Layth Yousif
Sat 8 Sep 1984 Arsenal 3 - 1 Liverpool
One of the first games versus the Liverpudlians I can remember attending. To a youngster it seemed like half of London and Merseyside were at the game. The North Bank and Clock Ends were a mass of humanity. I recall watching fans hanging precariously from the old grey fence at the back of the Clock End. Every so often a poor soul would drop onto the crowd below never to be spotted again. For a young kid, simply watching the crowd was mesmerising enough. Never let people tell you Highbury didn’t have an atmosphere though. I can still hear the guttural roar after Brian Talbot’s free kick went in. Part of a run of seven wins from eight games, we showed good form well into October. The pivotal game came in the first weekend of November, where we were 2-1 up at Old Trafford at half-time only to lose 4-2. We never really recovered after that. (Whoever said history repeats itself go to the back of the class). Yet nothing will take away the sheer wonder of watching Arsenal take apart the Champions of Europe on that gloriously hopeful day in September 1984 at a packed Highbury. Memories are made of such things…
14 Dec 1985 Arsenal 2-0 Liverpool
Nostalgia can be a dangerous thing however. Not everything was better back in the 1980s, a decade my kids call ‘the olden days’. Strange to think because of an industrial dispute there was no football broadcast on television up until January 1986. Nothing. Well, apart from a snatched two minutes on the Saturday night news. As a very strange child I used to stay awake and tape the sports report for the goals from the day’s main game. Somewhere in my parents loft to this day is a tape that has four months worth of television news goals. This match may even feature in it. A bitterly cold day, with a Highbury crowd of only 35,000 braving the elements with just Niall Quinn’s Arsenal debut to keep them er, warm, the 1985-86 season was arguably year zero for English football after the seismic tremors of the previous season. I can still picture in my mind’s eye Brucie Grobelaar failing to stop Quinny’s shot hitting the net in front of a cold and disbelieving crowd. It was a rare moment of joy in an otherwise dull season. I should know I saw every home game that year. Even if I can’t remember too much about most games. Now, where’s that video of mine…
Sun 5 April 1987 Arsenal 2-1 Liverpool
See Gooner issue 235 for my five pages of nostalgia on that glorious day. Or alternatively just sing “One Nil Down Two One Up, We F***ed Rushy’s record up” over and over again. Though don’t try this at work. Or in the tube at rush hour. You can hum it in your head though obviously. God knows I still do.
Sat 15 Aug 1987 Arsenal 1 - 2 Liverpool
I don’t really like including defeats in my most memorable games but Steve Nichol’s last minute extraordinary winning header is still one of the strangest goals I have ever seen us concede. So far outside the area did he stick his nut on it he might as well have been at Finsbury Park. 54,000 fans crammed together in a heatwave is not particularly pleasant. Nor were the bananas I saw thrown at John Barnes that day.
Sun 4 Dec 1988 Arsenal 1 - 1 Liverpool (League Cup 3rd Round)
I still think you can’t claim to have been a proper Arsenal supporter in the 80s unless you sampled the delights of Edge Hill Station on the outskirts of Liverpool. Travel club trains used to be diverted there. Unsmiling Merseyside police with big sticks and even grumpier Police dogs used to wait for you on the station and escort you to the buses outside. It wasn’t a pretty scene. A mate of mine once got stopped and searched three times on the platform itself. When asked why he was shouted at to ‘shut his f*cking mouth’. After we were all crammed on a decrepit bus I remember the vehicle drove slowly past a bingo hall. A kindly looking old dear toddled outside the building, and just when I genuinely thought she was going to wave to us she gave us a V sign. It wasn’t just any old V sign too, it was a message delivered with force and aggression. Just like Rocky Rocastle’s cracking late volley to equalise in this game. Sending 6,000 travelling Gooners bonkers. There was trouble in the car park outside afterwards and an almighty squeeze back at Edge Hill, but it was worth it to see the late great David Rocastle hit one of his best goals for us. Despite what may happen today it will have to be a pretty special effort to get anywhere near our tragic legend's goal that night. RIP Rocky son.
