May 26 – Title Race Reaches Fever Pitch

A couple of weeks ago the Sky Sports hype-machine breathlessly told us that Manchester United and Chelsea’s tussle for the title was the closest and most exciting since the 1960s. Rubbish. Today in 1989 Arsenal and Liverpool played out the mother of all title deciders, when the Gooners stood between the scousers and a second league and FA Cup double in three years.

A fixture pile-up after the Hillsborough disaster had meant an extension to the season that saw Arsenal travelling to Anfield on a Friday night at the end of May, with Liverpool having already claimed the FA Cup. The league title was up for grabs and the maths was simple: Arsenal needed to win by two goals to clinch the title. Lord knows how much Richard Keys would have hyped this one.

Liverpool went into the clash having won their last ten home games and back in those days a 2-0 defeat at Anfield happened about as often as Drogba manages 90 minutes without losing his perennial battle against the forces of gravity.

A goal-less first half saw Arsenal dominate but fail to break the deadlock. Whatever George Graham said at half-time must have worked though, as the Gunners took the lead through an Alan Smith goal in the 52nd minute.

Proceedings then started to get a little bit tense. A long, grinding and above-all emotional season had effectively boiled down to ‘next goal wins’. With eighty seconds remaining an injury to Arsenal Kevin Richardson stopped play and as physio Gary Lewin was treating him the Liverpool fans started to chant “Champions, Champions!”

Steve McMahon informed his Liverpool team-mates that there was only a minute left, but when play restarted Michael Thomas began a driving run, cutting through the Liverpool midfield. “It’s up for grabs now,” Brian Moore declared to the millions watching at home as Thomas calmly chipped the ball over Bruce Grobbelaar, scoring one of the most iconic goals of all-time in the English game.

Arsenal had won their first title since 1971 and the days of Frank McLintock and Charlie George, whilst the defeat marked the beginning of a decline from Liverpool who haven’t won the league since.

The Gunners’ title win inspired Nick Hornby to pen ‘Fever Pitch’, one of the best football books ever written. See the final day drama pan out in the film adaptation here below and come back tomorrow for one of English football’s most groundbreaking days.