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MOTD- Liverpool 5-1 Arsenal

By on February 7, 2014

Sometimes, in any tight battle to earn a top spot in any football league across the world, a team must pull out an unbelievable performance to not only boost their morale but severely dent the opposition’s. This was exactly what Liverpool did as Arsenal, a side that had been sitting on the top of the Premier League table for weeks, visited Anfield with hopes of reclaiming the top spot after Chelsea went one point above the Gunners on Saturday. Not only did Liverpool show their visitors up, but embarrassed them in the process, putting the ball in the back of Arsenal’s net as many times as the points separation between the sides in the Premier League table.

It wasn’t as if Liverpool were that much better of a side either, but once they caught Arsenal on the back foot early on, it was already over. Rodgers’ side’s first goal came less than ninety seconds in as Martin Skrtel shuffled Steven Gerrard’s free-kick from the left past Simon Mignolet, and just eight minutes later they doubled that lead when Gerrard’s corner again found Skrtel, who flicked a header into the top left corner to send the home crowd into a fiesta. It really was utter dominance from Liverpool, with Luis Suarez volleying a thirty-yard screamer onto the left post before Kolo Toure poked the rebound just wide. So when Raheem Sterling curled in Suarez’s square ball across the box from the left after Jordan Henderson fed it to the Uruguayan out wide, it was no surprise that Liverpool were up 3-0 just sixteen minutes in.

Yet it somehow got even worse for Arsenal as Daniel Sturridge galloped into the right channel before curling a neat through ball around Mignolet into the bottom corner of the net in the nineteenth minute. However, Liverpool inevitably cooled down, and Arsenal managed to actually keep some possession as the first half came to a close.

But that didn’t stop Liverpool from coming out and making it five six minutes into the second half. Sterling collected a long ball down the left before driving in towards goal, and although his original effort was blocked by Mignolet, the forward tucked the rebound into the bottom left corner to once again make Arsenal hearts even more blue, if possible. Suarez then had ideas of capping it of with the goal of the season, but Wojciech Szczesny just came across goal to tip Suarez’s thirty yard curler around the post.

Arsenal did manage to find a consolation goal late on, with Gerrard slicing down Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain on the right side of the Liverpool penalty box and Mikel Arteta placing the resulting penalty into the back of the net. However it was quite inconsequential, and Liverpool still ran away with the three points to send them into fourth place in the Premier League, not to mention brining the high-flying Arsenal down to earth.
Man of the Match: Steven Gerrard (although Suarez was close in second)

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.