Source: Telegraph
Liverpool late show against Arsenal typifies neversaydie spirit
No doubt, as they filed to their cars and buses or trudged into the Sandon or the Arkles Pubs, they heard the roar from those hardier souls who remained which greeted Yossi Benayoun's 93rd-minute equaliser. They should not have left. Liverpool will always leave it late.
The Israeli's intervention was Rafa Benitez's side's ninth goal in injury time this season, far and away the best record of any team in the Premier League. Without those goals, Liverpool would be nine points worse off, level-pegging with Arsenal and well out of the title race.
Even more dramatically, it was Liverpool's 17th goal of the campaign scored in the last 10 minutes. Without the never-say-die attitude which Benitez praised in the immediate aftermath of the game, Liverpool would be fifth, lying one place and one point behind Aston Villa.
If anything has characterised Liverpool's season, it is their rare propensity to come alive when all seems lost. Against Arsenal on Tuesday night, twice Liverpool seemed buried. Twice, first through Torres and then Benayoun, they fought back. Their Champions League quarter final, second leg trip to Stamford Bridge saw them come within a whisker of completing the most remarkable comeback the competition has ever seen.
At Fulham, Portsmouth and Manchester City, and at Anfield against Chelsea, Wigan and now Arsenal, Liverpool could not be ruled out until the final whistle had blown. At the heart of it all on Tuesday night was Benayoun, scoring his second last-minute equaliser in three weeks.
The Israeli international is not considered a starter at Anfield, finding himself behind Albert Riera and Dirk Kuyt in the pecking order for the wide berths and faced with the impossible task of ousting Steven Gerrard from his favoured central role. Yet Benitez, offered the chance to boost his coffers, has never countenanced cashing in.
Whenever Liverpool are struggling to unlock the massed ranks of a visiting defence, it is to Benayoun whom the Spaniard turns. Where Riera and Kuyt are, more or less, old-fashioned wingers, looking to beat their man and deliver a cross, the former West Ham player will cut inside, exchange one-twos or skip away from his marker and shoot, equally accurately with either foot. He has the craft and guile to pick a way through even the most solid of brick walls.
West Ham are thought to be preparing a bid to bring Benayoun back to Upton Park this summer, the proffered fee likely to be a substantial increase on the £5.75 million Liverpool paid Alan Curbishley two years ago. Liverpool are unlikely to be tempted. The invention of the Israeli is, as he proved again on Tuesday, priceless.
