Liverpool Back On Course
Liverpool beat Arsenal 1-0 at Anfield to record their second win in four days and hauled themselves back on track after a poor run threatened their Champions League ambitions.
For Arsenal it signaled the end of any hope of finishing in the top two for an automatic Champions League place.
Substitute Luis Garcia gave Liverpool their narrow win, but before that the Arsenal keeper Jens Lehmann had single-handedly kept Liverpool at bay.
He saved Steven Gerrard’s first-half penalty having previously brilliantly turned away a wayward header from Phillipe Senderos.
The win moved Liverpool 10 points clear of fifth place Arsenal, who trial rivals Spurs by 4 points.
Liverpool boss, Rafael Benitiz said: “It is not easy to produce performances like this when we have so many players who are tired after so many games.”
“But we deserved to win with the number of chances that we created, even if it was unbelievable to see the saves that Lehmann made.”
“It is too soon to write off Arsenal, they still have a lot of games left.”
But Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger was more downbeat about his sides chances of qualifying for the Champions League: “Automatic qualification in the top two, certainly not, but qualification is still possible. But it will be hard,” he said.
Wenger admitted his team were in a slump and said he was hopeful that their form would pick up soon.
“At the moment we are struggling for confidence and that can affect the senior players as well as the younger ones,” he said.
