Emmanuel Eboue collides with Lucas Leiva to in the final seconds of the game
Arsenal played their game in hand, with United busy with the FA Cup, at the Emirates against what appears to be a revitalised Liverpool side under Kenny Dalglish.
A tense game that saw Arsenal play their usual style of attractive football combined with a lack of end product looked set to finish goalless in the dying moments of the game.
But with a clash of heads that led Jamie Carragher leaving the pitch on a stretcher, the game found itself drawn out even longer with no less than 8 minutes of additional time being added on. And into the 7th minute of injury time, Arsenal found themselves with the breakthrough they had been looking for, when a penalty was awarded after Fabregas was tripped up in the box.
The resulting penalty was put away comfortably by Van Persie, and the game looked dead and buried.
Alas, there was no end to proceedings. The sudden adoption of “Kenny Time” from Arsenal’s perspective, cost them dear as an extra 3 minutes were deemed necessary by the referee, and Liverpool got a stroke of luck as Lucas, rather fortunately, earned a penalty giving the Merseysiders an opportunity to equalise and put a dent in the Gunner’s title challenge. Kuyt dispatched the kick in confident fashion and Arsenal were left to rue the judgement of the officials, and a title race that seemed to swing in United’s favour.
Indeed the extra minutes may have been perplexing, but by the rules of the game the additional minutes added on are only a minimum, and the aforementioned penalty may have been worthy of extra minutes in the referee’s mind. Either way, the result was ideal for United who now lead the Premier League by 6 points with 6 games left to play.
A difficult run in that sees their next game against Newcastle, as well as games at home to Chelsea and away to Arsenal mean the title race is far from over, and in a season where the unexpected seems to have come to the fore, United fans will not want to make many assumptions just yet.
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