The one minor surprise in the Arsenal line-up was Ray Parlour on the right wing instead of Sylvain Wiltord. But it made sense following Ray's good showing since his return from injury, and given the potnetial need for a bit more steel in midfield for this one. It was exactly 11 years since his debut... at Anfield. And while we're marking milestones, it was Bergkamp's 300th game for the club and Ashley Cole's 100th start.

So it turned out, to start with at least. Liverpool were much the strongest force for the first 10 minutes (or just under...). Their best chance of that spell came after just 2 minutes, when Heskey beat Cygan to a high ball into the box, took the ball wide left and crossed low for Michael Owen. He got in front of Campbell to get to the ball first, but failed to make anything but the slightest contact with it. Should have got a shot on target at least.

We scored on 9 minutes against the run of play, with a move that took us from defence to the back of their net in about 5 seconds. Parlour to Bergkamp on the halfway line, then a perfect curling diagonal pass forward, just past a defender and into Henry's path to the right of the penalty box. Dudek did well to come out and block Thierry's shot but it came out to Pires near the penalty spot (no-one else was following up) and he had no problem passing the ball into the empty net.

A minute later we broke again and this time Dennis found Gilberto just outside the box on the left. He did well to get a shot in under the attention of a couple of defenders, but a deflection off one of them took it softly through to Dudek.

The goal had rattled Liverpool, and Arsenal tried their best to take advantage. Henry was simply terrorising them down the left. One run from the halfway line, down the touchline then cutting in to the 6 yard box, led to shot which Dudek did well to save with his feet at the near post. A couple of similar runs led to half-chances and corners.

Vieira headed the ball in from one of those corners but was rightly penalised for a slight (but significant) shove on Hyypia as the ball was coming over. Cygan had another corner cleared off the line by his former Lilles team-mate Cheyrou.

Liverpool created a few more chances as the first half went on. Owen should have scored a couple probably. Seaman made a fantastic save with his feet from one, as he was going the wrong way (and then an easier save from Gerrard's follow-up), but Owen should have done a lot better. And a Campbell mistake let Owen in again and this time his shot was very poor, making it easy for Seaman.

Cygan got himself booked for a 2-footed tackle... one of those that's a good tackle but a lot of refs will show yellow for it. The ref actually played on, and a Liverpool shot was deflected dangerously goalwards but ended up on the roof of the net.

Owen won a dodgy corner (he appeared to just miskick it but the ref judged it was deflected) which Heskey headed just wide.

The second half continued with the same mad pace. Dudek fumbled from a corner, dropping the ball at the foot of a post, and was lucky that Heskey was quicke to clear it. 5 minutes into the half and Seaman made a great smothering save from Riise after the Norwegian had brought down a high long ball forward, as he ran into the box from our right, and turned Lauren inside-out to get goal-side. Just a couple of minutes later Riise had more luck. The ball forward was for Owen this time, and while he didn't manage to get hold of it Heskey did when it came back to the middle of the box. He bided his time well and the slipped it back to Riise whose low drive from the edge of the box inside the far post was pretty much unstoppable.

We got a stroke of luck with 15 minutes to go when Bergkamp's shot from outside the box on the left caught Henchoz'z foot, which caught Dudek out, for 2-1. A little bit of pay-back for those handballs he made in the cup final 2 years ago.

We nearly got another on the break on 70 mins, Bergkamp carrying the ball all the way to the goal-line while Henry and Pires tried to find space for themselves on the edge of the box. By the time he got there, they had, and the cut-back found Henry perfectly but his shot was too close to Dudke and the keeper made a good stop with his feet.

Lovely possession play up the right with 7 minutes to go. Parlour to Lauren, back to Parlour. Then Vieira, riding a couple of tackles majestically, and on to Gilberto whose drive from distance was saved spectacularly by Dudek (maybe a little too spectacular, if you know what I mean...?)

In the first minute of 3 added, Liverpool won a contentious corner on their right (the ref was clearly unsure and gave advantange to the attacking side). It found it's way over the their left and Diao put a great cross over for Heskey to power in with a header from the middle of the box. Nicely taken goal but the luck from our second had evened itself out with the decision for the corner.

We should have won this one but at the end of the day, as so often is the case, you have to look back at a spell when Arsenal failed to convert a period of total domination into a second goal.

Lots of good performances out there. Henry Pires and Bergkamp were the ones that Liverpool were (rightly) terrified of, and Vieira bossed things in midfield with the solid assistance of Parlour and Gilberto. Cygan got beat int he air by Heskey a few times more than Keown probably would have, but Martin's a hard act to live up to, and Pascal did make some good interceptions and clearances, and looked dangerous from (our) set pieces. Jury's still out, I guess. Luzhny came on for Bergkamp, our first sub with 4 minutes to go: aimed at shoring things up but it just invited Liverpool to attack. David Seaman: top man. And well done to Paddy and Ashley for avoiding the yellow cards which would have seen them banned for the Cup tie against Man Utd.