Arsenal:
         Lehmann
Lauren Toure Campbell Cole
Ljungberg Vieira Cesc Pires
 Henry Reyes (van Persie 67)

Despite dominating the first half, the home side only went ahead with 5 minutes of it remaining. It was a well-crafted goal, with Gerrard playing Kewell's knock-down into Alonso's path and the Spaniard striking a fine shot past Lehmann. But both Gerrard and Alonso had been given acres of space.

Like I say, they'd dominated, with something like 8 attempts on goal to our none. And they'd had a decent penalty claim turned down in the first 5 minutes when Gerrard went down under challenge from Toure.

As in previous games, Arsenal were outplayed in midfield (missing Gilberto!) hence the disparity in goal attempts despite Liverpool lacking so many strikers.

Gerrard's free kick was diverted wide and Hamann's drive from the resulting corner was blocked.

Hamann forced a good save from Lehmann soon after the break, but before long Arsenal picked things up and drew level with a classic Arsenal goal. Quick passing between Pires Henry and Cesc outside the box created it, and Vieira, who'd started the move, nipped into the box to chip over the advancing keeper. It looked like a defender might get back to hook it clear but the ball just trickled over the line in time.

Despite Arsenal looking a lot better from this point, most of the chances came through Gerrard. He got past Toure at one point but Kolo recovered to make a terrific tackle, then put in a great cross which Toure dealt with spectacularly: his first contact popped the ball up in the box but he turned towards goal to boot an acrobatic overhead clearance to safety. Lehmann then had to make another good save from Gerrard's long-range shot.

Just as we thought we'd escaped with the draw there came one of those Nayim moments, as Mellor smakced a speculative shot from distance which had Lehmann unsighted by a couple of defenders, and which probably gave him no chance anyway.

There was an unsavoury incident in the second half when Vieira appeared to dive after Hamann pulled out of a tackle as the Arsenal skipper was running past him. The ref waved play on but failed to book Paddy - which would have been his second card. Vieira had already been booked once, which will see him miss the Chelsea game in 2 weeks time for accumulated bookings. My first reaction was that Vieira was "doing a Beckham": trying to get himself sent off. As I understand it he would then have served an immediate one match ban instead (or would it have been as well?). Anyway, it was far too early in the second half for him to want to leave his team short-handed for the sake of playing against Chelsea.

Chelsea's continued good form saw them go 5 points clear, and now they've got a better goal difference too. Man Utd are creeping up on us too. But there's a long way to go. And hey, at least November is over!

Not a lot of fun facing Tottenham fans after a weekend when they won but we lost. If you'd forgotten how it feels, don't blame your memory: it was a week short of 2 years since it last happened!