I just had a really intriguing match against Arsenal at Anfield. I thought I had a pretty strong line up, the usual suspects with my new boys, Arthur and Paqueta shoring up the midfield. Arsenal had their usual front 3, Auba coming in from the left, Laca top and Pepe right with Ceballos just behing Laca. Against the run of play, they broke the deadlock with some Ceballos trickery bamboozling Van Dijk (0-1).
Undeterred, I pressed on, trusting that I had better players and being ever so confident of my homeground advantage. I pushed my midfield up, trying to get Arthur and Paqueta into the game as they were both stinking the pitch up. Arsenal were passing around them and Arthur's short legs couldn't move fast enough to keep up. Paqueta was channelling Milan's eternal funk but I had faith in him. Furthermore, I sold Fabian to get him in. Tierney intercepted a loose pass in midfield, pushed up and sent a delightful ball in for Lacazette who volleyed it in first time, the French twat.
I was getting nowhere down the flanks. Trent and Robbo were pinned back by Pepe and Lacazette. Arthur couldn't keep up with Lacazette/Tierney so Trent had very little cover. I was planning to sub Paqueta and Arthur off for Wijnaldum and Keita and try my luck down the middle. 65th minute, Arthur played Salah in via the middle and Salah measured a pass for Firmino to fire us in a goal. Boss.
73th minute. I noticed David Luiz was pushing up and leaving a massive gap (as usual) every time so we pretty much went the same route and Bobby pulled us level. Keita spotted the gap and sent him on his way with a beautiful pass. Score.
93rd minute and 1 minute of extra time left. I set Salah to stay up, gambling that he'd have a last burst of fire to pull away from Arsenal's fast tiring centrebacks and I was proven right. He opened his body up and went for placement, for 3-2! What a game, what a rush! This is using Paulv2k4's Career Realism mod.