Arsenal won 1-0 at Liverpool in the Premier League on Sunday, their first league win at Anfield since 2012, and the fan YouTubers on both sides are still arguing about it. Kai Havertz tapped in Declan Rice's low cross on 16 minutes after Alisson's short pass was cut out. Liverpool had no shots on target. Arsenal went back to the top of the table.
Liverpool head coach Andoni Iraola was asked whether Alexander Isak should have gone down when Jurriën Timber pulled his shirt. "Honestly, yes, we have to tell them to go down because they're not going to call it otherwise." Six fan channels watched it so you don't have to.
Arsenal: fourteen years, one tap-in
AFTV recorded their player ratings in the cold, on a birthday, with donuts in the car. Rice gets a nine and the panel saves a word for Graeme Souness, who they reckon got him completely wrong: "He's come to Anfield and done what you used to do in the 80s." The travel report is one line long: "Long way to come but the trip is short when you win."
The Goonerverse had spent the week on Havertz's case and now has to eat it in public. "Kai Havertz, I said you owed us a performance." He still isn't sure the all-round performance came, but a winner at Anfield clears most debts. He also delays his match report to "soak it all in", which after 14 years seems fair.
DeludedGooner is the most honest man in any room. He thinks Liverpool were better, thinks Arsenal invited the pressure, and is keeping the three points anyway. "It weren't pretty. It's so ugly. It's beautiful."
Liverpool: the shirt-pull everyone saw
Twenty-one minutes in, Bradley Barcola's cross was heading for Isak and Timber had a fistful of his shirt. Andy Madley gave nothing. VAR left it. Tom Little has the replay on loop and a wider point: "Alexander Isak should not have to jump in the air, flail every limb around, and roll on the floor just to get a blatant penalty." Iraola, it turns out, agrees, and has gone further.
The awkward bit for Arsenal is that their own rooms half-agree. The Goonerverse calls the pull on Isak "a stonewall penalty" and notes Isak "hasn't made a meal of it". DeludedGooner concedes "a penalty could have went in Liverpool's favor" before promising to watch it again. A fan channel conceding a penalty against its own side? Frame it.
Liverpool: a gift, then nothing on target
Not that Liverpool's rooms are blaming the referee for everything. AnfieldAgenda gives the officials a three, then turns on his own side. Alisson's pass "was never on", Van Dijk stood still at the front post, and the forward line ran out of ideas. "We could have been there for another week and not scored." He saves his best line for Alexis Mac Allister going down after Noni Madueke's forehead touch: "I've had kisses... from my child before they go to bed that were more physical than that."
TheKopTV caught Greg outside the ground, and the verdict is grimly fair: "we helped them by gifting them that goal". The fan cam lands on a school report, "like a B minus", which is about as generous as anyone in red got all night.
The argument: two things can be true
Asked about the penalty, Greg thinks Liverpool should have had "about three", then refuses to hide behind it: "Two things can be true. Liverpool didn't lose today because of the referee." That's the whole night in two sentences. Liverpool had a penalty claim waved away and still didn't hit the target once. Arsenal got away with one call and defended for their lives to end a 14-year wait.
Arsenal go to Slavia Prague on Wednesday with the Anfield curse lifted. Liverpool's lesson, according to their own head coach, is to go down. Nobody in either room sounds happy about that.