Mellor stuns Arsenal

Neil Mellor's stunning injury time volley earned Liverpool a 2-1 win over Arsenal.

Neil Mellor's stunning injury time volley earned Liverpool a deserved 2-1 victory over Premiership champions Arsenal at Anfield.

Xabi Alonso's wonderful goal had The Reds in a merited first half advantage before Patrick Vieira levelled things up with a majestic equaliser.

Vieira was then lucky not to be sent off before Mellor unleashed a rasping strike in the final seconds of the match to further dent The Gunners' title aspirations.

There was a sense of deja vu for the Arsenal defence after just three minutes, when memories of Manchester United's controversial penalty came flooding back.

Reds skipper Steven Gerrard burst into the box and nudged the ball past Kolo Toure before falling over the African's trailing leg - similar to Wayne Rooney's tumble from Sol Campbell's challenge at Old Trafford.

A penalty could easily have been given but, from his vantage point, referee Alan Wiley erred on the side of caution.

Alonso drove wide from 30 yards before Mellor clipped the crossbar with a shot after he had wrongly been penalised for offside.

Arsenal offered little as an attacking force and appeared to lack the desire and commitment being shown by the hosts in the first half.

Jens Lehmann scrambled across his goal to grasp Harry Kewell's far post header while Sami Hyypia could have done better when heading over from a corner.

Liverpool gained their deserved breakthrough four minutes before half time following a move displaying the hallmarks of true class.

A sweeping pass from the back was headed into Gerrard's path by Harry Kewell. Mellor's clever run created space for the Reds captain to slip a beautiful pass to Alonso, who struck with power and precision from the edge of the area to rock the champions on their heels.

Arsenal still looked sluggish at the start of the second half before they cut the Liverpool defence to ribbons on 57 minutes and haul themselves back into a match to which they had previously contributed nothing.

Vieira fed the ball into the feet of Thierry Henry and galloped towards the penalty area. Henry laid off to Robert Pires, who played in Vieira for the Arsenal skipper to dink a delightful shot over Chris Kirkland and score with his team's first shot of the game.

But the French powerhouse soured his performance on 71 minutes when he should have been dismissed for a blatant dive. Vieira had been booked earlier for a foul on Alonso and then threw himself to the ground in search of a free kick.

Wiley, bizarrely, chose to meekly accept the player's admission of the act, rather than show a second yellow card for the piece of gamesmanship.

Goalkeepers were rarely tested in the second half but Lehmann showed no rustiness in diving at full stretch to beat away Gerrard's swerving shot after the ball broke loose on the edge of the penalty area.

The largely ineffective Henry tried an ambitious shot from just inside the Liverpool half before The Premiership's leading scorer was booked after his frustration boiled over into a poor tackle on Alonso.

In the final five minutes, Pires and substitute Robin van Persie combined to tee up Henry but, after flicking the ball over one defender, he wanted more time than he was afforded by the home rearguard.

With a draw seemingly settled for, the ball bounced kindly for Mellor in the final seconds and the back-up striker unleashed a searing volley which clipped Lehmann's flailing fingertips en route to nestling in the corner of the net.

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Liverpool	Team Statistics	Arsenal
2	Goals	1
1	1st Half Goals	0
5	Shots on Target	1
5	Shots off Target	1
2	Blocked Shots	1
6	Corners	0
6	Fouls	16
2	Offsides	1
0	Yellow Cards	2
0	Red Cards	0
66.7	Passing Success	72.0
80	Tackles	52
45.0	Tackles Success	38.5
55.2	Possession	44.8
55.3	Territorial Advantage	44.7