Arsenal 1-1 Reds

It was a typical European performance with a good result that sets things up nicely for next week's return at Anfield.

First of all, I was appalled to hear of Sky Sports presenter Richard Keys' apparent intimation of some sort of helping hand from the referee when he revealed that last night's Dutch referee Pieter Vink lives just 5km from Dirk Kuyt's home town village.

And so apparently this might have influenced him when Kuyt put his arm round Alexandr Hleb in the box with Hungarian falling theatrically to the floor and Arsenal fans and players and Andy Gray demanding a penalty.

Jesus fucking wept, what a bloody non conspiracy theory! And yet some of the national papers felt obliged to report it today. It only heightens my own view that certain sections of the media and particularly Sky seem to have it in for us.

My own view on it is that Kuyt did get a hold of Hleb but it was the kind of incident that could have gone either way and in this case Mr Vink who, as Arsene Wenger commented afterwards, was was just a few yards away from the incident decided there was not enough in it to warrant a spot kick. It was not the "stonewaller" some have been saying it was today, some in the media that is. Surprise, surprise.

Anyway enough ranting against the fourth estate. It was indeed a typical European performance from us. We had the kind of solidity that has been the bedrock of our excellent record in this competition under Benitez.

Martin Skrtel has now undoubtedly proved to have been an excellent discovery from Benitez as he marshalled the backline with some excellent tackling through the game. Praise too for Sami Hyypia and Jamie Carragher who doesn't always look comfortable at full back but always does a job.

Kuyt was man of the match for me. A great opportunist goal after great work from Gerrard and overall he did the stuff he's good at throughout the 90 minutes. Holding the ball up when going forward and putting in the effort when defending.

All the talk is of the possession Arsenal had throughout the second half and there's no doubt they were the better team but all the passing in the world is of little use when you can muster little in terms of attempts on goal. Only Theo Walcott's run and strike early in the second half and Cesc Fabregas' goalward bound toe poke that was bizarrely cleared off the line by his own team mate Nicklas Bendtner (See video and funny music below!) caused us to skip a heart beat.



The second leg will be a nerve wrecking affair and my only real worry is that Arsenal are capable of scoring anywhere as we saw in Milan last month. They also bossed us in the league game at Anfield earlier in the season. This game is perfect for them. They are under pressure, the home team are expected to advance but they excell in these situations.

We must not make the mistake of thinking the tie is over and have to go at them from the off but that can be hard even with all the best intentions. Subconsciously we may be inclined to sit back but that's a dangerous ploy against such a good team. We have to play the game as if we need to win it.

Elsewhere today Javier Mascherano, who I thought had a quiet game last night, was handed a two game league ban and a 15k fine by the men in suits at FA.

Already plenty has been said about this but it's good to hear that the club are considering an appeal based on a lack of consistency.

Mascherano is receiving the punishment that should have been handed out to Ashley Cole and that really is what's all wrong about this unsavory affair.