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Early Liverpool

The origins of the city of Liverpool date back to 1207, when King John issued letters patent advertising the establishment of a new borough – ‘Livpul’. Soon after, in 1235, the building of Liverpool Castle was completed. This stood on the spot where the Victoria monument now is (on the aptly named Castle Street) and was removed in 1726.

In its early days, Liverpool comprised of just seven streets, which are all still there today – Bank Street (now Water Street), Castle Street, Chapel Street, Dale Street, Juggler Street (now High Street), Moor Street (now Tithebarn Street) and Whiteacre Street (now Old Hall Street). It would remain a relatively small and unimportant city until its rise to prominence in the 18th century as part of the booming transatlantic trade.

In 1715 the first ever commercial wet dock was completed in Liverpool on the River Mersey, originally known as Thomas Steer’s Dock. The dock accommodated up to 100 ships and was originally a tidal basin accessed directly from the river, and by 1737 via Canning Dock.

In July 2004 Liverpool received the UNESCO World Heritage accolade after a bid centred on Liverpool as a Maritime Mercantile city, reflecting the significance of the city as a commercial port at the time of Britain’s greatest global influence.

The World Heritage Site stretches along the waterfront from Albert Dock, through the Pier Head, up to Stanley Dock and through the commercial districts, such as the Ropewalks area, to St George’s Hall.

Liverpool FC’s origins lie with their neighbours Everton. Founded in 1878, Everton moved to Anfield in 1884, a facility owned by the club’s president, John Houlding, a former Lord Mayor of Liverpool. In 1892 a dispute arose between Houlding and the Everton board of directors, over the club’s tenancy of the ground. The annual rent had risen from £100 in 1884 to £250 in 1892; Houlding wanted to sell the ground to the club, which in turn wished to agree a long-term rental. Houlding would only agree to this on the basis of a rent at a level unacceptable to the club. Negotiations having failed, the directors decided to leave Anfield and find another ground, leaving Houlding with an empty stadium. His response was to form a new football club to occupy the stadium. He attempted to retain the team name “Everton” by registering the name “Everton Football Club and Athletic Grounds Company, Limited” with Companies House, but the Football League decided that the name belonged to the departed Everton club, which acquired new premises at Goodison Park. Houlding therefore adopted the name “Liverpool Football Club” for his new venture.

Our away record against Liverpool is less than stellar. Our last win was on September 2^nd 2012. In the EPL era we have only won 6 league games in 26 attempts, and our overall league record including stands at 24 wins in 94 games.

Our last game was a 4-0 thrashing, am I confident? – not in the least.

Liverpool are this week’s Champions Elect what with City floundering.

Since Liverpool last won the League title, we’ve won up at Anfield 7 times in the top flight (once in the old First Division and 6 times in the Prem) plus victories in both the FA Cup and the League Cup.

There’s always hope when 22 men stand over a pig’s bladder in the middle of a field. Who knows, tomorrow could be our day!

GunnerN5

So the dust is starting to settle after the Liverpool game and minds are starting to turn to future fixtures which is understandable, but the thing is, I find myself troubled and not quite ready to move on just yet. Apparently, if I believe what I read, we passed a stern test and for that we should all be grateful. Or that seems to be the thrust of the view pushed upon us throughout the “non partisan” media and even more by many of the faithful in Arsenal Blog World.

Well you know what, I don’t feel grateful, I don’t think we passed a “stern test” and I was not happy that we drew. We could have won, we should have won and here is the bit that all the media have been afraid to say and that is – We were the better team.

Klopp mockingly said after the game that Arsenal sent on so many attackers that he was half expecting Bergkamp and Van Persie to make an appearance. The thing is again that we had the option to do that; Emery was able to send on Welbeck and Iwobi and even Ramsey is one of the most attacking midfielders in the league. But what has Klopp got? … ok, it can be argued that Shakiri is on a par with Ramsey but then what? They have no more strikers.

If you go through the teams, player for player, I think that you take far more Arsenal players than Liverpool.

Keepers: I am quite happy with Leno; there certainly was not a huge difference between them. The back line, bear in mind when you think about this, Liverpool had no injuries and were able to field their best 11. I wouldn’t swap our wing backs: Bellerin and Monreal for theirs, would you? I don’t think that Gomez is better than Koscielny and when the media take Van Dyke’s appendage out of their mouths they might see that Holding was every bit as good as the Dutchman on the day.

I don’t believe that anyone would swap any part of our midfield, (Torreira and Xhaka) for theirs, so that is over quickly and then we get to the attack. Mane for Ozil, err no, as good as Mane is, that is not a good swap. Firmino for Lacazette? No. And so we get to what is the one change anyone would make: Salah for Mkhitaryan. So that is just one change and we should remember that one blow to Salah at the wrong time and they could find themselves losing a very important game, oh wait, that already happened last season, shame.

So where did this idea come from that we were the underdogs at the start of that game and we should be grateful for our draw? I suppose fools like Merson fuelled this idea by predicting that Arsenal could get whooped 3-0 if Liverpool were on their game. The thing is, Paul, some of us had been watching Arsenal’s recent games and had seen with our own eyes how we have steadily improved and just how far we have risen since our unlucky loss against Chelsea.

Liverpool have been lauded by so many as the only true rivals to Man City and by that count above they only have one better player than we do and it is that fact which finds me taking issue with the idea that we should be both grateful for and content with the draw. Well, I am not grateful and I am not content, I am damn right furious that we, The Arsenal, the better team, did not win.

COYRRG

LB

Our first game against Liverpool (October 28, 1893) was a Division 2 home game at Manor Road before 7,000 fans – they gave us a rude awakening and beat us 0-5.

The Arsenal team on the day –

1 Billy McOwen, 2 Andrew Hannah (c), 3 Duncan McLean, 4 John McCartney, 5 Douglas Dick, 6 Jim McBride, 7 Matt McQueen, 8 Malcolm McVean, 9 Harry Bradshaw, 10 Jimmy Stott, 11 Hugh McQueen.

Game Notes – Harry Bradshaw makes his LFC debut – Douglas Dick makes his LFC debut – Liverpool league position after match: 1st – Woolwich Arsenal league position after match: 13th

– The Liverpool Echo report is rather vague on the scorers of the 1st and 3rd goal, but Lloyds Weekly Newspaper and Yorkshire Herald both credit those goals to McCartney (1st) and Hugh McQueen (3rd). Later statisticians credit the 1st to McLean but Echo clearly says he should be credited with an assist. The fourth goal has also been credited by them to Bradshaw but Echo says he “headed well in from a long kick from his defence,”, but McQueen had the pleasure of putting on a fourth so clearly McQueen the scorer.

– The Pall Mall Gazette wasn’t impressed with the referee, reporting on 30th October : “The referee was the same gentleman who ordered two players off the field in the Arsenal v Walsall match. Many people considered that he acted in an extremely harsh fashion on that occasion. On Saturday he went to the other extreme and was too lenient. Hence the rough play.”

So AAer’s it’s now a proven fact that we have always been the victims of poor refereeing – how many other teams have suffered for 125 years?

Notable home fixtures

1st September 1934 – Arsenal 8 Liverpool 1

This was the season Arsenal claimed our 4th title in 5 years and the third on the bounce. Ray Bowden and Ted Drake scored hattricks as Arsenal sent the Scousers back up to the North West with their tails between their legs. Still annoyed about losing the clean sheet though. 🙂

4th April 1953 – Arsenal 5 Liverpool 3

Another title-winning season, Arsenal had already won 5-1 at Anfield before this entertaining victory became part of a run of 5 straight wins that eventually proved vital.

9th April 2004 – Arsenal 4 Liverpool 2

Perhaps the most famous of recent victories, Arsenal came back from being behind twice to hold on to our unbeaten status thanks to a rampant Thierry Henry.

4th April 2015 – Arsenal 4 Liverpool 1

Our biggest win of the last decade back when Liverpool were a Europa team along with the spuds. A left footed curler from Hector, a superb free kick from Mesut and an edge of the area banger from Sanchez, all in the first half, decided the result.

Our games against Liverpool have always been difficult with our last home win being on April 4^th 2015 – I expect a fired up Arsenal team and hope we get a result for us fans and the new boss.

GunnerN5