Arsenal v Liverpool – LIVE

• Send your thoughts to gregg.roughley@guardian.co.uk • Look in on the FA Cup semi-final between Bolton and Stoke • And check all of today’s results and live scores here 21 min: Not very surprising news dept: Aurelio’s hamstring goes for the 457th time in his career and the 17-year-old left-back Jack Robinson replaces him. Jens Lehmann is five years older than Flanagan and Robinson combined! 19 min: “The boy Spearing, he looks a bit like he’s had Jim Fix It for him to play for Liverpool for the day. Odd lookin’ fella,” offers Steve Waterhouse. Walcott drifts over to the left and bursts past Carragher and plays a very dangerous ball in towards Van Persie, but Reina is electric off his line and gathers comfortably. 18 min: Arsenal are turning the screw. Van Persie whips in another fantastic free-kick towards Koscielny again after Aurelio gave away a free-kick on the right, but this time Skrtel leaps highest and clears the danger. 16 min: Arsenal hit the bar! Reina looks shaky again as he comes to punch clear a Van Persie corner, but the pace of the delivery catches him out and Koscielny gets to the ball before him and sends a powerful header thumping against the woodwork. 14 min: How good is Andy Carroll then. To answer Summer, in my opinion, Carroll is like a really powerful engine that’s full of dirt. Polished up a bit he could be very, very good. But, it’s still very early days in his career. 13 min: Arsenal are pressing Liverpool much more aggressively now. Reina is forced to clear long, with no options in midfield. 10 min: Reina spills a Walcott drive from 25 yards. At first look it looks like Reina has made a pig’s ear of it. At second look the ball swerves dramatically in mid-air and means Reina can only palm it away. Flanagan clears the danger. 9 min: Carroll gets his head to the corner but sends it high over the bar. On a second look at the Spearing penalty claim it looks like he had a good shout. Djourou’s tackle was clumsy, his knee knocking Spearing into, and then over, Carroll. “How good is Andy Carroll,” asks Summer Hayles. That’s a big one for an MBM Summer. 8 min: Corner for Liverpool. 7 min: It’s been a racey start this. Both teams moving the ball quickly on the floor. 5 min: Jay Spearing (he’s an odd looking lad isn’t he? Like David Thompson and an egg had relations) appeals for a penalty after Suarez crosses towards Andy Carroll and the midfielder latches on to the knockdown, but it looks like he trips over Carroll if anything. Suarez then wins a free-kick and sends it tamely into the arms of Szczesny from 25 yards. 3 min: Arsenal win a free-kick on the left. Nasri whips a brilliant ball in towards the penalty spot, where Diaby leaps highest and sends the ball scooting a foot past Reina’s right-hand post. It was a perfectly-weighted ball from Nasri. 2 min: “Stan Kroenke. All that money and he can’t afford a decent wig. How unfortunate.” Oh you cruel man Luke Stevenson. Arsenal set the early tempo, with Fabregas and Wilshere combining in midfield to set Walcott off down the right, but Aurelio makes a decent tackle. He’s fit today, so goes the rumour. He’s never really fit though. Aurelio that is. 1 min: We’re off. Liverpool win an early free-kick after a late tackle by Samir Nasri. 4.02pm: Impeccably observed. It’s time for kick-off. 4.01pm: There’ll be a minute’s silence for Danny Fitszman, the former Arsenal board member and visionary, who died this week, and for the 96 Liverpool fans who lost their lives against Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough in the FA Cup semi-final in 1989. 3.59pm: “This title race needs a back pass from Carragher I think,” offers Jake Watson building up to something. “It’s a shame Gerrard isn’t playing today as he did a wonderful job of stopping Man United winning the title last season .” 3.56pm: Hmmm. For those who are wondering, I’m afraid the auto-update button isn’t working so you’ll have to hit F5 or really stretch yourself and use your mouse to hover over refresh and click it. I can assure you I have it switched on but technical gremlins have effed it up. 3.52pm: Djourou has recovered very quickly from his dislocated shoulder. I imagine Carroll will test his fitness out to the fullest today. An unfit Djourou is still less dodgy than Squillaci, I suppose. Although that’s not saying much … 3.50pm: Here’s Gary Naylor … “Liverpool don’t miss Steven Gerrard do they? When King Kenny played, he was a huge individual talent who, through his positioning, movement and vision, made everyone around him play better. When his successor as captain plays, he is a huge individual talent who, through his positioning, movement and vision, makes everyone around him play worse.” Against Manchester United Gerrard brought the best out of the players around him Gary, largely because he was carrying an injury and held his position in a holding role. So, I kind of agree with you. Perhaps next season he may be more disciplined as age and injury start to rob him of his mobility. 3.43pm: “Great to see you MBMing a Liverpool game Gregg! Thought that MBMs might have to declare their allegiance and be allowed to officiate neutral games only, as happens with refs (in England, up here in Scotland refs are free to be secret Masons, Knights of St.Columba etc and so on),” writes Ryan Dunne. “As for Liam Gallagher: surely being like Austin Powers is a step up from being in a band that aimed to be The Beatles and ended up as Status Quo?” Erm. Surely you’re not suggesting I might have some kind of preference for one team over another today Ryan. What an earth could make you think that? 3.38pm: John Bishop’s got ridiculously LA teeth. He’s from Runcorn. Nobody in Runcorn has teeth that white. 3.33pm: Musical hilarity section: When did Liam Gallagher become the new Austin Powers? 3.29pm: An early email: “As much I would enjoy seeing Arsenal really pushing United to the very end, I just don’t think they’ve got the bottle,” writes Rob Cobourne. “Liverpool are in fairly good form and I think Arsenal will crack under the pressure today before winning a couple at the end of the season when it’s too late. Suarez to star in a 2-1 Liverpool victory… bye bye record league titles!” 3.28pm: If Liverpool do win it will be bittersweet for many fans, as they’ll effectively be doing that funny brushing thing they do in curling to allow Manchester United a smooth run through to a record 19th title. This could be a very narrow match. Arsenal will likely line-up in a 4-3-2-1 formation with Walcott and Nasri as the wide men drifting inside to support Van Persie. Meireles and Kuyt won’t give Liverpool much width either hence my prediction of a tight 1-1 draw. Liverpool are unchanged from the match against Manchester City in a likely 4-4-2 formation with Suarez just behind Carroll. They have the 18-year-old John Flanagan at right-back again. He did very well on his debut last Monday but he’ll need every high-pitched squeel of advice from Jamie Carragher as he comes up against Arsenal’s best player this season, Samir Nasri. Teams Arsenal: Szczesny, Eboue, Koscielny, Djourou, Clichy, Diaby, Wilshere, Walcott, Fabregas, Nasri, Van Persie. Subs: Lehmann, Song, Squillaci, Arshavin, Gibbs, Chamakh, Bendtner. Liverpool: Reina, Flanagan, Carragher, Skrtel, Aurelio, Kuyt, Spearing, Lucas, Meireles, Suarez, Carroll. Subs: Gulacsi, Cole, Kyrgiakos, Maxi, Ngog, Shelvey, Robinson. Referee: Andre Marriner (W Midlands) Preamble If Arsenal win today they close the gap to Manchester United to four points. Beat Spurs at White Hart Lane on Wednesday and they’re only a point off the top with Bolton at the Reebok sandwiched between United’s visit to the Emirates on 1 May, a match in which they can show the world that they do have the balls to win the title but probably won’t because they’ll probably draw with Liverpool, beat Spurs and lose away at Bolton beforehand . Anyway, much has gone on since Arsenal drew with Liverpool 1-1 on a balmy sunny day at Anfield last August: Javier Mascherano has taken his hairy legs to Barcelona, Crazy Jens is back at the Emirates, Roy Hodgson was a Liverpool manager for 48 seconds, someone was shot dead for eating popcorn too loudly , Jack Wilshere proved that Englishmen can pass, Kenny Dalglish set a new Dubai to Liverpool world record, Colonel Gaddafi proved once and for all that he is definitely more cranky than Sir Alex Ferguson, Fernando Torres made himself about as popular on Merseyside as the Tories, and as for them … let’s not go there. But for all that, I reckon the score will be exactly as it was on the opening day: Arsenal 1-1 Liverpool The greatest ever Arsenal v Liverpool match: Final score 11-10 Premier League Arsenal Liverpool Gregg Roughley guardian.co.uk

Posted by on April 17, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.