Liverpool vs Arsenal: Ten minutes of stoppage time?

As it turns out, we can't complain or point fingers. Skrtel had a bloody head wound, and it seems only fitting that the man beaten by Debuchy for one headed goal should find himself free and clear to head home the second in the stoppage earned through his own injury. Call it karma or poetic justice; one thing we'll have to agree on calling it was shoddy, shoddy defending.Per literally ducked out of the way, cringing as well. Montreal looked shocked that Skrtel was unmarked, as well he should look. Skrtel had a running start at it, with Chambers trailing him feebly, and no one else rose up to challenge Skrtel on the air. Gibbs had wandered from the near-post, right where Skrtrl sent the ball. Szczesny was helpless, and that's was essentially all there was to it.

Sometimes you look at a scoreline and say, "I can live with that." After all, it is Anfiels, even if the Scousers haven't really impressed so far. For some of us, that 5-1 scoreline still lurks in the memory like a painful hemorrhoid. A 2-2 draw, separated from the details that led to it, might feel like a point taken rather than two dropped, all the more so when we see just how thoroughly Liverpool outplayed us. Since 2003, according to Opta we have never faced so many shots (27) or held so little possession as we did on Sunday (35%). That makes it feel like we did in fact escape with a vital point.

Then, we look back to how we concede son a set-piece against an opponent that had gone down to ten men almost ten minutes earlier, and instead of feeling relief or satisfaction, we are left feeling disgusted and disappointed. We had a chance to slam shut the door on a key rival and finish the weekend just three points behind Man U. Instead, we stranded ourselves five points back--level now with none other than Tottenham. Tottenham. Let that sink in for a moment.

We'd better get heads and hearts on it and quick if we expect to get ourselves in order. There is still some lots of football to be played, and it's not like we lost. It just feels an awful lot like we did...