Robert Exley
According to Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch, when Liverpool visited Highbury in Mid-December 1985 (their first meeting since Heysel) the Highbury crowd were in an unforgiving mood with chants of ‘Murderers! Murderers!’ One suspects this reception was received by Liverpool fans at most grounds throughout the country during the 1985/86 season. Football’s kudos was also at an all-time low as a result of Heysel, with average attendance figures at a post-war record low, as well as the fact that this particular Arsenal v Liverpool fixture was unable to feature on British television because of the Football League’s dispute with the BBC and ITV cartel over the paltry size of their collective bid (it was however captured for posterity for foreign broadcast).
Kenny Dalglish, taking over the vacant position at Anfield on Joe Fagan’s retirement, was unable to prevent a 2-0 win for Arsenal at Highbury, with goals from Charlie Nicholas and a debut strike for a nineteen year old Niall Quinn. To many observers, this fixture was the beginning of the emergence of the youthful invigoration of the Arsenal. Over the previous three months, products of our youth system such as Martin Keown, Niall Quinn, Martin Hayes and David Rocastle made their debuts and eventually would replace old stalwarts such as Paul Mariner, Tony Woodcock, Graham Rix and Tommy Caton within the first team. Liverpool however, freed from the distraction of European competition, went on to secure the first (and to date their only) League and FA Cup double, with Ian Rush scoring twice against Everton in the 1986 FA Cup Final.
A year later however, Ian Rush was playing out his farewell season and here with a 1-0 win for Liverpool at Highbury preserved his record of winning every game in which he scored for Liverpool, a record which was to last just one more month after Arsenal would defeat Liverpool 2-1 at Wembley to win their first League Cup in April 1987. After Rush departed for Juventus that summer, his look-a-like replacement John Aldridge would score at Highbury in the opening fixture of the 1987/88 season, in which Liverpool inflicted a 1-2 defeat upon Arsenal. Liverpool would go on to win the league that season, losing just two games along the way.
The following year however was to belong to Arsenal, though the meeting between the two at Highbury in December 1988 would end in a 1-1 draw Arsenal’s first win over Liverpool at Highbury during the George Graham era however came in the League Cup in late October 1989, with a goal from Alan Smith. At the end of that season however, Liverpool were to win their eighteenth and final league title. Just weeks before however they were held to a 1-1 draw at Highbury, caught out by a quickly taken Paul Davis free kick in the first half with Paul Merson finishing, cancelled out by a late John Barnes equaliser five minutes from time.
The following year however saw the title back at Highbury, with Arsenal destroying Liverpool at Highbury with a 3-0 win with goals from Paul Merson, a Lee Dixon penalty and Alan Smith, just days after losing 6-2 at home to Man Utd in the League Cup. Arsenal were to go one better the following season, inflicting a 4-0 thrashing on Liverpool at Highbury on Easter Monday 1992, with goals from David Hillier, two for Ian Wright and a wonder goal from Anders Limpar scoring from his own half long before David Beckham. During this period Arsenal were to enjoy many victories over Liverpool to the extent that – as seen here from this newsreel footage – even the great 1930s Arsenal side would try their luck against Liverpool’s 1991 side (this no doubt, must have been the final straw for Kenny Dalglish who shocked the football world with his resignation that year).
Arsenal’s last win over Liverpool before the millennium however, came in March 1994 with a 1-0 victory secured by a Paul Merson goal. Among the more notable Highbury fixtures during Arsenal’s winless period was the 1-2 defeat in March 1997 where Robbie Fowler owned up to a dive, but to no avail. In January 1999, watching on at Arsenal’s goalless draw with Liverpool at Highbury was their new £2 million fifteen year old star Jermaine Pennant, who later went on to play in the 2007 Champions League Final for Liverpool. Liverpool took all three points at Highbury again the following year with a 1-0 win, with Titi Camera scoring for Liverpool in February 2000,
The baron spell for Arsenal was to end in August 2000, as the Gunners finally bagged a 2-0 win over Liverpool, with goals from Lauren and a last minute strike for Thierry Henry, however it would also be a controversial game in which Arsenal’s Patrick Vieira and Liverpool’s Gary McAllister and Dietmar Harmann would receive their marching orders. Liverpool would however finish the season with a League Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup treble, the second leg of which was bagged against Arsenal at Cardiff. The following year however, the Cup belonged to Arsenal who got their revenge on Liverpool who they eliminated in the fourth round at Highbury in a 1-0 win with a first half goal from Dennis Bergkamp.
Jamie Carragher was also sent off as a result of throwing a coin back into the crowd, which was originally thrown at him by one of the Highbury crowd. This game followed on from the league fixture between the two sides at Highbury a fortnight earlier, which ended in a 1-1 draw with goals from Freddie Ljungberg and John Arne Riise. The league fixture the following season at Highbury took place during the interim period between Christmas and New Year in 2002 and ended in the exact same score line with goals from the penalty spot for both Danny Murphy and Thierry Henry. The following season, on Good Friday 2004 however was to be one of Henry’s finest moments in an Arsenal shirt, bagging a spectacular hat-trick in a 4-2 win for Arsenal after a week which saw them eliminated from both the FA Cup and Champions League.
May 2005 would be remembered by many Liverpool fans for the winning the last of their five European Cups, however that same month Arsenal would inflict a 3-1 defeat on the Merseysiders with goals from Robert Pires, Jose Antonio Reyes and Cesc Fabregas. The final meeting between the two sides at Highbury in March 2006, resulted in a 2-1 win for Arsenal, with Thierry Henry scoring a sublime first and gifted a second by a misplaced Steve Gerrard back pass. The first game at Arsenal’s new ground took place exactly three months on, with a thumping 3-0 victory for Arsenal with goals from Flamini, Toure and Gallas. Seventeen months later, In of April 2008 between two legs of a Champions League Quarter Final (in which Liverpool would ultimately triumph) came the Merseysiders’ next League visit to Arsenal which ended in a 1-1 with Nicklas Bendtner cancelling out Peter Crouch’s opener. The same score prevailed just ahead of Christmas that year when a rare Robbie Keane goal for Liverpool cancelled out a Robin Van Persie equaliser.
The only trophy win of significance for Arsenal in the late noughties – in the 2009 FA Youth Cup final - came as a result of a two legged final with Liverpool. The home leg ended with a stupendous 4-1 win for Arsenal in front of an incredible 33,000 in attendance. Giles Sunu opened the scoring for Arsenal, followed by a Jack Wilshere penalty. Liverpool hit back with a great volley from Kacaniklic, however Arsenal extended their lead with goals from Sanchez Watt and rounded off with a header from Jay Emmanuel-Thomas. Later that calendar year, the Arsenal youth theme continued with a 2-1 victory over Liverpool in the League Cup with a tremendous goal from Fran Merida and the winner from Nicklas Bendtner. Though sadly, from this particular crop of Arsenal youngsters, only Jack Wilshere and Francis Coquelin remain within the side.
In the 2009/10 season Arsenal would also take all three points against Liverpool at home in a 1-0 win, with a goal from Abou Diaby. The following season Arsenal’s weak title run-in in 2010/11 effectively ended with Robin Van Persie’s last minute penalty cancelled out within seconds after Lucas was brought down in the area by Emmanuel Eboue and Dirk Kuyt converted the subsequent spot kick, leading to an amusing touchline altercation between Wenger and Dalglish. Arsene’s gloom was to follow into the start of next season, with Samir Nasri’s last game before exiting to Man City, Emmanuel Frimpong’s sending off, an Aaron Ramsey own goal and a goal for Liverpool’s new signing Luis Suarez leading to a 0-2 defeat to Liverpool in August 2011.
Suarez would be on the scoresheet again the following season, with Arsenal facing another home defeat to Liverpool after going two down after Jordan Henderson extended Liverpool’s lead further. Arsenal however would turn the game round with goals from Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott. Arsenal would be back to winning ways the following season with a comprehensive 2-0 victory over Liverpool in November 2013 with two wonder strikes from Santi Carzola and Aaron Ramsey. Arsenal went into the game as early pacesetters in the League, however their challenge crumbled after a 1-5 defeat at Anfield just as Liverpool’s ultimately ill-fated challenge was coming together.
Arsenal’s revenge would come eight days later with a 2-1 win in the 5th Round of the FA Cup with goals from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Lukas Podolski. Vengeance however would be complete the following season on Easter Saturday this year with a 4-1 win for Arsenal, with goals from Hector Bellerin, Mesut Ozil, Olivier Giroud and a wonder goal for Alexis Sanchez. As you’re well aware, after Liverpool had lost Luis Suarez to Barcelona in the summer of 2014, their sights were firmly on Alexis Sanchez as a replacement. However the Mersey Twittersphere went into meltdown after Alexis turned Liverpool down to join Arsenal with one particularly funny tweet being @Mark15Thomas’s hilarious: ‘If Sanchez would rather go to Arsenal than us then I dont want him, dont need players with no ambition’. While the Merseysiders had the glory of finishing 6th and trophy-less, Sanchez went on to suffer an unambitious season of FA Cup and Copa America success – ‘If only I’d joined Liverpool instead’ Alexis must have thought to himself!
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