Arsenal:
            Lehmann
   Eboue Toure Senderos Flamini
Ljungberg Cesc Gilberto Pires (Hleb 79)
       Henry Adebayor

The first threat was a neat backheel in the box by Morientes which nearly set up Sissoko, but Kolo Toure was alert to it and intercepted. Kolo was one of the few Arsenal players to come out of the game with much credit.

On 10 minutes Cesc Fabregas took a free kick from near the right corner flag which he swung over towards Toure, rising 10 yards from goal just beyond level with the far post. He got a good head on the ball, sending it down towards the goal-line, but at 90 degrees to that line so it went just past the post.

Then Liverpool had a well-worked short corner on their right which came infield then was played back to the right, finding the corner-taker Kewell who just beat the offside trap. He chipped it into the box for Fowler but Lehmann was wise to the danger and nipped out to intercept. Moments later Riise crossed in from their left, Philippe Senderos got his head to the ball before it could reach Fowler and it looped out to the other side of the box where Kewell struck a powerful volley, but well wide.

Straight up the other end again, Freddie Ljungberg played a good one-two with his skipper Thierry Henry then took the ball forward on the right of the box. Henry advanced to the other side of the box but it was a bit crowded so perhaps Freddie was right to have a shot. Wasn't right to drag it so far short of the near post, though.

Riise had a long-range effort from the left after some excellent midfield possession by the home side, it went just past the far post - Lehmann had seen it late but dived and probably had it covered, just.

On 21 minutes Senderos stooped to get his head to a ball swept into the box from our left. He only managed to get a deflection on it, which sent it looping over Lehmann towards the far top corner, and the keeper made a superb acrobatic save.

Kewell (as good as I've seen him play for years, not past-it anymore perhaps?) put a dangerous cross in from our left which Morientes swung at and missed.

A couple of minutes later, just past the half hour mark, there was another good Liverpool move, interplay around the edge of our box with short first time volleyed chips. It went forward for Morientes on the right of our box and Emmanuel Eboue made a strong run alongside him only to make contact and see the striker lose his footing. Ref Graham Poll had a very long think about it before giving the penalty which I think most neutral observers as well as Arsenal ones will have thought was a bit harsh on Eboue. But to be fair, we probably wouldn't be saying that if we were given a pen in that situation.

Gerrard placed it low to Lehmann's right, but not quite in the corner. The keeper guessed right and did well to reach it with an outstretched hand.

Near the end of the half Fowler put in another dangerous cross, picking out Morientes in the middle of the box. He snuck in front of Senderos and got his header on target, but straight at Lehmann's chest for an easy save.

Most of Fowler's good work had been out wide left, but at the start of the second half he forced another terrific save from Lehmann after flicking the ball past Senderos and unleashing a swerving shot towards the far corner which Lehmann just managed to get a hand to, with Toure on hand to clear when the ball dropped.

Morientes missed another good chance when he headed a cross from Gerrard beyond the far post.

Liverpool's pressure was mounting more and more. Hyypia got to a corner from their right, at the near post, it was going behind him a bit but he flicked the ball towards that post with his trailing foot as he jumped over it. But Freddie was on hand at the post to put it out for a corner (their millionth. We ended up with one - a fair reflection).

In the last 10 minutes Morientes missed another great chance with a miskick, and Cisse who'd come off the bench for Fowler put the loose ball over the bar.

Then with 3 minutes of normal time left, their other 2 subs combined for the killer blow. Hamann's long-range rocket (he's such a threat with these I continue to be amazed that he gets left out) forced yet another world-class save from Lehmann, diving to his left. But the ball fell to Garcia a few yards out and although Lehmann did brilliantly to get on his feet and get a hand to the shot, he couldn't stop it going in.

A poor performance overall, but against a Liverpool side that won't drop many points playing like this. Henry looked strangely disinterested at times but it could be a question of getting used to his new strike partner. Gilberto had a poor game. Having been won over to him big-time last season, I'm now starting to be convinced by the camp that says he's just not effective enough: not enough tackles and too much squandered possession. Which leads to one of my criticisms of Wenger for this one: why no Abou Diaby? Even if it made sense to start with the more experienced players, surely when things were going bad in midfield it would have made sense to bring him on? Perhaps for Freddie who tried hard but kept coming a cropper. Riise seemed to have his number for the most part, and Freddie wasn't effective at stopping their repeated forays down his wing. Surely bringing Diaby on and switching Cesc out to the right might have helped? The other thing that seemed odd to me was putting Mathieu Flamini at left back. Sebastian Larsson may be inexperienced but he looks much more comfortable there than Matty.

The good news is that Emmanuel Adebayor looked good again despite getting little service, and if we'd had a more normal midfield game then perhaps the Henry-Adebayor combination would have done the job. The other good news is that Lehmann is in talks aimed at extending his contract.