This came after a bizarre 1-1 draw today at the Emirates, in which Liverpool’s back four turned into the Kiddie Korps after Fabio Aurelio’s hamstring injury and Jamie Carragher’s concussion — John Flanagan and Jack Robinson were the fullbacks, both Academy products — yet Arsenal still couldn’t finish if the squad’s life and title hopes depended on it, which they did.

In the 10+ minutes of stoppage time that followed because of Carragher’s injury and care on the field, LFC MF Jay Spearing brought down Cesc Fabregas in the box — Robin van Persie converted the penalty and it’s 1-nil to the Arsenal, game over, right? No — Liverpool made one more break for it; Luis Suarez took a free kick just outside the box, but Emmanuel Eboue stupidly put hands on Lucas Leiva when the set piece bounced off the wall, who made the most of it and faked out Andre Marriner for another penalty — which Dirk Kuyt converted as the last action in the game.

Arsene Wenger wanted to bitch at Kenny Dalglish for the post-game handshake, and King Kenny told him where to go. The EPL title is now pretty much Man U’s, as Arsenal couldn’t even take advantage of a beyond miakeshift back four, endemic of the Gunners’ entire second half of the season.

Full disclosure, again: I root for Liverpool but admire Wenger’s managerial acumen and the skill of the players he develops. He has no one to blame but himself; he refuses to blame his players. While that’s admirable to an extent, when your squad can’t finish at home against a threadbare team, someone has to be called to account. Arsenal have hung themselves once again by trying to be beautiful when brute strength would do better.

(GIF via the wonderful bubbaprog, who runs mocksession.com)