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A tale of two injury time penalties! Arsenal 1, Liverpool 1

Liverpool who beat Manchester City 3 – 0 at Anfield last Monday could only manage a 1 – 1 draw with Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. Liverpool seems to prefer to sit back and soak up the pressure and attack on the counter which didn’t pay off even with the Aerial threat of Carroll, the former Newcastle man could not reproduce the goal he scored against Arsenal earlier in the season while playing for the Magpies. I have to say that both defences were fantastic so a draw is a fair result although it does somewhat ruin Arsenal’s chances of beating Manchester United to the Premiership title. Speaking of United; they lost 1 – 0 to local rivals Manchester City at the City of Manchester Stadium to be knocked out of the FA cup. City will now face Stoke City in the FA Cup Final, Stoke demolished Bolton 0 – 5 at the Reebok Stadium. Back to the Liverpool Vs Arsenal game; both goals came in second half injury time, Jay Spearing brought down Cesc Fabregas in the 98th minute and Robin van Persie duly converted; I’m sure that Arsene Wenger was sure of three points but it wasn’t to be for the Gunners; Emmanuel Eboue fouled Lucas Leiva in the 102nd minute and Dirk Kuyt found the back of the net from the spot to give the Reds a share of the points. Liverpool still remain in sixth place four points away from Spurs in fifth place but the London based club have two games in hand, Liverpool will have to be exceptional to claim fifth spot given Tottenham’s form this season but you never know, Liverpool have the quality to do it; all they need now is a little bit of luck. And Manchester City are only a further three points away; so it’s not impossible to finish in the top four; there’s still 15 points up for grabs this season.

Plymouth Argyle on the other hand lost 2 – 1 against Peterborough at London Road. Carl Fletcher toe poked Argyle into the lead from Simon Walton’s free kick in the 38th minute. The Pilgrims held that lead until 15 minutes after the half time break when Ryan Bennett headed past Argyle keeper David Button from Grant McCann’s cross. Craig Mackail-Smith put the home team into the lead in the 70th minute. In the 93rd minute; Ryan Bennett almost went from hero to villain when he fouled Stephane Zubar to give Argyle a penalty. But Luke Summerfield failed to find the back of the net, Posh keeper Joe Lewis was equal to Summerfield’s spot kick to save Bennett’s blushes and give the home side all three points. Argyle manager Peter Reid believes that Argyle were the better side and I believe what he says as he is very much a man that calls a spade a spade; if he team played poorly he’ll say they played poorly. A point could make all the difference come the end of the season; sadly Summerfield’s missed penalty meant that point wasn’t forthcoming. Argyle are still stone last in the league and the gap to safety increases with three less points on the table, it’s getting increasingly tough for Argyle to avoid relegation to League 2. Meanwhile there is still very little news from Home Park concerning the takeover of the club, from what I can gather, despite a new buyer entering the ring there still seems to be deadlock between what potentials buyers are willing pay creditors and what the creditors want. Administrator Brendan Guilfoyle had urged creditors to accept the deal from the Akkeron Group led by James Brent. Two weeks have passed and still no break in the deadlock it seems, so the players and staff remain unpaid; although I know that the players have been bailed out by the PFA; but what of the background staff; have they received money from somewhere; surely they are in more dire need than the players.

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