Arsenal's Premiership dream may well be over as they were held to a 1-1 home draw with Liverpool for the second time in the space of three days, following their recent Champions League stalemate. Peter Crouch, who netted a hat-trick past the Gunners last season, gave his side the lead shortly before the break, but Danish striker Nicklas Bendtner leveled for Arsenal in the second half. Arsenal have 71 points and are now five adrift of leaders Manchester United before both teams clash at Old Trafford next week. Liverpool remain fourth with 63 points. Arsene Wenger already missed the injured Robin Van Persie, but yet did not start with top scorer Emmanuel Adebayor, as Bendtner was fielded as a lone striker. On the other hand, Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez opted to rest captain Steven Gerrard and hitman Fernando Torres, handing young debutant Damien Plessis and Crouch a chance to shine. Crouch needed no time to get into action as he almost hit the target after just three minutes, but his long-range effort was superbly parried by Manuel Almunia.
Bendtner salvaged point The early chance provided pace to the already tense encounter, which witnessed some real chances in the first half. Both sides coming close to a breakthrough more than once, but Yossi Benayoun blasted wide from a one-on-one situation, before Bendtner sloppily missed a much easier chance at the other end. The deadlock was broken though when Crouch's fine low effort left Almunia with no chance, after the England striker showed quick feet to deceive William Gallas. Kolo Toure missed a golden chance to equalize six minutes after the break when his free header went wide off Reina's right post. But three minutes later, Bendtner made amends for his earlier miss when he expertly rose above everybody to head in Cesc Fabregas' freekick for the equalizer. Shortly afterwards, Wenger decided to introduce his number one striker Adebayor, but the Togolese did not cause much trouble to the Reds keeper. Substitute Alexander Hleb had a fantastic opportunity to win the game for Arsenal in injury time, but his dismal first touch let him down.
