1-1 just like I said

Once again, Liverpool get the key decisions in their favour! Incredible. In both Inter games the opposition had a man incorrectly sent off, now they get away with a clear penalty. It wasn't a nailed on stonewall penalty, but it was still pretty clear. Kuyt pulled back his arm - penalty, end of.

I thought Arsenal played pretty well but were unforgivably naive in conceding that goal so soon after scoring. No doubt the blame lies on "the most improved player in Europe" Flamini who should have booted the ball into row Z. In fact, I believe he made a similar mistake at the weekend against Bolton?

I know several people in here don't rate Adebayor that highly, but he played exceptionally well last night and that's discounting the goal. He led the line brilliantly, linked up the play, made the ball stick, took on Liverpool's defence when the opportunity arose, and of course he took his goal well. Arsenal's best player for me last night.

Kuyt was arguably Liverpool's best player. His work rate and nack of getting in the penalty box at the right moment is serving him well as far as the CL goes. But he is less a striker than a back tracking midfielder nowadays, and that stopped Hleb (illegally but got away with it) from scoring a goal. Great burst of energy from Gerrard to take on three defenders and square for the equaliser. Torres had another quiet night away from home but that's almost the norm now. Gallas kept him quiet all match. I was expecting a lot better from Ryan Babel who had an absolute stinker.

As far as how the tie stands right now, I reckon it's 55:45 in Liverpool's favour. But I reckon Arsenal will score so Liverpool will need two, unless they pull out their penalty trick again. If I was Benitez, I'd be tempted to start with Crouch and pump long balls up to him to stretch their defence. Keep the ball up there so they can't control the middle and look for the killer pass. But I don't think Benitez will see it that way and he'll just set his team up to defend defend and defend and counter. Boring but effective.

Arsene Wenger has insisted that Arsenal were denied a "blatant penalty" when Dirk Kuyt pulled down Alex Hleb during Wednesday night's Champions League quarter-final - and his sense of injustice is bound to be heightened when he learns that Dutch referee Pieter Vink, nicknamed 'Blind' in his homeland, lives in a village just five kilometres from Kuyt's hometown.

"Arsenal have doubts over their two main strikers ahead of the Premier League game against Liverpool at Emirates Stadium on Saturday lunchtime.

Speaking to Arsenal TV Online on Thursday afternoon, Arsčne Wenger gave Robin van Persie only a 20 per cent chance of playing because of the thigh injury that forced him off at half time in the Champions League tie between the sides on Wednesday evening. Adebayor (ankle) is more likely to figure but both players will be assessed on Friday morning.

"If you ask for my gut feeling right now I would say no, Robin won't play," said Wenger.

"At the moment it is 80 per cent no and 20 per cent yes. But he has a scan this afternoon and he is better today than he was last night. That is positive for a muscle problem. But we'll know much more about it on Friday morning."

"We also have Adebayor who has a little ankle problem. We'll see how he is tomorrow. I hope he'll be OK. But the time is so short between the games it is very difficult to make a decision the morning after a game. You don't know if it is a bruise or a little twist and the first 24 hours doesn't tell you a lot about that."

Bacary Sagna (ankle) and Tomas Rosicky (hamstring) will miss Saturday's game and the Champions League Quarter-Final second leg at Anfield. However there is optimism the full back could return the following Sunday at Old Trafford.

"They will not be back for the Liverpool games," said Wenger. "But Sagna is making good progress. Manchester United is the earliest for him. We are trying everything we can to get him back for that game. But we'll know more when he starts to run outside and he has not begun that."

That was a fantastic result for us last night, after what was essentially a typical negative 2nd half performance from us. Before the match i thought it would be 70% - 30% possesion in favour of Arsenal and i was nearly correct.

Dirk Kuyt was stupid to raise his arm to Hleb. Like most people i believe that we were very lucky in not conceeding a penalty. The Ref was in a fantastic position. All i can think that saved us was that he thought it was kind of 50/50 as he was waving on 50/50 challenges outside the box. It was a certian penalty though. The ref apart from that i thought was excellent, and let the game flow very well.

The Arsenal goal was coming sooner rather than later. That very corner i said to my brother, they will score here. Our zonal marking, as it has been for a while now, cost us a goal. Was awful. How can you let Adebayor, the most threatening Arsenal player in the air, have a free header. Sami hyypia must man mark him, just like he should have marked Ronaldo the week before.

It was essential we stuck back straight away, however i never believed it was going to come. I just assumed a Arsenal riot was on the cards. A little bit of brilliance from Gerrard allowed dirk Kuyt to score again . I dont know how he does it but he scores in the big games in Europe. Shame that the fact he plays wastes a position but such is life.

Babel, once again, poor. His replacement Yossi B was equally as poor. I watched the Liverpool Everton reserve game the night before and was shocked to see Pennant playing. For me he should have certainly played last night. No doubt he will play in the League match on sat but should have been playing this game for me.

So, to Torres. He had no chance against an impressive Gallas and 50p head senderos. Together they did a very good job of keeping him quiet, but how can you perform well when you are completely isolated!!!! Far too often we just conceed to the fact we wont score and just put 10 men behind the ball. Therefore when the inevitable hoof from the back happens the attack will just keep coming right back. And the thing with Arsenal is that they will continue to ask the question. Luckily Bentner was a selfish w@nker and tried to score from Cesc's effort, even though he protests he was trying to get out the way, he is not kidding anyone. He was trying to pinch the glory. MUG!
I know we do not have the attacking players to go at better teams but i hate this sort of defensive display all the time. I know it wins us trophies but for me it does not really showcase how good a team you are. Just the ability to infuriate and ware down the opposition. Just once i would like us to go at a team. Hopefully next season we will improve (again) and have better attacking players, then again, Rafa will probably just stregthen our defence so not to let in any more goals.

Seen the highlights for this and laughed so much at Bendtner just managing to keep out the goal, what a [beep!] clown.

I was pleased with the way we played. Liverpool didnt deserve anything really. Some people say they do but i believe they dont. 1st half was even those, a beautiful header from Adebayor ( what he does best) and it was great defending by the way lol, but then i was completely shocked when Liverpool scored 2 minutes after we scored, it was good work from Gerrard but what were our defenders doing??? we just got done, i dont know what happened really.

Its a good result for Liverpool and they are probably favourites but i sure am 100% positive we can knock them at Anfield. Just go back to the year when we drew at the Bridge and the lost at Highbury. It was a horror night and im hoping we can do this to Liverpool.

2nd half we dominated Liverpool and shouldve won but in the end it was 1-1.

Thats right mate, but you said you can't wish for an Arsenal win in the second leg. So I gave you a choice of a 2-2 draw atleast so that your wish of Arsenal not winning the second leg and my wish of Arsenal going through to the Semis will both come true right??? So what is it??? Will you wish this???

i bet you never wish for my team to win.. so why'd i wish you a win against Liverpool?..

Liverpool <333 Arsenal <3 even the love ain't enough

putrum said we're probably meeting Liverpool for final this season.. so........







maybe next season

I think you're the only one that believes the non PK call was the right call. Even being a Liverpool fan, you should know that was a clear cut penalty. And if it was the same exact situation on the other end involving Torres you'd be calling for it as well.

Hell even the FIFA refereeing advisor said it was the WRONG CALL.

Kind of use to l,pool and the way they manage to get away with stuff like the above now. It's been going on for years though, remember the 70's when they where the dirtiest football team around?

Nothing changes!

Can you elaborate on that one please?

then i would have brought Bendtner on first,walcott would have made more impact later in the game.

Arsene Wenger gets his fair share of criticism, but I have to commend him here for not suspecting the referee of any wrong doing. I know it sounds obvious, but I've heard many other managers make comments which would suspect the referee's impartiality to the game so it's kind of refreshing to see this:

He did undermine the referee though by saying "it was 100% a penalty". There are simple ways around such questions, which probably show more respect for the referee's authority and decision.

it was 100% a penalty in my opinion too. Just like that one in San Siro.

I disagree.

His answer is just the blatant truth: it WAS a penalty. But he never questioned the referee's impartiality even though he lives only 5km form where Kuyt was brought up.

No doubt Fergie or Mourinho would have used that fact to exploit the referee's decision making. Hence why I give credit to Wenger for not stooping that low, in this instance.

Be it a penalty or not, it doesn't escape the fact that he is being disrespectful to the referee's judgement, because he's saying he got an 'easy' decision wrong. In an ideal world decisions should be accepted without question, and just because the standards we've come to expect from manager's are low, it does not mean one should be praised for failing to reach such depths. He was still wrong to question the decision, whether he was right or wrong, because the referee is always right. That's part of the whole respect thing we've seen in recent weeks - it's no different to a player showing dissent for a decision on the pitch, even if he knows it's wrong.

And to be frank, he would have been laughed at if he did allude to the referee not being impartial, citing him living in close proximity to Kuyt. That's a load of crap. All Kuyt was saying is that he knows him from the Netherlands because he's refereed matches there (him being Dutch and all), and added that he comes from a region near to where he was brought up. The story that they are 'mates' is ridiculous. English referee's will live in similar distance to some players, but that wouldn't affect their impartiality - and sure as hell doesn't mean they have some sort of friendship.

He has a habit of criticising referee's and i personally can't find reason to praise him.

You are so anal at times!

Wenger just answered a question that was put to him in a post match interview that the ref didn't give a clear penalty. It's just a tiny bit different to running 20 yards to approach the referee, and shouting "FCUK OFF!!!" to him five times, so didn't feed me that RESPECT bullsh1t on this one. It's not applicable.

Everyone makes mistakes, even your very own Rafa Benitez. It's just refereshing that Wenger didn't question the honesty of the referee, especially when he had the potential to do so.

Why don't you put up a table about it and show how Everton would have won the European Cup if we hand't got them?

Remeber the 70's? I doubt very much you do since you weren't born but hey just repeat the same cliches parrot fashion so you can be a "true blue".

No nothing changes you're right. You write more in Liverpool threads than you EVER will in your own. That tells me all I need to know.

Should he have.

Where is Robin Van Persie from again ?

The ref had a very good game and allowed the game to flow.