“Might this actually be the start of the tip of Arsenal’s Premier League desires?”
April 9, 2004.
Sami Hyypia has simply pounced on some surprisingly lax defending from Arsenal’s backline to present Liverpool a 1-0 lead at Highbury Stadium.
Catastrophe.
Arsenal had gone into the conflict with Gerard Houllier’s Liverpool realizing they have been simply eight video games away from Premier League immortality. Having gone 30 matches unbeaten all through the course of the 2003/04 season to date, eight extra with out defeat would see them topped trendy English soccer’s first-ever ‘Invincibles’, in addition to Premier League champions for a 3rd time beneath legendary supervisor Arsene Wenger.
Wanting by the calendar, out of all of the remaining eight video games, the one towards Liverpool had regarded like the obvious potential banana pores and skin for the Gunners. The Reds got here into the sport in wonderful kind, having received 4 of their final 5 and having not conceded a purpose since mid-March. That kind was thanks largely to their celebrity gamers Steven Gerrard and Michael Owen – each of whom have been able to profitable a recreation on the drop of a hat.
It was explicitly clear that any minuscule drop in efficiency ranges towards Liverpool might carry Arsenal’s quest to complete the season unbeaten to an abrupt finish.
Inside 5 minutes, a momentary lapse in focus had threatened to do precisely that.
And had Thierry Henry not been on the pitch, it very properly might have.
Fortunately for Arsenal, he was, and 25 minutes later he introduced his facet again on degree phrases. The mercurial ahead darted in behind the backline in a method solely he might, earlier than bringing a chipped by ball from Robert Pires beneath his management in a method solely he might, after which side-footing throughout purpose and proper into the side-netting in a method solely he might.
1-1.
Having given his facet a platform to go and win the sport, one other defensive lapse would present Liverpool the lead once more on the stroke of half-time.
Liverpool’s aforementioned superstars Gerrard and Owen would mixed to capitalise on the seeming sleepiness of Arsenal’s backline, with the previous feeding the ball by to the latter to make it 2-1.
Catastrophe. Once more.
The Gunners got here out of the traps with renewed vigour initially of the second half, nevertheless. Inside a couple of minutes of the whistle, a transfer began by Henry would culminate in Pires levelling the scores.
60 seconds later, Henry would then make it 3-2 in fairly exceptional style.
After the ahead latched onto the ball with 40 yards and 11 Liverpool gamers between him and the purpose, the 38,119 followers in attendance instantly stood up in anticipation – totally anticipating their star man to miraculously discover a technique to make the web bulge.
And certain sufficient, he did.
Henry would shortly race previous Dietmar Hamann earlier than squaring as much as Jamie Carragher and Igor Biscan on the sting of the field. A deft side-step to the left would ship the pair crashing into each other helplessly and permit Henry to race into the left facet of the field. In typical Henry style, he’d then open up his physique and curl the ball superbly into the underside nook of the web.
3-2.
Recreation over.
Arsenal’s celebrity would go on to cap off a exceptional efficiency with a 3rd purpose late within the recreation – one of many 30 he scored in the course of the 2003/04 season to encourage his staff to an unbeaten Premier League title-winning season.
Maybe what makes this efficiency from Henry so particular is how widespread such a displaying was for him all through his eight years at Arsenal.
This hat-trick wasn’t epiphanic like Andriy Arshavin’s 4 targets at Anfield have been, or Maynor Figueroa scoring from the half-way line towards Stoke Metropolis, or Sebastian Coates netting an overhead kick towards QPR (do not forget that?); this hat-trick was Henry.
Rising up watching ITV’s “The Premiership” it appeared like each single Saturday evening you’d see Henry do one thing you beforehand did not actually consider was even doable. On this explicit week in April, that ‘one thing’ was this hat-trick.
A number of weeks later, that ‘one thing’ was 4 targets towards Newcastle United.
A number of weeks after that, that ‘one thing’ was lifting the Premier League title because the chief of a staff who’d gone unbeaten for a full 38-game season.
Henry was persistently exceptional, and that is what makes him the best participant to ever grace the Premier League.
