So far, 2001 has been a real batch of a year for Liverpool Football Club. Since it began, they have played 32 games in 19 weeks and progressed convincingly in four competitions. Within those weeks and months there have been notable clusters of achievement when the red quartet has been threatened to be chopped to a trio or a duet. On Saturday in Cardiff they started another bunched week and, to Liverpudlian delight, it is one down, two to go. The four-timer is still on.
On Wednesday in Dortmund, Liverpool enter their first European final for 16 years against Alaves of Spain in the UEFA Cup; three days later they go to the Valley at Charlton looking for the win that will guarantee them Champions' League football next season. It will be for the first time. Thus are Gerard Houllier's side making their own history. Before Christmas you would have backed against them, but not now. Of those 32 games, 19 have been won, just four lost. At Christmas they lost 1-0 at Middlesbrough and were sixth in the Premiership, but by February they had acquired the resolve and character that would see them come back from Freddie Ljungberg's 72nd-minute goal, and Arsenal's comfortable control, on Saturday.
In 14 days in mid-February Liverpool played five games in four competitions, won only two, but did not exit anything. Following a 1-1 draw in the league at Sunderland, Liverpool beat Roma 2-0 at home in the UEFA Cup, beat Manchester City 4-2 in the FA Cup, lost 1-0 in Rome and then drew 1-1 with Birmingham City in the League Cup final.
They then won that trophy on penalties, the first silverware of the Houllier era. That, and those other matches in a squeezed period, has brought Liverpool to where they are now: on the verge of a "brilliant" season, copyright Gerard Houllier. It is a hothouse experience, a hothouse education. And the Reds, though they played in gold and blue in Cardiff, have burst into bloom. But more than that, they have grown in strength and stature. It's as if the Liverpool players believe in themselves more now, and believe more in their manager. Last season, remember, ended with two points from their last five Premiership games. They were out of the League Cup in the third round and out of the FA Cup in the fourth. They had not even made it into Europe. It was a snivelling finish.
How different it is this May. Now Liverpool can defy Barcelona over two legs, win at Everton in the dying moments, win at Coventry when the opposition needed it more, and come back from trailing Arsenal with 17 minutes to go on a scorching hot day. What's more, this Liverpool did it when they were not playing that well. As has been said many times, that is a great quality to possess. Resolve.
When the rhythm is not there, when the opponents are playing at a higher tempo, successful team must also have a goal-scorer who can erase all the previous mediocrity with one strike. Michael Owen did that here.
Until the time when the ball fell from Tony Adams' arm and Markus Babbel's head to Owen at an unpromising angle in the 83rd minute, David Seaman had made one save of note from Liverpool - an instinctive punch to Emile Heskey's header three minutes after the interval.
Liverpool, it seemed, had been content to be the sponge for Arsenal's attacking lather, especially in a first-half of one Liverpool chance, an Owen shot blocked by Martin Keown.
Arsenal had been unlucky by then, with Stephane Henchoz's blatant 18th-minute goal-line handball somehow missed by both referee Steve Dunn and his linesman. The luck, or deserved fortune, depending on how one analyses these things, was to stay with Liverpool as Arsenal gathered themselves in the second half, goaded by Robert Pires and Thierry Henry.
That combination sliced Merseyside apart near the hour, and Ashley Cole would have opened the scoring had Sami Hyypia not made the first of three match-saving clearances. Hyypia's second came shortly before Ljungberg scored. It was from the same player, a Finnish header to negate the Swede's chip. But, when Pires delivered another cute pass into the area, Ljungberg rounded Sander Westerveld and this time no one came to the Liverpool goalkeeper's rescue.
If not rampant, Arsenal were cruising. Three minutes after that Hyypia hoofed another goal-bound effort away, this time from Henry. It was when, not if, Arsenal got a second.
Then came Owen. With six goals in his last four games it was without a flicker of doubt that that bouncing ball from Babbel was smacked past Seaman. The afternoon changed.
For the first time in the game Arsenal's near reticent superiority had been challenged. Any response they had, though, was engulfed by Owen. With just over a minute left, Patrick Berger, on for Vladimir Smicer, sent an arcing pass from deep midfield over Lee Dixon. It said: "chase me".
Owen did so. He held off Dixon and, as he entered the Arsenal box with the ball on his supposedly weak left foot, Owen shot across Seaman before Adams could lunge in. It was not a great shot, just a crisp one. But it beat Seaman and it won Liverpool the FA Cup, their first for nine years.
Owen had won it with a typical explosion. With a bang, Liverpool's starburst of a week, and the climax of a season, has begun.
Arsenal: Seaman, Dixon (Bergkamp 90), Keown, Adams, Cole, Pires, Grimandi, Vieira, Ljungberg (Kanu 85), Wiltord (Parlour 76), Henry. Subs Not Used: Lauren, Manninger. Booked: Ljungberg. Goals: Ljungberg 72.
Liverpool: Westerveld, Babbel, Henchoz, Hyypia, Carragher, Murphy (Berger 77), Gerrard, Hamann (McAllister 60), Smicer (Fowler 77), Heskey, Owen. Subs Not Used: Arphexad, Vignal. Booked: Hamann. Goals: Owen 83, 88.
Referee: S Dunn (Bristol).
