By Tony Attwood
To read about the free Arsenal video collection and about the new Arsenal Day by Day series, please see the note at the foot of this article.
Arsenal had just beaten Liverpool 3-1 away on 6 January when they had to return to the north west to play them again in the League Cup on this day in 2007. On this same day Arsenal signed a deal with Colorado Rapids owned by Stan Kroenke; Arsenal’s first venture into the USA and the first meeting with the man who eventually bought the club. I wonder if these scores influenced Mr Kroenke.
The team was…
Almunia,
Hoyte, Toure, Djourou, Traore (Connolly 88),
Fabregas, Song,
Walcott (Diaby 74), Denilson,
Julio Baptista, Aliadiere.
Subs Not Used: Poom, Lansbury, Randall.
Jeremie Aliadiere ran on to Kolo Toure’s pass to score the first. After that Fowler scored for Liverpool. The commentators on TV suggested this was to be expected and Liverpool would now saunter on to a victory, but that first goal was a jolly good try by Arsenal, but this is Liverpool, and well, you know, Liverpool don’t muck about.
However, a Baptista free-kick, followed by a Song goal, and then another from Baptista and it was 4-1 at halftime. Baptista got two more and managed to have a penalty saved, with Liverpool picking up two compensation goals at the very end.
It was the first time in over 75 years that Liverpool had conceded six goals at home. Better still Arsenal had just beaten Liverpool 3-1 on the previous Saturday. Indeed Arsenal had now scored 13 in the last three games. Boring boring Arsenal all over again.
Of course, Liverpool had their excuses, what with Gonzalez going off with a shin injury early on, although it should be remembered that it was Gonzalez who tackled Walcott and injured himself in the process, the silly blighter.
But it wasn’t just the score – it was the quality of the goals including a 25-yard free-kick from Baptista.
The game came as part of a five-match winning run in which Arsenal scored 17 goals, but it did not end up as the season we hoped for, after seeing all those goals go in. Three consecutive defeats in February and the same again in March knocked us out of the cups and down the league table. However, we did still finish in fourth, eight points ahead of Tottenham who had to settle for fifth, so that was something. And we had the memories of those defeats of Liverpool.
For details of the videos sorted by club, and videos in the order we published them, plus our 21 golden great videos please see here.
Just as the videos have been put in date order so we are now doing a day-by-day series of Arsenal events, looking to find one good story a day throughout the year. This project started on 1 December, and we are adding to it each day. The index is here.
100 Years in the First Division: the absolute complete story of Arsenal’s promotion in 1919.
Henry Norris at the Arsenal: There is a full index to the series here.
Arsenal in the 1930s: The most comprehensive series on the decade ever
Arsenal in the 1970s: Every match and every intrigue reviewed in detail.
