Liverpool Crush Arsenal; Sturridge, Streling, Skrtel Score

 5-1 

Liverpool hosted Arsenal today for a wild Premier League match-up.  Arsenal came into the match at the top of the table with Liverpool eight points behind.  Playing at Anfield, Liverpool had a very danger attack and had the Gunners on their heels all day.

Liverpool could not have gotten off to a better start and scored in the first minute of the game.  An early set-piece allowed centerback Martin Skrtel to get forward.  Gerrard delivered the free-kick into the box and Skrtel was able to score with a volley off his shin (1').  The centerback scored again off a set-piece just minutes later.  This time from a corner-kick, Gerrard delivered the cross and Skrtel scored a well placed header floated to the back-post (10').

Liverpool then scored two more quick goals to stretch the lead.  Jordan Henderson tackled the ball off Özil in midfield and got the ball to Suarez pushing forward.  Suarez then played the ball across the face of goal for Raheem Sterling crashing the far-post.  Sterling finished with an easy tap-in to put Liverpool up three goals (17').

Daniel Sturridge scored the final goal of the first-half shortly after when Coutinho played him in-on-goal.  Coutinho's through-ball was weighted perfectly to allow Sturridge to split two defenders and beat the keeper with a first-touch finish (20').

Liverpool added one more goal in the second-half when Sterling scored his second of the match.  A long ball from the back by Cissokho put Sterling behind the Arsenal defense.  His first shot was stopped by keeper Szczesny, but the rebound came right back to him and Sterling finished with the extra chance (52').

After an hour of play, Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger made all three substitutions at once, likely to save some players for the midweek match against United coming up.  The five goal deficit was obviously too much to overcome, but Arsenal did manage to get one back.  Gerrard missed his tackle on Oxlade-Chamberlain in the box to give Arsenal a penalty.  Mikel Arteta scored from the spot for the last goal of the match (69').  Aside from winning the penalty, Oxlade-Chamberlain was essentially non-existant though.  Fellow winger Santi Cazorla was also not a factor today in one of Arsenal's worst performances all year.

Today's win could be the most important match all season for Liverpool who still have a chance at the league title.  If they can continue to score goals at the current rate, very few teams will be able to keep up.  Arsenal are starting to show signs of slowing down and will look to bounce back against Manchester United on Wednesday.  Liverpool travel to Fulham next as the battle at the top of the table heats up.