Liverpool And Crouch Trounce Arsenal

Liverpool completely dominated the Premiership’s early kick-off today and trounced an Arsenal side at Anfield who never looked like they really turned up. If was almost as if Arsenal were still on GMT time and therefore an hour behind everything Liverpool did. It must have been a little bit of sweet revenge for Liverpool having already been beaten 3 times by Arsenal this season, twice in 4 days at Anfield in January when Arsenal knocked Liverpool out of both the FA Cup and then the League Cup. A game in which Arsenal scored 6. If Arsenal had won today, they would have become the first team ever to have beaten Liverpool four times in one season.

Liverpool looked as though they were never going to let that happen and their new owners, Americans Gillett and Hicks, must have liked what they saw today at Anfield. In a pre-match interview Gillett re-confirmed and re-assured both Liverpool and in deed Everton fans, that the proposed new stadium will definitely not be a ground share and that it has never been discussed and never will be. Gillett and Hicks have unveiled plans to increase the capacity of the new stadium, to be built only a few yards away from Anfield on Stanley Park, from the original 60,000 to at least 70,000 to help keep Liverpool in line with teams such as Man Utd and Arsenal. The new owners are currently working with the already agreed planning for the new stadium to try to fit in with their new plans.

Anyway, on the pitch, Peter Crouch returned to the starting eleven after his recent broken nose and promptly scored his first hat-trick at club level. It was a hat-trick worth waiting for and helped Liverpool leap-frog over Arsenal to go back to third in the Premiership. However, Arsenal do still have a game in hand over the Merseyside club.

It didn’t take Crouch long to make an impact on his return either. After only 4 minutes he smartly turned in Alvaro Arbeloa’s cross at the near post to put Liverpool ahead. He then headed in superbly from Fabio Aurelio’s fine cross on the 34th minute.

Daniel Agger then glanced in another brilliant Aurelio cross on the hour which seemed to wrap the game up for Liverpool however, William Gallas poked the ball over the line with the help of his thigh from all of two inches and Arsenal briefly sniffed an unlikely chance to get back into the game.

Unfortunately for Arsenal Crouch wasn’t finished and he completed his hat-trick with a neat turn, flicking the ball between his legs and finishing in front of the Kop after 80 minutes. Crouch proved again today that for such a tall and ungainly looking player he actually does possess quick feet and a lovely touch on the ball.

Steven Gerrard who started the game just behind Crouch up front, was substituted by Benítez when the game looked save for Liverpool at 3-0, no doubt in preparation for the Champions League Quarter Final First Leg away to PSV Eindhoven in the week.

Liverpool will go into that game buoyant after today’s result and more importantly the performance.

The Soccer Blogger