First match of the 2010-11 season. First league fight as a Red for Joe Cole, Milan Jovanovic and Roy Hodgson. An air of a fresh start, after the dismally poor last season, around the game and the pre-match comments. A high-profile game against long time rivals Arsenal. So– how’d it turn out?

First half went pretty much according to expectations, with Arsenal having much of the ball possession (around 61%) but without producing much of anything in terms of scoring chances. A couple of free-kicks into the Red wall by Nasri, a long distance effort by Marouane Chamakh, but that was basically it. Liverpool on the other hand started the game a bit like they’d finished the previous season, on the back foot, not really threatening at all. Until just before half time when David N’Gog had a fine header saved on the goal line. Just thirty seconds later, new boy Joe Cole made an aggressive challenge on Laurent Koscielny to win the ball back out by the corner flag – overly aggressive it would turn out as Koscielny went down from the tackle and the ref elected to show Joe the red card. Not the Anfield debut that Cole had dreamt of, we’re sure.

N’Gog!

Second half, with LFC down to 10 men, immediately saw N’Gog pick up where he left it in the first: with a humdinger of a shot he put Liverpool one up, right at the start of the half, in a move that caught Arsenal keeper Almunia napping. Little did we know then that the other Spanish goalkeeper would become the real post-match talking point.

Before that though, Arsenal tried all they had to get back level, but like in the first half, they couldn’t produce much despite a massive grip on the ball. As the game wore on it became obvious that our boys were happy to let the Gunners pass the ball back and forth between each other and put up a counter attack every now and then. A scenario that was enforced two-thirds in when Fernando Torres came on for goal scorer N’Gog. In the end, Torres didn’t have much of an impact on the game. Compatriot and team-mate Pepe Reina did though. On the stroke of 90'. With LFC still leading 1-0. And still being down one man (actually, for a while, two men as Danish international Danny Agger took a hard shot in the head and had to step off the pitch for a while. Obviously struggling he still came back for the final 10 minutes which was completely foolhardy and completely admirable.)

Reina... !!

In the final minute of regulation time then, Tomas Rosizcky put a ball in the Liverpool penalty box where Pepe made an error in judgement when going out to clear it. His failed clearance dropped to Chamakh who had the good grace to head the ball in the post, but as Reina turned back to collect the rebound he somehow managed to lose his footing and scramble the ball into his own net.

And that, as they say, was that. Despite a really good Stevie G freekick at the end of extra time —brilliantly saved by Manuel Almunia— the game ended in a disappointing 1-1 draw. Disappointing because with only 10 men for over half of the game, and with Arsenal having an incredibly overpowering ball possession, Liverpool should have won this League opener.

The good news for new boss Hodgson, with only this match in mind, is that his defensive line is strong. Arsenal failed to put any real pressure on their opponents despite the man advantage and having the ball all the time. And if N’Gog keeps producing in this fabulous way, the boss has a good alternative to Nando should he fail to come back to normal form. Even Mascherano did a great job in his defensive midfield position.

The not-so-good news is that LFC didn’t produce all that much either, at least not in the first half, that Arsenal was blatantly inefficient and no real comparison for future opposition which may not be so lacklustre in offence (your Chelski’s, your ManU’s, your Hotspurs), and that Pepe needs special training in areas like gripping a bouncing ball.

All in all though, a good enough first game of the season against a tough opponent. And the streak of lossless home starting games continues. Good enough.