Liverpool draw on defensive strengths

SOCCER/Champions League quarter-finals, first leg/Arsenal 1 Liverpool 1:THERE WAS more madness than method and this was not the type of deadlock anticipated in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final. Results show English clubs to be dominating this competition, but such mastery would not have been guessed at in an eccentric match.

Although Liverpool, with their away goal, have the edge, Arsenal would surely have won had the substitute Nicklas Bendtner, in an offside position, not got in the way of a net-bound effort from Cesc Fabregas.

This was a game which, to public relief, would not accept instructions. Concentration and discipline might have been the watchwords for both managers beforehand but their players were still woolly-minded. They are owed a vote of thanks by anyone craving enjoyment.

The omens had not been good, with each club, more or less, having five men in midfield.

Whatever the nuances, when half of the outfield players are crammed into a small space there is a degree of overcrowding reminiscent of a Victorian slum. A match, too, can get unsanitary and there were fears for the health of this fixture. Optimists hoped for an early goal to rid the game of its steely rigidity and, this once, they got their way.

An aberration is a joy when there is a risk of stultifying efficiency. Liverpool obliged with the sort of disorganisation that mocked their reputation for efficiency. Robin van Persie's low shot was turned behind by Jose Reina and risk is normally at an end when all Rafael Benitez's team have to do is cope with a corner.

This was the baffling exception to the rule. Fabregas rolled the ball to Van Persie and his cross was headed home, in the 26th minute, by an utterly unmarked Emmanuel Adebayor, who had been without a goal for a month.

Whoever supposed that Liverpool, of all sides, would help him out of a fallow period? It must have been beyond Arsène Wenger's conception that his own men would soon be just as light-headed.

Within three minutes Ryan Babel had passed to Fernando Torres, who set Steven Gerrard off on a run beyond Mathieu Flamini and Kolo Toure. The captain's low cross from the left was then knocked into the net by Dirk Kuyt.

Visiting supporters hymned their manager, but Benitez might have shrugged and doubted how much of this game had anything to do with him. The Spaniard could hardly have recognised his centre-backs, for instance, when a longish pass by Flamini had sufficed to send Van Persie through the gap between Martin Skrtel and Sami Hyypia in the 22nd minute. The Dutchman, turning to take on a difficult chance, fired over the bar.

Refinements arrived spasmodically. Blunders were at least as plentiful and Babel, for instance, took a notion to sweep a pass from the left wing to the right when he was quite near his own penalty area. It was misdirected and flew across for a corner on the right.

Even before the return at Anfield next week, the clubs meet again here on Saturday in the Premier League. This encounter had the look of a dress rehearsal in which mistakes are purged from the show, but that made the event absorbing in an unanticipated way.

Arsenal are wrestling with themselves at least as much as with whoever happens to be sharing the field with them these days. They came back from 2-0 down to beat Bolton with 10 men at the weekend. That was quite an achievement, but the madcap delights also suggested that their old authority is still elusive.

Wenger sought to be assertive. Van Persie was removed at the interval here and, with Alexander Hleb shifted to the centre, the teenage substitute Theo Walcott was asked to use his speed and youthful verve on the left wing. Jamie Carragher, a centre-half by trade and disposition, never looks happy to be stationed at right-back. Walcott, out to deepen that unhappiness, soon sent one clean and exciting drive a yard or so wide.

Before that, all the same, Arsenal's unease in defence had once more been illustrated. With 48 minutes gone, Toure could not prevent Skrtel, at a set-piece, from knocking the ball down to Kuyt, whose low finish was held by Manuel Almunia at the second attempt. For all that, it was imperative for Arsenal, with a return at Anfield ahead, to make more of this match.

They did not lack for purpose and Liverpool were sometimes in desperate straits. Skrtel cleared an Eboue shot from the line in the 66th minute and almost immediately Arsenal were refused a merited penalty when Kuyt tugged the left arm of Hleb.

Sometimes Wenger's men infuriated themselves. After 71 minutes, Adebayor cleverly beat Skrtel and a Fabregas finish from his cut-back would have reached the net had it not hit the unwitting substitute Bendtner, who was in an offside position. As expected, there are few clues as to which of these sides will get past the obstacle of this finely-balanced tie.

ARSENAL:Almunia, Toure, Gallas, Senderos, Clichy, Eboue (Bendtner 67), Flamini, Fabregas, Hleb, Van Persie (Walcott 46), Adebayor. Subs Not Used: Lehmann, Diaby, Song Billong, Silva, Justin Hoyte.

LIVERPOOL:Reina, Carragher, Skrtel, Hyypia, Aurelio, Mascherano, Alonso (Lucas 76), Kuyt, Gerrard, Babel (Benayoun 57), Torres (Voronin 85). Subs Not Used: Itandje, Riise, Crouch, Arbeloa.

Referee:Pieter Vink (Holland).