Arsenal: Seaman, Dixon, Winterburn, Adams, Platt, Wright,
Bergkamp, Overmars, Keown, Petit (Grimandi 78), Hughes (Wreh 65).
Subs Not Used: Manninger, Upson, Boa Morte.
Booked: Adams, Dixon.
Liverpool: James, Kvarme, McAteer, McManaman, Leonhardsen,
Redknapp, Riedle, Owen (Murphy 88), Bjornebye, Matteo, Carragher.
Subs Not Used: Babb, Harkness, Berger, Nielson.
Booked: Matteo, Bjornebye.
Goals: McManaman 55.
Att: 38,094
Ref: G Poll (Tring).
[PA-Report] [Telegraph-report] [Guardian-report] [Times-report]
By Martin Lipton, PA Sport Chief Soccer Writer
Steve McManaman delivered a moment of brilliance to light up an error-strewn Highbury clash as Arsenal were sent plunging to their first home defeat since May.
The England winger had been as disappointing as any of the attacking players on display in a game that had precious little to commend it. But 11 minutes after the interval Arsenal stood off McManaman as Stig Bjornebye lined up to take a left-wing throw into the box. Given two yards, he took a mile, thrashing the ball right-footed over and beyond the groping hands of David Seaman to move Roy Evans' Reds to within two points of the Gunners from only their second away League win of the season.
It was McManaman's sixth goal of the season and although not quite on a par with those sensational strikes against Celtic and Aston Villa in September, it was still one to savour.
Yet for Arsenal the hopes raised by Dennis Bergkamp's return after suspension fell horribly flat as strike partner Ian Wright's goal drought continued. In the six games since Wright last found the net against Barnsley, Arsenal have picked up just five points out of 18, in stark contrast to Manchester United's 13. Today he never looked like ending the lean run. He was starved of service and gave every impression of not knowing where his next goal is coming from as Arsenal ran out of ideas long before the end.
But for Liverpool, humiliated at home by Barnsley last week, this was much more like it, Evans getting the result that will make him far more content, even if they face the champions at Anfield next week trailing by nine points.
The Arsenal fans voiced their displeasure, Bergkamp's return after that three-match absence having brought a buzz of anticipation for the home fans -- and the opening exchanges showed why. Bright and inventive, the Dutchman gave a focus to the Arsenal attack and Wenger's team dominated the first 20 minutes as the lack of Paul Ince and Robbie Fowler was keenly felt by Liverpool.
Tony Adams, up from the back, showed unlikely skill by chesting down a searching Nigel Winterburn cross before volleying at David James. Then Bergkamp's brilliance saw fellow Dutchman Marc Overmars set up Stephen Hughes to crash a rising left-footer 12 inches too high. Still Arsenal were taking advantage of a dreadfully slow start by the visitors and when McManaman gave the ball straight to the fitful Overmars in the 11th minute, they should have pressed it home. The winger had a three-versus-two situation, Wright to his left and Bergkamp to his right, but he delayed too long before looking for Bergkamp and when he lost his footing, James plunged on the loose ball.
But with Emmanuel Petit clearly rusty on his return from suspension and Bergkamp's influence waning, Arsenal lost their way, allowing Liverpool to gain parity. Michael Owen's energy was the spark, one break down the left leaving Martin Keown trailing, before he just failed to pick out Karlheinz Riedle. Then Nigel Winterburn made a vital interception when the pair again linked. Owen wasted one chance when David Platt gave the ball away, although the Liverpool striker did force a foul from Adams that earned the home skipper the game's first caution.
The game was dying and was not helped by news of United's Old Trafford goal feast, but Arsenal did come again before the break. Bergkamp's freekick was flicked on by Keown for Adams to nod across goal with Hughes -- in for the injured Ray Parlour -- just unable to get there, before James was nearly embarrassed by a Jamie Carragher backpass.
There were also some undercurrents from last year's meeting and its controversial penalty, with Bergkamp catching Jason McAteer late and the Liverpool bench furious with Graham Poll for waving play on, although Platt squandered the opportunity.
Arsenal began the second period in similar fashion, Overmars and Hughes both firing wide of James' left-hand upright. Dominic Matteo and Bjornebye were booked for fouls, but Liverpool then started to play the football that had been completely beyond them up to that point.
Seaman had to sprint off his line to foil Owen feet first after a Winterburn error, but there was nothing the England keeper could do about McManaman's goal. Now the complexion of the game was utterly different. Owen left Adams in his wake on half-way, but Redknapp failed to make the most of the opening. Then Oyvind Leonhardsen delivered a perfect ball onto Riedle's head, only for Seaman to deny the German.
Wenger tried to change things by sending Christopher Wreh on for Hughes when Wright was making little impact and Overmars lacked conviction.
Riedle almost compounded Adams' miserable afternoon when he danced past him to clip a shot a fraction off target and while Arsenal did put pressure on the Liverpool back line, they could not manufacture a clear shot. Liverpool could, though, Seaman having to be at his best to deflect a Leonhardsen strike and, as time ran out, they looked increasingly likely to claim a second on the break. It did not come, but it did not matter. Arsenal were so limited it made a mockery of their championship aspirations and Liverpool had the boost they desperately needed.
Steve McManaman scored a superb goal to give Liverpool a 1-0 win at Arsenal and help erase the memory of last week's humiliating home defeat against Barnsley. The England winger volleyed over international team-mate David Seaman in the 55th minute to lift Roy Evans' Reds up to seventh in the Premiership and within two points of the Gunners. And McManaman believed the victory was only as much as Liverpool deserved for their application in recent matches.
"We worked hard last week against Barnsley and it was just one of those results, but it all paid off today," said McManaman. "We took a lot of stick in the Press last week, but I couldn't fault the lads' commitment. They got a goal from one of our mistakes, but we put them under a lot of pressure and just couldn't convert the chances. "We put one in today, though. The chances were few and far between, and the goal just gave us the edge we needed. "All credit to our lads. They defended brilliantly and worked so hard. They haven't had the praise they deserve for that recently."
Liverpool boss Evans echoed McManaman's views and said: "We didn't deserve to get beaten by Barnsley. We had lots of chances and didn't put them away. "Obviously to come to Arsenal and get a result is great, and I'm delighted for the lads because the effort they put in and the way they played deserved something today. "It was a fantastic goal by 'Macca', but we played well as a team and it was a great battling performance."
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, in contrast, was disappointed with his side's display. He said: "We got what we deserved. We started well, but you can't play like we did for the rest of the game and expect to get anything out of it."
Liverpool face leaders Manchester United at Anfield next Saturday, with United now 2-5 favourites to win the title with bookmakers William Hill. They offer Liverpool and Chelsea at 6-1, Arsenal at 13-2 and Newcastle at 16-1.
McManaman casts
Arsenal adrift
By David Miller at Highbury
Arsenal (0) 0 Liverpool (0) 1
TWO teams, two managers, each in search of credibility in the top flight as the season's significance threatens to slide away from them. Liverpool, by some distance, made the afternoon theirs, leaving Arsenal uncomfortably devoid of identity.
For Arsene Wenger, Arsenal's manager, to be saying after yesterday's defeat in front of a 38,094 crowd that his team is unlikely to catch Manchester United sounded prematurely defeatist. Liverpool, on the other hand, could yet make it a contest on this form.
Steve McManaman's goal nine minutes into the second half was less than Liverpool deserved, having attacked articulately for the last 20 minutes or so of each half. Arsenal must reflect on a barren performance in which they failed to achieve a serious shot on target. Dennis Bergkamp, so recently being regarded as the current best player on earth, now looked pedestrian, even moody, on his return from suspension, while Ian Wright gave neither Liverpool's defence nor the referee any serious trouble.
Those who have suggested, in the aftermath of the home defeat
by Barnsley, that Roy Evans's days as Liverpool manager are
numbered must reassess the position. He may be too nice a man for
the unrelenting heat of the Premiership front line, yet here were
Liverpool in their better vein: passing the ball as well or
better than any English team. Equally relevant, they seem to have
found a central defence, in Dominic Matteo and Bjorn
Kvarme, that is stable and resilient.
In spite of the absence of Paul Ince and Robbie Fowler through suspension, there was from the start a calm authority in Liverpool's play. For the first time this season, that I have seen, Jamie Redknapp lived up to his reputation as a potential international player. With Oyvind Leonhardsen and McManaman on the flanks - McManaman switched from right to left for the second half - and Jamie Carragher partnering Redknapp in the centre, Liverpool played a possession game that frustrated Arsenal and simultaneously helped reduce the pressure on their own back four. McManaman played a particularly containing, responsible role.
Arsenal, tipped by many as likely champions in the early season, are thus left in further doubt about their direction, never mind any serious challenge to Manchester United. The most pertinent question to be answered is how heavy a price they have paid for their seemingly indiscriminate irregular behaviour? Some argue that but for six three-match suspensions, including Steve Bould yesterday, they could be leading the field instead of lying fifth.
From the outsiders' perspective, it is difficult to know whether the blame lies with Wenger, their demure strategist, or his assistant Pat Rice, part of the Highbury old school. The flood of yellow cards has to be attributed to either an absence of internal policy or even encouragement of over-physical or dissenting actions. Unless Arsenal resolve this problem, all the imaginative ideas introduced by Wenger - "a breath of fresh air," Peter Hill-Wood, the chairman, called it in yesterday's programme - will go to waste.
Another problem for Arsenal lies in Marc Overmars. Highbury regulars see him as a possible match-winner who is not being exploited to the full. Part of the reason, I suspect, is that too often he turns inside his marker, whereas he could be creating greater danger by going for the space down the outside.
For 20 minutes Arsenal were physically in control, but then the mercurial little Michael Owen began to tease Tony Adams and Martin Keown, twisting them this way and that. Three times in quick succession Owen created openings, on the third shooting hard at David Seaman. Twice Owen was heavily fouled without receiving recompense from the referee.
Five minutes before half-time Arsenal had their best chance of the afternoon. From a free-kick 30 yards out on the left, Bergkamp curled the ball into the penalty area, Keown flicked the ball on and Adams's lunging header flew wide of James. Stephen Hughes, following up on the left, arrived just too late to squeeze the ball inside the left-hand post.
For most of the second half Liverpool were relatively at ease, Arsenal straining. The goal came from Stig Bjornebye's throw on the left. Spinning free of his marker, McManaman struck a lofted drive which looped over Seaman and dipped into the far side-netting from an angle of 45 degrees to the line.
Karlheinz Riedle twice almost snatched a second and Seaman had to save at full stretch from Leonhardsen. Liverpool could return home well comforted.
Arsenal not fit
to pay for a prince
By Martin Thorpe
There would be no such thing as the fox-hunting debate if the chasing pack carried as little threat as the Premiership's.
This was a deserved win for Liverpool but, after their embarrassing home defeat to Barnsley, it only highlights the Anfield team's enduring inconsistency. As for Arsenal, they have failed to score in five of their last six league games and yesterday displayed as much creativity as a chimp with a paintbrush.
The feeling is growing that these two teams are not so much pretenders to Manchester United's crown as pretending. Neither can really be taken as serious challengers given the depth of their problems and the shortage of those at Old Trafford.
The Liverpool manager Roy Evans, who denied speculation that he would be standing down as manager at the end of the season, said the club might as well pack it in if they did not think they could catch United, though their slim chances depend greatly on beating the champions at Anfield next Saturday, a game for which Robbie Fowler will be available.
Arsenal also face another important test next weekend, away to Newcastle, who can still challenge for the title if they win their games in hand. Yesterday the watching Prince Harry can only have offered a royal wince at the less than majestic performance of his Highbury heroes. He had earlier paid a visit to the club museum with a bunch of pals and afterwards went for lemonade in the boardroom.
But the team are in danger of going pop, as Arséne Wenger admitted afterwards. "We deserved what we got. We don't score and we lack creativity. We have to correct things quickly."
And despite spending millions on new players already, he thinks the title may be beyond them. "If we play like that we will not win the title. As for Manchester United, I don't know who can catch them."
Although Arsenal welcomed back Dennis Bergkamp and Emmanuel Petit from suspension, both lacked match sharpness and persistently contributed to the team's habit of giving the ball away.
Far from the Lennon and McCartney partnership with Ian Wright being restored, the Dutchman and the England striker were more Harrison and Starr. Wright has now failed to score in six Premiership games running, his longest barren spell since April 1995.
Arsenal really missed the biting midfield contribution of the injured Patrick Vieira and it is difficult to remember David James in the Liverpool goal having a shot to save. Although Liverpool were missing the suspended Paul Ince and Fowler, they produced an uncharacteristically disciplined performance.
Arsenal began brightly, with Tony Adams shooting straight at James when he should have done better and Stephen Hughes shooting over. Liverpool, too, were giving the ball away too much in these early stages, with Steve McManaman the main culprit.
Slowly the visitors began to threaten, Oyvind Leonhardsen going close and the youngster Michael Owen causing Adams all sorts of problems. But Arsenal finished the half strongly, with Adams heading just wide on the back post and David Platt shooting into the side netting.
On 56 minutes, though, McManaman made up for all his generosity with a peach of a goal. Stig Inge Bjornebye took a quick throw on the left, McManaman let the ball bounce once and from the corner of the area let fly with an arrow-like volley into the top corner. It was a rare moment of class in a mundane game and, though Leonhardsen forced a flying save from David Seaman, it sealed the points.
Arsenal went close a few more times, Marc Overmars and Hughes shooting wide, but they were left to continue their search for a striker. "We are looking world wide," said Wenger, though he denied reported interest in Patrick Kluivert and George Weah of Milan. Perhaps he must look abroad because he does not want to look down the road. For West Ham have a pretty handy striker at the moment who happens to be the most prolific in the Premiership. A pity Wenger sold him.
McManaman lightens the darkness
ARSENAL 0 LIVERPOOL 1
By Rob Hughes
STEVE McMANAMAN scored a goal classic in its simplicity and wonderful to behold to rise above the anaemic display of both Arsenal and Liverpool at Highbury yesterday. If it did anything, given the news of Manchester United's rampant form, it suggested that Arsenal, growing older and less imaginative by the week, will be Old Spice by Christmas in the championship stakes.
McManaman's strike, in the 56th minute, transcended the mediocrity of all around him. He wears the captain's armband, so he is reluctant to take the credit, preferring afterwards to talk of "the hard work the lads are putting in, I couldn't fault them for commitment". He couldn't fault them? What is he, player or coach or chairman?
The answer seemed emphatic with that sublime goal. It emanated from a throw out on the left. McManaman, a yard quicker than Dixon to respond, allowed the ball to pass over his right shoulder, turned and, with laconic ease, used his right foot to loft the ball up from an angle 20 yards out.
Seaman, the England goalkeeper, was caught unprepared, but, even had he been in the centre of his goal, he might not have stopped the ball as it then dipped below the bar and inside the far post.
How can we complain? Easily, for we are looking for teams capable of at least pushing Manchester United, teams other than the sporadically brilliant Chelsea. Such sides were in hiding here, as dark clouds rolled over Highbury and as Anno Domini tugged at the side so expensively refurbished by Arsène Wenger. He has not cured the habit of collecting yellow cards - another three came yesterday for Dixon, Adams and Keown.
Without Vieira, the long-striding midfield enforcer, and without the injured, energetic Parlour, the Arsenal midfield lacked touch and imagination. Bergkamp was welcomed home after a ban, to tumultuous expectation, but the talisman had said himself that he would need time to get into the rhythm and pace of FA Carling Premiership football. Indeed, he was fortunate to escape a yellow card himself for a wickedly late kick at McAteer before half-time.
Without his invention, Arsenal were unyielding, unadventurous, and well matched by Liverpool throughout. Overmars, the only natural winger on the field, seemed reluctant to take men on down the flanks and so we had the inevitable congestion in midfield.
Wright? What can we say? Since his counselling to suppress the errant devil, he appears a shadow of his match-winning former self. Six games have passed, the hunger, the ebullience are worn, the goal threat seems a memory.
Arsenal fans are incensed, believing that they see lack of effort where it may simply be inhibition of confidence - a player trying too hard to calm his hot temper and thus dampening the very thing that made him so coveted.
At the other extreme is Michael Owen, a teenager thrust in ahead of his time, buffeted often illegally by Adams and Keown - each of whom was booked for their rough treatment of him - yet a young player determined, tenacious, so very brave that he obliged Seaman in the second half to be just as courageous. Seaman, as ever Arsenal's most dependable spirit, anticipated the danger superbly and came out to win the ball with his legs.
But this was rare excitement. Bergkamp, so sublime when he is on his level, was easily policed. Adams, though the way he was outfoxed on a couple of occasions by Owen is worrying for England, reacted by playing centre forward at the finish - a centre forward who could not rouse the troops.
Yet it was to Adams that Arsenal's most probable opportunity fell. Bergkamp had stroked in a free kick, Keown had headed the ball onwards and Adams, at the far post, was in yards of space. Alas, in keeping with an unbalanced Arsenal day, he lunged awkwardly towards the ball, heading it across the gaping net . . . it bounced beyond the far post, where Hughes, struggling to read the pace of it, stretched but could only return it into the side netting.
Thank heavens, then, for McManaman. Putting the armband on him made him even more hyperactive, appearing here, there and everywhere, the pimpernel in yellow trying to inspire his team. Ultimately, he did it with an opportunist strike of his own, did it alone and then modestly thanked his mates.
ARSENAL (4-4-2): D Seaman - L Dixon, M Keown, A Adams, N Winterburn - M Overmars, D Platt, E Petit (sub: G Grimandi, 80min), S Hughes (sub: C Wreh, 65) - I Wright, D Bergkamp.
LIVERPOOL (4-4-2): D James - J McAteer, B Kvarme, D Matteo, S I Bjornebye - S McManaman, J Redknapp, J Carragher, O Leonhardsen - K Riedle, M Owen (sub: D Murphy, 88).
Referee: G Poll.