Arsenal:
           Lehmann
     Eboue Senderos Toure Flamini
Hleb Gilberto Cesc Ljungberg (Pires 15)
    Henry Adebayor (Bergkamp 68)

Freddie Ljungberg had to go off after a quarter of an hour, replaced by Robert Pires. Freddie had been involved in the first good chance of the game when he played a one-two with Thierry Henry that put the Arsenal captain in, in his favourite position on the left of the box. He tried to side-foot it low past Reina but didn't get enough power on it and it was too close to the keeper anyway.

Then Henry went on a great run down the right, poking the ball past Hyypia then leaving him for dead. He cut the ball back to Adebayor who'd drifted into space in the box, but the young Togalese striker got right under it and shot way over the bar.

Alex Hleb had another great game, and is clearly developing quite an understanding with Emmanuel Eboue behind him. The first goal, on 20 minutes, started with those 2 playing it out of defence... Eboue forward to Hleb, then Hleb passing infield to Cesc Fabregas in the centre circle. Cesc held the ball, waiting for the perfect moment to thread the ball forward for Henry who was lurking on the left. He found the perfect moment and matched it with a perfect pass, inside a defender who fell over in his attempt to change direction for it. But it wouldn't have mattered if he'd stayed on his feet because Henry was away. Into that favourite position again, and this time instead of playing it low he hit a beautiful curling chip past Reina and inside the far post.

Liverpool, to be fair, were galvanised by the goal and had a good spell of 10 minutes or so. When Finnan put a looping cross in from their right Crouch had a free header in the box, with 4 defenders there too but not one picking him up, but the lanky striker placed it inches wide of the post (with Jens Lehmann stranded).

Eboue went on a storming run up the middle, Hleb making the outside run to help create space for him. Eboue squared for Adebayor who returned it for Eboue to take forward into the box. But he didn't seem to want to shoot, or decided that he'd let the ball go too close to Reina for it to be a good bet, and when he tried to square it for Henry a defender managed to intercept.

Xabi Alonso hit a decent looping effort from miles out which Lehmann probably had covered as he scrambled to defened his top left hand corner. Gerrard hit a bender which definitely had Lehmann beat, but it went a yard or two wide.

That was the last action of the first half. The second started with a great move. Henry exchanged passes with Pires to get into the box on the left. He pushed the ball a bit close to the keeper but still managed to get to it, only to poke his shot low and just past the far post. Then he had another chance, central and just inside the box. He managed to get a shot away despite the close attention of 2 defenders, but it was too close to the keeper.

Bergkamp came on for Adebayor and Kewell for Kromkamp. A few minutes later the nemesis that is Robbie Fowler came on too, replacing Hamann.

Straight after, with 15 minutes to go, Liverpool got an equaliser that they didn't come close to deserving. Gerrard was allowed time and space to wind himself up for a 25 yard screamer - swerving and dipping at tremendous pace, Lehmann did well to get his fists behind the ball. But the punch just popped the ball up in the area and Luis Garcia did very well to jump and get his head to the ball before Eboue, placing it inside Lehmann's left hand post. It was very harsh on Arsenal, particularly as Cesc was clearly fouled in the build-up.

Liverpool's spirits were picked up again by this and they had another good spell, but it was cut short when Alonso got shown a yellow card for going in with his studs on Cesc's shin. Still, just after that they did have another half chance when Kewell hit a lobbed cross from their left which fell perfect for Garcia on the far side of the box. He made a good connection with his volley, and Lehmann did well to stop the goalbound shot as he had Flamini blocking his view. It may have got the barest of touches on Flamini as it went past him, slowing the ball down without deflecting its path too much, just perfect for the keeper.

Then Alonso got his second yellow, for hacking Flamini down after the stand-in Arsenal left back had played the ball. Some observers reckon Alonso was unlucky but I can't see it myself. I've seen it described as him 'just falling over' but he somehow 'just fell over' in a horizontal direction, with both legs sweeping Flamini's from under him and, crucially, well after the the ball had gone.

With 5 minutes left, it was looking like we were going to waste another game which we'd dominated, and I have to admit that I was more worried about losing the one point than getting back the two. Then Alex Hleb played a rare loose ball halfway inside the Liverpool half, finding an opponent who passed it quickly to Gerrard. With Arsenal still pressing in their half, he couldn't see an option so turned to play the ball through to Henry. Well, he was probably looking for the keeper, but it went straight to Thierry's feet and if he was surprised he didn't show it, calmly rounding Reina and slotting home the winning goal.

Liverpool were visibly beat now. We had a couple more chances, first when Cesc found Henry who passed into the box for Pires who sliced his shot a little as the ball was moving past him from left to right, sending the ball onto the right hand post and out. Then Henry hit a free kick from left of centre which swung around the wall and inside the near post, only for Reina to get down very well and make the save.

Tottenham's loss to Chelsea means that finishing above the former is now in our own hands. But Bolton's win over West Ham means that they're still very much in contention too, with their games in hand. Here's hoping they beat West Ham again on Wednesday to keep their (hopefully distracting and tiring) FA Cup run alive.

Nice to see, after all that's been said this week by and at Alan Pardew etc, that Arsenal's winning goal was created by an Englishman. In case you missed it, Wenger had a wonderful response to Pardew's moan about Arsenal's lack of Englishmen, saying that when the Iron's boss wanted to take Jeremie Aliadiere on loan at the start of the season, he didn't ask what nationality he was only whether he was any good.

And there was a wonderful moment in the post match interview of Henry and Cesc on telly. When the latter was asked whether he was fouled in the build-up to Liverpool's goal, his captain said "say yes" in an obvious stage-whisper, then smirked away as Cesc elaborated alongside him, with straight face. Nice to see them enjoying themselves, and nice to see them giving us so much to enjoy. That's three wins in a row now (yes, I'm counting the Real game as a win).