Liverpool and Arsenal played out an entertaining 1-1 draw today at Anfield with both teams seeing a debutant sent off.
Liverpool, playing their first league game with new boss Roy Hodgson started with a weakened eleven with Ngog playing upfront alone, leaving world cup winner Fernando Torres on the bench. Arsenal meanwhile had the recently capped Jack Wilshere starting in midfield, seemingly in place of Cesc Fabregas who was nowhere to be seen in the squad today. Chamakh and Koscienly made their debuts for the gunners both starting.
The first half was a slow burner with both clubs beginning quite cagey and not many chances created by either club until the end of the first half where Ngog managed to head goalwards from a Steven Gerrard corner. It was cleared off the line however by Gael Clichy as the first half moved into injury time. The game looked to be petering out towards the end of the first half when a rash tackle by Joe Cole saw him gain te first straight red card of the Premiership season given by Martin Atkinson for Cole's tackle on Koscielny, which whilst being ugly and having missed the ball has seen opinions split on the tackle with people not seemingly being able to decide whether the tackle was bad, not not awful, or just plain dirty nd well worthy of his red. Either way, Cole has not shone through here on his Liverpool league debut.
The second half, beginning with 10 v 11 wasn't long gone before David Ngog managed to smash the ball past Almunia (Who still doesnt know if he will be Arsenal's first choice keeper this season) after a pass from Mascherano set him on his way to put the ball in at the near post top corner. This left Arsenal with 45 minutes to try and get themselves back into the game making advantadge of the extra man, however Liverpool had completely rattled Arsenal and were all over them looking to secure the three points despite the numerical disadvntadge. Arsenal set about keeping posession, with Liverpool dropping deeper and deeper as the second half continued. However this dominance of posession was not shown by the chances created, as Arsenal finally managed to force Reina into an excellent save with only 5 minutes to go from a Rosicky shot, seemingly heading towards the top corner. However, Reina went from hero to zero in the space of five minutes as the ball bounces off him in the 89th minute from a corner and drops into the net to square the game up as it moved into injury time. The drama at Anfield wasn't over however as Koscelny managed to gain two bookings within 3 minutes and get himself sent off in injury time, with the second booking looking harsh for a handball. The game ended with both teams satisfied with a draw after the events of the end of the first, and start of the second half.
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