Monreal, Flamini.
Goals: Oxlade-Chamberlain 16, Podolski 47
Manager: Arsene Wenger
Liverpool (4-3-3): Jones, Flanagan, Agger, Skrtel, Cissokho, (Henderson 62) Coutinho, Gerrard, Allen, Sterling, Suarez, Sturridge.
Subs not used: Toure, Aspas, Moses, Mignolet, Kelly, Teixeira.
Booked: Flanagan, Coutinho, Gerrard.
Goals: Gerrard (pen) 59.
Manager: Brendan Rodgers
Ref: Howard Webb
Att: 59,801
Yes, one can cast a critical eye at Daniel Sturridge and we all come out with critiques saying that players should be two-footed, but its very rare that footballers are as truly two-footed as Ronaldo. Maybe chastened by the experience, he may just want to practice a little harder in training, as Michael Owen learned to do when asked by Gerard Houllier to increase the ratio of goals he scored with his left foot.
ReplyDeleteBut let's fact it once again, we were poor defensively and as good a footballer as Daniel Agger is my faith in him as a defender has long since deserted me. We seemed to fall apart under Sanogo's challenege and Agger's disappointing challenge on Oxlade-Chamberlain for the second is just what I have come to expect and I wouldn't be surprised if it is he who is saying goodbye in the close season.
We were excellent in the second-half and yes were cut-off at the knees by Howard Webb's decision, but things like that happen and obviously it hurts knowing that we could have been one game from a Wembley semi-final, but if we've learnt anything from the game it's that the SAS strikeforce cannot save us all the time, especially when we continue to leak goals at the back.
As critical as I've been about Agger, we have to have a settled pairing at the back for the rest of the season, to give assuredness to Mignolet. Stop leaking goals and there is no reason why we wont qualify for a Champions League position, but keep shipping stupid goals and we may just look back at key games where we've thrown away critical points.
In saying that, part of the reason why it hurts so much, is we conclusively outplayed Arsenal in the second-half. Out front four is exceptional, but we are not as potent in the midfield area without the drive and forcefulness of Henderson and it shows just want a key componet he has become this season and our lack of depth as without him we don't possess another of his ilk.
It's onwards and upwards and we now don't have any excuse with only the Premiership to concentrate, but I'm sure the players would tell you that they'd have preferred to still have the FA Cup on their compass rather have games spaced out and losing a little bit of continuity and fluidity as we move into LFC's most critical end of season in years.
We were absolutely robbed, how on earth did he not give that penalty? On the plus side we were by far the better side especially in the second half.
ReplyDeleteBarry, agree, our game/stats showed, we had more possession, shots on goal, passes etc. We just got unlucky, its over now, and we just need to do everything we can to win our league games and get into the Champions league.
Deletesome very bad referring decisions against us!
Second time on a row that Mr Webb cost us the game. In Chelsea he failed to send off Eto’O for dreadful tackle within the first minutes at Stamford Bridge game changing decision and he went on to score the winning goal. He failed to give a stone wall pen which I believe was more of a pen than the first one he gave and that would have level the game.
DeleteAW shameless face talking about LS reputation yet this was the player he put the bid in for in Summer. I can wait to see him cry on Wednesday!
We played fantastically well and did deserve something from the game. It was not to be but again having Howard Webb officiating our games has cost us dear and poor finishing by Sturridge.
DeleteIs there any reason Liverpool FC can not tell FA that from now going forward, they do not want Howard Webb to referee their matches? He cost us a point at Stamford Bridge and now a replay of FA cup at Emirates.
DeleteIts out of our hands – I just hope he does not officiate any of our 12 league games left. We have 12 cup finals 36 points to play for all games with our best team 11 available we can win.
DeleteFirst up Swansea next weekend Sunday at 1.30pm – not a live tv game.
HW is going to the World Cup as England's top official
DeleteI was having discussion with a mate on mine, these guys get around £2,000 £3,000 a game., crikky
He’s going to the world cup as an incompetent referee, just as he was in the world cup final. Yesterday he simply bottled making the correct decision about the penalty. So what if the same player is fouled twice in a game, in the box, its still a penalty. He was only yards away.
DeleteGerrard was again immense, though some might feel he was a tad lucky to remain on the pitch. I guess Podolski and Arteta might also feel lucky too.
The pleasing thing, apart from the result was that I thought we were the better side, especially in the 2nd half Had we taken our chances and if justice had prevailed, we could easily have won say 4-2. I guess Flanagan will learn that there’s no need to give away free kicks like that in such a dangerous area of the pitch. Having said that, our defence was found wanting for both goals – its become a bad habit.
As someone said, its all done now we so we have the Premiership and the prospect of a Champions League place to aim for. Hopefully we can keep everyone fit and well rested.
Why can’t we take a stand against HW officiating our games. Southampton ban Cletenburg from officiating any of their games until further notice, why can we do the same to HW?
DeleteFantastic idea lets see how strong the club feels about it.
Deletehttp://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/feb/16/liverpool-steven-gerrard-holding-role-arsenal
DeleteInteresting piece and comments below. BR has clearly tried to build the midfield based on legs around Stevie - even Coutinho seems to be doing lots of running in both directions. As one of the comments below the article suggest, Henderson gives the midfield legs. Some forget that Stevie's been playing the holding role for England for the last couple of years.
DeleteI don't think building the midfield to provide the legs for Gerrard is not the only thing, which seems not to work at home as Gerrard is quite often targeted as with the Villa game. Brendan Rodgers ovbviously has had to fathom away for Liverpool to put pressure on the ball and win it back, because he doesn't possess a midfielders of the likes of Yaya Toure or Fernadinho, so he has devised a system whereby ever midfielder and alongside the strikers have to pressure the ball. It's why Sturridge and Suarez are doing their fair share of dropping back and doing a shift defensively. It really is a shame that a real holding or robust midfielder wasn't bought in January as it would have provided more options as it it is we are having to score a princely sum of goals in each match just to scrape victories and worryingly, that can't always be the way.
DeleteWith the attacking youngsters that Brendan has brought through this term, it would've been nice to see a young strongt central mildfielder consistently hin and around the first team.