Epsom, field of dreams for all who aspire to racing glory, reopens on Wednesday - and it looks terrific. An outlay of £37 million has transformed shabby to chic, creating a 21st century stage for the greatest Flat race. The danger, however, is that it could be a case of the Emperor's new clothes.
The Derby meeting starts six weeks on Friday. Yesterday (Monday), in racing's insular parish, avid talk concerned the shrinking price of an Irish colt who might have been named to win the premier classic, Fame And Glory. More pertinent, though, was the untimely financial crisis that imperils the relaunch of an iconic venue.
Epsom has built a 120-room hotel and a three-storey grandstand, to be opened on Wednesday by the Duchess of Cornwall and named in her honour. It is civilised, airy and unimaginably different from the dark, primitive claustrophobia that preceded it. But its style does not reflect the pinched climate imposing on the Derby.
Nick Blofeld, Epsom's managing director, has wide experience in consumer and marketing fields but he admits never facing anything so fraught as selling the Derby to a commercial backer in a deepening recession. “It's the toughest challenge I've known,” he said. “Not because people don't like the brand but because they don't feel they can do it right now.”
Blofeld's role, assumed last February, has been oddly invisible as Epsom has stood unused since the last Derby. “I've sometimes felt like Bob the Builder,” he said. He has doubtless also felt like an unwelcome guest in boardrooms as he strained, with the help of various consultants, to find a suitable replacement for Vodafone's long-standing sponsorship, extended as a courtesy to cover the 2008 race but now most definitely history.
He has come tantalisingly close. In January, I understand, a global company of the very stature Epsom covets was within a single signature of committing to the meeting. A heads of agreement had been drawn up and the deal was to cover the entire meeting on a three-year basis. Then the rug was pulled from under Blofeld's feet once again.
The situation is not his fault, nor that of anyone else in racing. It is a product of this precarious age. Epsom is far from alone in such strife. Even Cheltenham, a financial Nirvana in recent years, is encountering such changed times that its three-day meeting last week proceeded almost devoid of sponsors.
For Epsom, though, the problem is acute and dramatic. Theirs is the Flat race to which everyone relates, the ultimate racing product bar the Grand National. Yet time has evidently run out to find any partner for this year, unless a last-minute deal of demeaning thrift is agreed with a bookmaker.
The ground was prepared for this by separate comments made last weekend by Blofeld and Simon Bazalgette, chief executive of Jockey Club Racecourses. Bazalgette spoke of “protecting and nurturing” the Derby brand, a code for confessing the game was up. “We are prepared to absorb the cost for 2009, if need be,” he added.
Blofeld applied positive spin and enthused about returning the Derby to its status of “the people's race”, free of the vulgar appendages of modern commercialism. In truth, it is a case of making do, and for as short a time as possible.
Epsom will look different in other ways this Derby day. Three marquees are being withdrawn from the site due to the collapsing hospitality market and there will be no funfair on Tattenham Corner for the first time in most memories. The atmosphere will be changed. The race, and its glistening new stand, has seldom needed a memorable winner quite so badly.
Source:The times
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Absent fans insult Kenny Perry
THERE was a moment so sad in last Sunday’s final round of the Masters. Long after Kenny Perry’s over-hit chip on the 71st hole and his under-hit putt on the 72nd are forgotten, the scene as he raised his right arm after making a two on the 12th green will be in the memory. If you watched closely or were one of the few following the final pair at Augusta National, it was not Perry for whom you wanted to weep but the game.
Consider the context: Perry and Angel Cabrera were the final pairing, 17 of the previous 18 Masters winners had come from the last two to tee off and, four months short of his 49th birthday, Perry had his chance to become the oldest major champion.
Not interested? Well, consider, too, that when Perry accepted a $5,000 gift from his friend Ronnie Ferguson to get to Q-school about 232 years ago, he agreed to pay 5% of his career earnings to his church community. So far, that’s raised $1.4m and a lot of teenagers from poor backgrounds in Simpson County, Kentucky, have university scholarships.
Maybe these things don’t much matter but it’s hard not to warm to a professional golfer who borrows the money and builds a golf course that is affordable for ordinary people. Perry did that in Franklin, his home town. Green fees range from $20 to $30 at Kenny Perry’s Country Creek GC. Mostly when a top pro “designs” a golf course, his fee is part of the reason why you and I will never play it.
Then, as soon as the man speaks, the way he gently raises his right hand, open palm, after a birdie, you know you’re going to like him. Perry reminds us why some men deserve to be called gentlemen. Part of the reason he didn’t win much until his mid-40s was that he needed his three children to fly the nest before he could concentrate on golf.
Thirteen PGA Tour victories isn’t bad, he had a central role in the US’s Ryder Cup victory last year and for three days at the Masters, he played better golf than any other player. Rather than share the lead with Cabrera after 54 holes, he would have led by four or five shots had he holed a third of the birdie chances he created.
All the time it happens at Augusta, two caddies look at a putt and one says, “right edge”, the other, “an inch on the left” and both are wrong. On Augusta’s greens Perry was illiterate, a murderous handicap in an exam that lists putting as a compulsory subject.
He made plenty of good putts but sent them on errant lines. So how well did he do to be the last man to hit a tee shot on the first hole on Masters’ Sunday?
But even at that point, you could have foretold the disappointment one would feel at the 12th hole two and a half hours later. For the gallery that followed Perry and Cabrera was no more than a few hundred. You could, on the last day of the Masters, watch the leaders play their approach shots, amble up to the green and see them stroke their putts. It was like the gallery you might get for two decent players in the middle of the pack. Augusta’s patrons had eyes for only Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, even though the numbers watching meant you could barely see them.
Perry played beautifully for 11 holes. Could have made birdies at two, four, five, eight and 10, should have had birdie on seven but he made good putts on wrong lines.
Then, on the 12th, he holed a birdie putt tougher than the six he’d missed to get back into the tournament lead and the tide seemed to turn his way. He seemed to believe that and instead of the understated open-palm salute, he put his arm higher into the air and clenched his fist. As he did, he turned towards the crowd, except there was no crowd. The big stand behind the 12th tee that looks across on to the green holds maybe a thousand people. About 100 seats were occupied. It wasn’t a question of where they had all gone but why they hadn’t turned up.
At Augusta, there is a premium on good manners and old style southern civility that is charming; fans are called patrons, fans with tickets are accredited patrons, and it is routinely claimed that they are the best in the game. Nothing could be further from the reality. The empty spaces around Perry and Cabrera spoke of a tournament, however brilliant the final round, that had taken on something of the circus.
Would a vast majority of fans at the Open Championship abandon the tournament leaders to follow two players starting the day seven shots behind? Not a hope in hell.
Source:The times
Consider the context: Perry and Angel Cabrera were the final pairing, 17 of the previous 18 Masters winners had come from the last two to tee off and, four months short of his 49th birthday, Perry had his chance to become the oldest major champion.
Not interested? Well, consider, too, that when Perry accepted a $5,000 gift from his friend Ronnie Ferguson to get to Q-school about 232 years ago, he agreed to pay 5% of his career earnings to his church community. So far, that’s raised $1.4m and a lot of teenagers from poor backgrounds in Simpson County, Kentucky, have university scholarships.
Maybe these things don’t much matter but it’s hard not to warm to a professional golfer who borrows the money and builds a golf course that is affordable for ordinary people. Perry did that in Franklin, his home town. Green fees range from $20 to $30 at Kenny Perry’s Country Creek GC. Mostly when a top pro “designs” a golf course, his fee is part of the reason why you and I will never play it.
Then, as soon as the man speaks, the way he gently raises his right hand, open palm, after a birdie, you know you’re going to like him. Perry reminds us why some men deserve to be called gentlemen. Part of the reason he didn’t win much until his mid-40s was that he needed his three children to fly the nest before he could concentrate on golf.
Thirteen PGA Tour victories isn’t bad, he had a central role in the US’s Ryder Cup victory last year and for three days at the Masters, he played better golf than any other player. Rather than share the lead with Cabrera after 54 holes, he would have led by four or five shots had he holed a third of the birdie chances he created.
All the time it happens at Augusta, two caddies look at a putt and one says, “right edge”, the other, “an inch on the left” and both are wrong. On Augusta’s greens Perry was illiterate, a murderous handicap in an exam that lists putting as a compulsory subject.
He made plenty of good putts but sent them on errant lines. So how well did he do to be the last man to hit a tee shot on the first hole on Masters’ Sunday?
But even at that point, you could have foretold the disappointment one would feel at the 12th hole two and a half hours later. For the gallery that followed Perry and Cabrera was no more than a few hundred. You could, on the last day of the Masters, watch the leaders play their approach shots, amble up to the green and see them stroke their putts. It was like the gallery you might get for two decent players in the middle of the pack. Augusta’s patrons had eyes for only Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, even though the numbers watching meant you could barely see them.
Perry played beautifully for 11 holes. Could have made birdies at two, four, five, eight and 10, should have had birdie on seven but he made good putts on wrong lines.
Then, on the 12th, he holed a birdie putt tougher than the six he’d missed to get back into the tournament lead and the tide seemed to turn his way. He seemed to believe that and instead of the understated open-palm salute, he put his arm higher into the air and clenched his fist. As he did, he turned towards the crowd, except there was no crowd. The big stand behind the 12th tee that looks across on to the green holds maybe a thousand people. About 100 seats were occupied. It wasn’t a question of where they had all gone but why they hadn’t turned up.
At Augusta, there is a premium on good manners and old style southern civility that is charming; fans are called patrons, fans with tickets are accredited patrons, and it is routinely claimed that they are the best in the game. Nothing could be further from the reality. The empty spaces around Perry and Cabrera spoke of a tournament, however brilliant the final round, that had taken on something of the circus.
Would a vast majority of fans at the Open Championship abandon the tournament leaders to follow two players starting the day seven shots behind? Not a hope in hell.
Source:The times
Ferrari trying not to panic after pointless start
The Chinese Grand Prix this weekend produced signs from McLaren Mercedes that the Woking-based Anglo-German team is starting to improve its competitive position after a shaky start to the season with both its drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen, finishing in the points in Shanghai.
Sadly, the same cannot be said for McLaren’s old Italian rivals Ferrari who are enduring their worst start to a campaign for years. With no points for either of their drivers in China and no points at the first two races in Australia and Malaysia, the Scuderia are firmly at the bottom of the league and already there is talk of them abandoning development work on this year’s car.
The suggestion was made at the weekend by the seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher who is retained as a consultant by Ferrari and who believes the moment is already not far away when the team will have decide whether it would not be better to switch its attention to next year’s machine and effectively write this season off.
That is exactly what Brawn GP did this time last year, when still under Honda ownership team principal Ross Brawn realised the 2008 challenger was hopelessly off the pace. Now he is reaping spectacular rewards as a result, with his two drivers Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello in first and second places in the championship respectively.
Stefano Domenicali, the Ferrari team principal, is trying not to panic but he admitted in China that a similar decision may not be far off and could be made after the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona on May 10. “I think we have to wait,” he said. “We need to stay cool. It is not easy, I know, but we need to stay cool because there are too many things that can change very quickly. The number one priority is to move from zero points. I think for sure we will see after Spain where we are.”
Ferrari is struggling on all fronts. Just as McLaren did, the Scuderia threw everything but the kitchen sink at last year’s title battle which Felipe Massa lost to Hamilton by one point at a thrilling last race in Brazil. That contest hoovered up a huge amount of technical resource and mental energy at the team base at Maranello, very little of which was of any relevence to the new car for this year which is governed by a new technical standard. As a result the F2009 is under-developed and is not quick enough. Added to that is a serious reliability problem with Kimi Raikkonen’s car in China being only the second to finish a race. As if those two issues were not enough, the Ferrari brainstrust on the pitwall has been making some howlers which have only compounded the technical problems.
There is no doubt that Domenicali, an engineer promoted from within at the start of 2007 and one of the most genuine individuals in the paddock, is already under pressure to keep his job. He has Luca di Montezemolo, the ambitious Ferrari president who expects championships almost as of right, breathing down his neck and the expectations of the Ferrari faithful to live up to. Inevitably comparisons are being made with his predecessor Jean Todt who masterminded the Schumacher ascendancy, along with Brawn as technical director, at a time when Ferrari was a more unpleasant outfit than now, but more successful too.
Domenicali has already re-shuffled his race team to try to improve performance and he was encouraged by Massa’s early showing in Shanghai. “For sure it is very tricky,” he said. “It is not easy. The only way we can get out from the moment is to work hard and to try to stay cool. We know we have a lot of things to do, and there is no reason to get into a panic mode because that would be worse.”
Raikkonen, the 2007 world champion, has never given the impression that he has put any effort into getting the team behind him, but he is at least saying the right things in the current crisis. “We’ll do the best that we can and I’m sure we are going to be back in a position to challenge for wins, but it will take a little while, so we just need to go through this hard time and we are definitely going to get back,” he said before leaving China.
Massa is more of a fighter and closer to the heart of the team. “It’s a very tough situation,” he said. “We are in a different condition than we were in the past but I still believe in the team. I think we have a good chance to move away from this problem. I’m very motivated to help the team get away from that. And I will do my best.”
Source:The times
Sadly, the same cannot be said for McLaren’s old Italian rivals Ferrari who are enduring their worst start to a campaign for years. With no points for either of their drivers in China and no points at the first two races in Australia and Malaysia, the Scuderia are firmly at the bottom of the league and already there is talk of them abandoning development work on this year’s car.
The suggestion was made at the weekend by the seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher who is retained as a consultant by Ferrari and who believes the moment is already not far away when the team will have decide whether it would not be better to switch its attention to next year’s machine and effectively write this season off.
That is exactly what Brawn GP did this time last year, when still under Honda ownership team principal Ross Brawn realised the 2008 challenger was hopelessly off the pace. Now he is reaping spectacular rewards as a result, with his two drivers Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello in first and second places in the championship respectively.
Stefano Domenicali, the Ferrari team principal, is trying not to panic but he admitted in China that a similar decision may not be far off and could be made after the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona on May 10. “I think we have to wait,” he said. “We need to stay cool. It is not easy, I know, but we need to stay cool because there are too many things that can change very quickly. The number one priority is to move from zero points. I think for sure we will see after Spain where we are.”
Ferrari is struggling on all fronts. Just as McLaren did, the Scuderia threw everything but the kitchen sink at last year’s title battle which Felipe Massa lost to Hamilton by one point at a thrilling last race in Brazil. That contest hoovered up a huge amount of technical resource and mental energy at the team base at Maranello, very little of which was of any relevence to the new car for this year which is governed by a new technical standard. As a result the F2009 is under-developed and is not quick enough. Added to that is a serious reliability problem with Kimi Raikkonen’s car in China being only the second to finish a race. As if those two issues were not enough, the Ferrari brainstrust on the pitwall has been making some howlers which have only compounded the technical problems.
There is no doubt that Domenicali, an engineer promoted from within at the start of 2007 and one of the most genuine individuals in the paddock, is already under pressure to keep his job. He has Luca di Montezemolo, the ambitious Ferrari president who expects championships almost as of right, breathing down his neck and the expectations of the Ferrari faithful to live up to. Inevitably comparisons are being made with his predecessor Jean Todt who masterminded the Schumacher ascendancy, along with Brawn as technical director, at a time when Ferrari was a more unpleasant outfit than now, but more successful too.
Domenicali has already re-shuffled his race team to try to improve performance and he was encouraged by Massa’s early showing in Shanghai. “For sure it is very tricky,” he said. “It is not easy. The only way we can get out from the moment is to work hard and to try to stay cool. We know we have a lot of things to do, and there is no reason to get into a panic mode because that would be worse.”
Raikkonen, the 2007 world champion, has never given the impression that he has put any effort into getting the team behind him, but he is at least saying the right things in the current crisis. “We’ll do the best that we can and I’m sure we are going to be back in a position to challenge for wins, but it will take a little while, so we just need to go through this hard time and we are definitely going to get back,” he said before leaving China.
Massa is more of a fighter and closer to the heart of the team. “It’s a very tough situation,” he said. “We are in a different condition than we were in the past but I still believe in the team. I think we have a good chance to move away from this problem. I’m very motivated to help the team get away from that. And I will do my best.”
Source:The times
Samit Patel shows best and worst qualities
Samit Patel fell five runs short of a century when he was run out in bizarre fashion. Attempting a quick single to Vikram Solanki at mid-off, Patel absent-mindedly veered off to the left and failed to ground his bat as Solanki hit the stumps with his throw.
Despite this setback, Nottinghamshire had comfortably the better of the first day's play with Adam Voges, the Australia batsman, making 99 before he was caught behind down the leg side just before the close.
Ryan Sidebottom is certain to miss the first Test match against West Indies, starting on May 6, as he continues his recovery from an operation on an Achilles tendon. He is unlikely to play for Nottinghamshire's first XI until early May and yesterday he played for MCC against Rugby School.
Against a Worcestershire attack badly missing Kabir Ali, who has a hamstring injury, Patel had enjoyed some fortune, being dropped three times. But he also played some wonderful straight drives in front of James Whitaker, the England selector, making his 95 from 137 balls with 15 fours and a six. The pick of his strokes was a beautifully timed back-foot drive for four between Ashley Noffke, the bowler, and mid-off.
With several of Nottinghamshire's top-order batsmen injured, Patel had volunteered to move up to No 3 in the order. Having been dropped from England's one-day squad recently because of his poor attitude towards fitness, these are a crucial few weeks in his career.
“I wouldn't say we've seen a marked change in his attitude; we've seen a slight change and he's going in the right direction,” Mick Newell, the Nottinghamshire director of cricket, said. Although his innings yesterday offered a reminder of his sparkling talent, his dismissal was another sign of mental lassitude. “He asked to have a look at the replay of his run-out, but I told him he'd be better not to,” Newell said.
Patel's dismissal left Nottinghamshire on 186 for three, but Voges and Chris Read strengthened their position with a fifth-wicket stand of 114, Read finishing unbeaten on 69. Voges had a disappointing first season at Trent Bridge last year, passing fifty only three times in the championship. He also struggled for Western Australia during the winter, but yesterday looked in good touch, only to fall one run short of his first first-class hundred since December 2007 when he got a thin edge to a leg-side ball from Matt Mason and was caught by Steven Davies. He had faced 224 balls, hitting nine fours and two sixes.
Nottinghamshire: First Innings M A Wagh c Davies b Mason 19 B M Shafayat c Mitchell b Arif 14 S R Patel run out 95 A C Voges c Davies b Mason 99 A D Brown lbw b Whelan 4 *C M W Read not out 69 G P Swann not out 19 Extras (b 5, lb 4, w 2, nb 4) 15 Total (5 wkts, 96 overs) 334
S C J Broad, M A Ealham, A R Adams and D J Pattinson to bat.
Fall of wickets: 1-23, 2-46, 3-186, 4-199, 5-313.
Bowling: Noffke 18-6-47-0; Mason 19-7-60-2; Arif 22-4-91-1; Whelan 18-1-81-1; Batty 19-5-46-0.
Worcestershire: D K H Mitchell, S C Moore, *V S Solanki, B F Smith, M M Ali, S M Davies, A A Noffke, G J Batty, C D Whelan, Imran Arif, M S Mason.
Umpires: R J Bailey and R A Kettleborough.
Source:The times
Despite this setback, Nottinghamshire had comfortably the better of the first day's play with Adam Voges, the Australia batsman, making 99 before he was caught behind down the leg side just before the close.
Ryan Sidebottom is certain to miss the first Test match against West Indies, starting on May 6, as he continues his recovery from an operation on an Achilles tendon. He is unlikely to play for Nottinghamshire's first XI until early May and yesterday he played for MCC against Rugby School.
Against a Worcestershire attack badly missing Kabir Ali, who has a hamstring injury, Patel had enjoyed some fortune, being dropped three times. But he also played some wonderful straight drives in front of James Whitaker, the England selector, making his 95 from 137 balls with 15 fours and a six. The pick of his strokes was a beautifully timed back-foot drive for four between Ashley Noffke, the bowler, and mid-off.
With several of Nottinghamshire's top-order batsmen injured, Patel had volunteered to move up to No 3 in the order. Having been dropped from England's one-day squad recently because of his poor attitude towards fitness, these are a crucial few weeks in his career.
“I wouldn't say we've seen a marked change in his attitude; we've seen a slight change and he's going in the right direction,” Mick Newell, the Nottinghamshire director of cricket, said. Although his innings yesterday offered a reminder of his sparkling talent, his dismissal was another sign of mental lassitude. “He asked to have a look at the replay of his run-out, but I told him he'd be better not to,” Newell said.
Patel's dismissal left Nottinghamshire on 186 for three, but Voges and Chris Read strengthened their position with a fifth-wicket stand of 114, Read finishing unbeaten on 69. Voges had a disappointing first season at Trent Bridge last year, passing fifty only three times in the championship. He also struggled for Western Australia during the winter, but yesterday looked in good touch, only to fall one run short of his first first-class hundred since December 2007 when he got a thin edge to a leg-side ball from Matt Mason and was caught by Steven Davies. He had faced 224 balls, hitting nine fours and two sixes.
Nottinghamshire: First Innings M A Wagh c Davies b Mason 19 B M Shafayat c Mitchell b Arif 14 S R Patel run out 95 A C Voges c Davies b Mason 99 A D Brown lbw b Whelan 4 *C M W Read not out 69 G P Swann not out 19 Extras (b 5, lb 4, w 2, nb 4) 15 Total (5 wkts, 96 overs) 334
S C J Broad, M A Ealham, A R Adams and D J Pattinson to bat.
Fall of wickets: 1-23, 2-46, 3-186, 4-199, 5-313.
Bowling: Noffke 18-6-47-0; Mason 19-7-60-2; Arif 22-4-91-1; Whelan 18-1-81-1; Batty 19-5-46-0.
Worcestershire: D K H Mitchell, S C Moore, *V S Solanki, B F Smith, M M Ali, S M Davies, A A Noffke, G J Batty, C D Whelan, Imran Arif, M S Mason.
Umpires: R J Bailey and R A Kettleborough.
Source:The times
Andrey Arshavin's four goals hand title initiative to Manchester United
Rafael Benítez conceded that Liverpool’s title hopes had suffered a severe blow against Arsenal last night after watching Andrey Arshavin score four breathtaking goals on an evening of high drama at Anfield.
A mesmerising 4-4 draw was enough to take Liverpool above Manchester United on goal difference at the top of the Barclays Premier League, but the champions will move three points clear if they win the first of their two games in hand, against Portsmouth at Old Trafford this evening.
Arshavin appeared to have won it for Arsenal in the 90th minute of an extraordinary game, putting his team 4-3 in front, only for Liverpool to come from behind for the third time when Yossi Benayoun scored his second in stoppage time.
Liverpool’s 4-4 draw in their previous outing, against Chelsea in the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final at Stamford Bridge last week, had been hailed as a classic, but if anything this rollercoaster ride of a game bettered it, even if Benítez acknowledged that the result had swung the title momentum firmly in United’s favour. “United had the initiative before, so they are still in the driving seat, but we will see what happens,” said Benítez, who refused to respond to claims by Sir Alex Ferguson, the United manager, that he was “arrogant” and “contemptuous”.
“If they do win [against Portsmouth] it be more difficult for us, but United still have to play Arsenal as well. Before we were talking about needing to win almost all our games, but we have to keep pushing. We showed tonight that we can fight until the last minute and we need to do the same until the end of the season.”
Arsène Wenger, the Arsenal manager, paid tribute to Arshavin, his £12 million signing from Zenit St Petersburg, and claimed that the outcome of United’s game against Portsmouth could come to determine the title race, even though Benítez will hope that the championship is still up for grabs by the time last night’s opponents visit Old Trafford on May 16.
“Arshavin can play everywhere, like all the great players,” Wenger said. “I have been in the job a long time and I have not seen many players take goals like that. He has scored seven goals in seven games now, but I didn’t expect him to score so many.
Arshavin said: “I have scored two hat-tricks before, but never four goals. It was a great game for the fans but not for the team. It was like basketball out there.”
Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr, the estranged Liverpool co-owners, sat together in the directors’ box for the first time since December 2007, when Liverpool lost 1-0 to United, and if ever there was a game that might convince them to bury their differences and work together in the best interests of the club, it was this. Arsenal were ahead 1-0, 3-2 and 4-3, but every time Liverpool found it within themselves to force an equaliser.
Having come from behind to lead 2-1 with goals from Fernando Torres and Benayoun during a seven-minute burst at the start of the second half, Liverpool were trailing again in the space of three frantic minutes when Arshavin completed a memorable hat-trick to make it 3-2. Torres hit back almost immediately to level the scores again, before the game reached a remarkable climax.
“We wanted three points, so it’s two points dropped,” Steven Gerrard, the Liverpool captain who was watching the drama from a TV studio, said.
“We’re relying on others to do us favours. It was a tremendous game for the neutral, but not for me. It would have been a disaster if we’d lost, but in the end that point could be big.” However, Ladbrokes now make United 8-1 on to win the title.
Source: The times
A mesmerising 4-4 draw was enough to take Liverpool above Manchester United on goal difference at the top of the Barclays Premier League, but the champions will move three points clear if they win the first of their two games in hand, against Portsmouth at Old Trafford this evening.
Arshavin appeared to have won it for Arsenal in the 90th minute of an extraordinary game, putting his team 4-3 in front, only for Liverpool to come from behind for the third time when Yossi Benayoun scored his second in stoppage time.
Liverpool’s 4-4 draw in their previous outing, against Chelsea in the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final at Stamford Bridge last week, had been hailed as a classic, but if anything this rollercoaster ride of a game bettered it, even if Benítez acknowledged that the result had swung the title momentum firmly in United’s favour. “United had the initiative before, so they are still in the driving seat, but we will see what happens,” said Benítez, who refused to respond to claims by Sir Alex Ferguson, the United manager, that he was “arrogant” and “contemptuous”.
“If they do win [against Portsmouth] it be more difficult for us, but United still have to play Arsenal as well. Before we were talking about needing to win almost all our games, but we have to keep pushing. We showed tonight that we can fight until the last minute and we need to do the same until the end of the season.”
Arsène Wenger, the Arsenal manager, paid tribute to Arshavin, his £12 million signing from Zenit St Petersburg, and claimed that the outcome of United’s game against Portsmouth could come to determine the title race, even though Benítez will hope that the championship is still up for grabs by the time last night’s opponents visit Old Trafford on May 16.
“Arshavin can play everywhere, like all the great players,” Wenger said. “I have been in the job a long time and I have not seen many players take goals like that. He has scored seven goals in seven games now, but I didn’t expect him to score so many.
Arshavin said: “I have scored two hat-tricks before, but never four goals. It was a great game for the fans but not for the team. It was like basketball out there.”
Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr, the estranged Liverpool co-owners, sat together in the directors’ box for the first time since December 2007, when Liverpool lost 1-0 to United, and if ever there was a game that might convince them to bury their differences and work together in the best interests of the club, it was this. Arsenal were ahead 1-0, 3-2 and 4-3, but every time Liverpool found it within themselves to force an equaliser.
Having come from behind to lead 2-1 with goals from Fernando Torres and Benayoun during a seven-minute burst at the start of the second half, Liverpool were trailing again in the space of three frantic minutes when Arshavin completed a memorable hat-trick to make it 3-2. Torres hit back almost immediately to level the scores again, before the game reached a remarkable climax.
“We wanted three points, so it’s two points dropped,” Steven Gerrard, the Liverpool captain who was watching the drama from a TV studio, said.
“We’re relying on others to do us favours. It was a tremendous game for the neutral, but not for me. It would have been a disaster if we’d lost, but in the end that point could be big.” However, Ladbrokes now make United 8-1 on to win the title.
Source: The times
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