The rivalry between Arsenal and Liverpool is nothing new, although the past few years have reignited it somewhat, depending on who you ask.
Back in the 80s, though, the rivalry was white hot and reached a pinnacle in the 1988-89 season as both teams fought neck and neck for the title. Following the Hillsborough disaster in April, Arsenal overtook Liverpool at the top of the league and the Reds struggled to catch up. The league would build to an ultimate final with Liverpool hosting Arsenal at Anfield in May 1989, two weeks after the season was originally due to end, and the visitors would need two goals to ultimately seal the championship for themselves. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what would happen as the strains of the season finally caught up to the hosts.
Ray Houghton, one of the members of that legendary squad, recently spoke to FourFourTwo of that fateful match and what it meant to that squad. Houghton had been nearest to Michael Thomas at the time of the match and admitted to regretting not doing more to try and stop Thomas from scoring the second goal that would give Arsenal the title.
“I remember John Barnes going down the right and trying to take on Tony Adams rather than keeping the ball down by the corner,” Houghton told the magazine.
“If he’d done that, that probably would have been it. It’s still my biggest regret, not scything Thomas down that night. You don’t want to be the bad guy, but it rankles with me.”
Liverpool would end that season in second place, but would thankfully go on to dominate once again, winning the league in the 1989-90 season - the last one for quite some time.
“It was the only club I’ve played at where it wasn’t if we were going to win, but by how many,” Houghton adds.
“But I don’t like generational comparisons. I laugh as when I played for Aston Villa, they’d throw sand on the pitch and paint it green to look like grass. To the naked eye you wouldn’t know any different, but as players we knew that we couldn’t pass the ball through that.
“It was a different era.”
Houghton may not like the “generational” shouts, and football has changed quite a bit since that time, but many things still ring true. Players can still get exhausted from too many games in a short span of time, and tragedies can still hang heavy over squads no matter how much they try to push through.