Liverpool (1) 1 Arsenal (1) 1
Premier League
Anfield Stadium, Anfield Road, Anfield, Liverpool L4 0TH
Saturday, 23rd December 2023. Kick-off time: 5.30pm
(4-3-3) David Raya; Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Oleksandr Zinchenko; Martin Ødegaard (c), Declan Rice, Kai Havertz; Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli.
Substitutes: Aaron Ramsdale, Emile Smith-Rowe, Eddie Nketiah, Jakob Kiwior, Cédric Soares, Leandro Trossard, (Jorge Luiz Frello Filho) Jorginho, Reiss Nelson, Mohamed Elneny
Scorers: Gabriel (4 mins)
Yellow Cards: Kai Havertz, Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice, Eddie Nketiah, Ben White
Arsenal Possession Percentage: 49%
Referee: Chris Kavanagh
Assistant Referees: Simon Bennett, Dan Robathan
Fourth Official: Craig Pawson
VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR David Coote; AVAR Lee Betts
Attendance: c.54,000
For today’s important top-of-the-table clash at Anfield, our midfielder Mohamed Elneny is close to recovering from a hamstring problem, and is fit enough to claim a place on the substitute’s bench tonight, as is Jorginho, who has also now recovered from injury. However, Thomas Partey, Jurrien Timber, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Fábio Vieira all remain long-term injury absentees. Of course, whoever wins this match will be definitely top of the Premiership table for Christmas Day, but a humble draw will suffice for the status quo to remain.
We kicked off proceedings in this hothouse atmosphere, and immediately we took up the challenge and the pace of the game very well indeed. Bukayo Saka dropped a shoulder on Virgil van Dijk and fired a low cross into the Liverpool penalty area. Alisson parried the ball to Brazil team-mate Gabriel Jesus on the edge of the penalty area, but this effort was blocked and went behind for a corner, which went straight into the hands of Alisson, via the head of Kai Havertz. After just four minutes, following a Martin Ødegaard free-kick, Gabriel got in front of Cody Gakpo to head the ball into the back of the net at the Kop end, of all places! There were appeals for offside from the Liverpool players, but after an extensive VAR check, the goal stood. The goal certainly fired us up, and chances for us started to come more frequently. The home side started to get rattled after the ball was allowed to go out for a goal kick by Gabriel, who was taken to task by Trent Alexander-Arnold. We seemed to be very composed, and after Gabriel Jesus whacked a ball over the bar, our captain also had a great chance to score, but the ball went annoyingly wide of Alisson’s goal. Shortly afterwards, Gabriel Martinelli easily turned Trent Alexander-Arnold deep in the Liverpool half and then carried the ballat least forty yards before he was stopped by a lunging Ibrahima Konate. Just before the half-hour mark, Mohamed Salah sidestepped Oleksandr Zinchenko and blasted a left-footed shot past David Raya for the Liverpool equaliser. The goal inspired the home side and there was an unusual incident when Bukayo Saka clattered into Kostas Tsimikas and the Liverpool left-back crashed into Jürgen Klopp; the manager was okay, but the player took no more part in the game as he was substituted with a possible broken collar bone. A little while later, Bukayo Saka was the first player to receive a yellow card tonight as he tripped Curtis Jones, and suddenly, the match became an end-to-end affair. Just before the half-time break, Gabriel Jesus slotted a beautiful ball inside the left-back Joe Gomez to Bukayo Saka who was through on a one-on-one with Alisson, but he was unable to get a shot away, but it fell perfectly for Gabriel Martinelli, who disappointingly hit the ball wide of Alisson’s goal. In the four minutes injury time period, there was a silly tussle between Kai Havertz and Trent Alexander-Arnold which led to a booking for our man, which means that he will now miss our next match, which is a London derby against West Ham on 28th December at the Emirates; shortly afterwards, referee Chris Kavanagh blew the whistle for half-time.
The home side started the second half, and both sides were fiercely competitive from the start. Declan Rice got booked for a clumsy tackle, and Martin Ødegaard was caught dawdling on the ball and Liverpool capitalised on the mistake, and got the ball to Mohamed Salah but his effort was blocked and goalie David Raya easily collected it. The game became real end-to-end stuff and we were lucky not to concede a goal when a Joe Gomez effort went just inches wide of the mark. Liverpool had us pinned back in our own half, and we had to think of a way to bring the match to them. In the meantime, Liverpool, who were playing towards the Kop end this half, which fired them up and therefore the chances were becoming very few and far between for us. After some period of backwards and forwards play, both sides made substitutions, and after sixty-six minutes, Leandro Trossard replaced Gabriel Martinelli in order to try and get a goal. Leandro Trossard made a superb run deep into the Liverpool half after receiving a great ball from Bukayo Saka, but he was boxed in by several Liverpool defenders. We got caught badly on the break, and Trent Alexander-Arnold’s effort bounced off the crossbar with only David Raya to beat, which let us off rather nicely, it has to be said. Our goalie parried an awkward shot from Joe Gomez, which led to two Liverpool corners, both of which were dealt with successfuly by our defenders. Gabriel Jesus was replaced by Eddie Nketiah with fourteen minutes of the match remaining, and just after a strong shot by Oleksandr Zinchenko which was blocked, a Declan Rice effort was similarly dealt with by the Liverpool defence. Our appeals for a penalty when Kai Havertz went down in the home side’s penalty area was denied by the VAR team, and there then followed a period of pressure from our team, but the Liverpool defence stayed firm. Eddie Nketiah received a yellow card for an unfortuate challenge, and after a tackle by Bukayo Saka (which was an unfortunate slip by our man) in which the referee sensibly ignored the crowd’s demands for a red card, Ben White received a yellow card for stopping a counter-attack with a hand ball. The match went into five minutes of injury time, during which no more goals were scored by either side, so a point apiece became the order of the day.
As expected, it was a tough encounter against a top rival who has the same ambitions as ourselves. It was always going to be difficult, but we were solid, kept our composure and did extremely well tonight. Declan Rice, William Saliba and Gabriel were immense, as was Bukayo Saka of course, and there were times that we looked like we could have taken all three points at Anfield, especially in the first half, but it was not to be. We’ll take the point, but now it makes the match against West Ham United in five days’ time at the Emirates a “must win”. Well done, chaps, Happy Christmas everyone!
Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: West Ham United at the Emirates on Thursday, 28th December at 8.15pm (Premier League). Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.
Steve
Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon
With today being the last game at Anfield before Christmas Day, it is the last chance for the football community to come together for the annual Feed the Scousers campaign.
If you are heading up to Liverpool today, ensure to take a can of tuna or baked beans to lob into the away end. As always, the Liverpool fans will be grateful for anything that is free.
Jokes aside, when did it become a thing to be offended about the Feed the Scousers song?
Feed the Scousers, let them know it’s Christmas time.
Feed the Scousers, let them know it’s Christmas time.
It has been sung decades, for as long as I have been going football. My first memory of it was as a 14 or 15 at Highbury, and I do not even think we were playing one of the Liverpool clubs at the time.
Now I get that there are many songs that were sung in the 90s that are no longer appropriate by 2023 moral standards, and many more than were sung back then that were not appropriate by any standards.
For years, we have banned the use of the Y word on our Facebook page. We listened to Jewish fans of both Arsenal and Tottenham and agreed that the word should no longer be part of a football fans vocabulary in the 21st Century.
We are now just waiting for Tottenham fans to catch up and stop chanting the pejorative term, and it is crazy that all Sky do is “turn the mics down” everytime the Spurs fans sing their songs…
You also have songs that were never appropriate to sing, including some sang by our own fans over the decades about Spurs fans. On the whole, thesehave been consigned to history, especially since the arrival of camera phones. But other clubs still sing many songs that are vile.
You get Manchester United fans singing grotesque songs about Hillsborough, and in response, Liverpool fans (as well as Leeds fans), singing about the Munich air disaster. No fan or player should go to a game and not come home. And songs about disasters should not go down on banter.
Liverpool and Manchester United really do need to do more about the victim chanting their fans aim against each other.
Maybe instead of finger pointing at eachother, they should work harder to remove those fans that sing about Hillsborough in the Stretford End, or do airplane motions in the Kop End. Visiting fans from either club will try and deny these happen, and this is part of the problem.
You then also get Liverpool fans always singing what is now considered a homophobic chant towards Chelsea fans everytime they go to Stamford Bridge.
Personally, I have no issue with the rent boy song, and feel this goes down as a bit of banter. It is not homphobic and reportedly goes back to 1980s after a tabloid newspaper reports alleged a member of the Chelsea Headhunters,had been found in bed with a male sex worker during a police raid.
My view is that it was sung because Chelsea was known to be the area where a lot of MP’s rented, and visiting dignitaries stayed when in London during the 80s and 90s, and whilst alone, would hire in local teenage male sex workers, piling them with drugs before having their wicked way with them.
And let’s not start about the vile songs that Celtic (and to a lesser extent Liverpool) fans sing…they will celebrate any death just because of their political party. Real odd behaviour.
Singing about feeding Scousers and Chelsea rent-boys do, for me, just go into the “terrace banter” bucket. Just like when fans single out a fat lad “who is the fatty in the pink” or see someone wearing an orange Stone Island and then spend the next hour hour singing satsuuuuuuuma at them. The snowflake generation will say this is bullying. But it is terrace life and tame.
The Scousers are on the end of many specific chants aimed at them, but they give as good as they get and their behaviour leaves them open to being mocked. Feed the Scousers, Sign On, and my personal favourite, In your Liverpool slums.
In your Liverpool slums,
You look in the dustbin for something to eat,
You find a dead rat and you think it’s a treat,
In your Liverpool slums.
We now live in a world where people go out of their way to be offended. Fans who 10-years ago who never had an issue with a song, and sung worse themself, now faking outrage. Liverpool fans certainly fall into this category these days (again, they are happy to give it out). Jamie Carragher the perfect example.
Carragher has jumped on the bandwagon, bashing fans for singing Feed the Scousers.
This is the same Carragher that was once sent off for throwing a coin into the Highbury crowd. The same Carragher that spat on a 14-year-old girl.
I bet if I spat on Carragher on the way home from work, he would be demanding the Scousers find me, my place of work, etc and demand I be fired. Named and shamed. Yet Carra still has a job despite his vile actions.
Not once during the 90s, 00s or 10s did Carragher ever speak about Feed the Scousers. It was a non-issue for 30+ years. It is only now that it has become an issue. It is being offended for offended sake.
Now I get that povery and child hunger is a real thing. Although I do think it is overblown in this country (go travel to Cambodia, Brazil or India to see true child poverty). And whilst I get that some people do rely on food banks, my personal belief is that many of those who use them do so only because they exist, and not because they actually need to.
Students using food banks whilst going out in London twice a week. Those who use food banks as some sort of political statement so that they can say “I am a nurse on £28,407 per year but need to use a food bank”, just so that they can go on BBC and make a political statement.
I honestly think that if they closed 90% of the food banks in this country, child hunger would not increase. The majority of families would just re-prioritise their financials.
Those people that get their Frosties from a food bank to leave their money to buy fags or booze, Sky TV or all-inclusive holidays take advantage of the system.
For clarity, I grow up in poverty. I never went abroad until I was 11, and that was to a campsite in northern France. My family never had more than 4 (and later 5) channels on the TV. Never had a new car. All my clothes were my brothers. But we always had fresh food on the table cooked by my mum (parents learning to cook would have a huge impact on reducing food poverty, but thats a blog for another day!)
I digress and this is a football blog, not a blog that holds up a mirror to society.
Feed the Scousers. Nothing wrong with it. Stop being offended by everything. Stop trying to turn the terrace’s into the Albert Hall.
UTA.
Keenos
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 
