Liverpool 0–2 Arsenal (1989)

A memorial to the Liverpool supporters who died at Hillsborough. The incident happened a few weeks before the title decider.

The 1988–89 season marked the 100th anniversary of the Football League.[1] A season earlier, the body commemorated its founding by organising an exhibition game between a Football League-select XI, and a World XI (captained by Diego Maradona), followed by a Football Festival in April 1988.[3] The celebrations culminated in October 1988, when Arsenal won a centenary tournament involving seven other First Division clubs.[3] Despite the efforts of the Football League, the events failed to capture the imagination of supporters and the media; The Times football correspondent Stuart Jones described the final tournament as: "the closing debacle of the embarrassing League centenary celebrations."[4]

Football in England had reached its nadir in 1985 as clubs were banned from European competition for five years following the Heysel Stadium disaster.[5][6] In the same year, the Kenilworth Road riot – scuffles between fans of Millwall and Luton Town – resulted in Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's government setting up a "war cabinet" to combat football hooliganism.[7] Incidents like these tarnished the sport's reputation, but commercial interest grew. In August 1988, ITV paid £44 million over four seasons to broadcast live First Division matches.[8] The arrangement came about as British Satellite Broadcasting withdrew its joint offer with the BBC, unhappy at how the clubs were run.[9] By November 1988 the government issued a broadcasting shakeup, which aided the growth of multichannel satellite television.[10][11] ITV's contract therefore acted as a precursor to rising broadcasting deals and growing pressures to keep the top clubs in line.[12][13]

For much of the 1988–89 season, Arsenal led the First Division table; their manager George Graham had assembled a side mixed with youth and experience, captained by academy graduate Tony Adams.[14] At one stage Arsenal were 11 points clear of defending champions Liverpool, but their lead diminished following a run of bad results.[14] Liverpool, coached by player-manager Kenny Dalglish, capitalised after an indifferent start to the campaign, and emerged as Arsenal's main challengers for the title.[14] Towards the end of the season Liverpool supporters were involved in a sporting disaster at Hillsborough, where 97 of the club's supporters died as a result of overcrowding during a match against Nottingham Forest on 15 April.[15] The disaster was the worst of its kind in English sporting history, and led to an inquiry into safety standards of stadiums.[15]

Due to the tragedy, Liverpool's fixture at home to Arsenal on 23 April was postponed; no suitable date was found until after the FA Cup Final.[14] It was eventually rescheduled for 26 May – six days after the Cup final, on a Friday evening.[14] The league season had ended for the remaining First Division clubs a week before.[16]

The 1988–89 title race was the closest in the history of the First Division.[17] In the run-up to the Anfield match, Arsenal lost to Derby County and drew with Wimbledon; Liverpool won twice, 2–0 against Queens Park Rangers and 5–1 against West Ham United allowing them to overtake Arsenal with one game to play and take a superior goal difference.[14] On the eve of the match, they were three points ahead, with the table looking as follows:

Explanation of criteria

A victory for Arsenal would bring the two teams level on points: victory by a margin of three or more goals would win Arsenal the title on goal difference. Victory by exactly two goals would leave the teams tied on both points and goal difference, but Arsenal would win the title by virtue of having scored more goals. Any other result (i.e. a Liverpool victory, a draw, or an Arsenal win by only one goal) would give the title to Liverpool.

Liverpool had not lost by two or more goals at Anfield in three years, and Arsenal had not won there in fifteen.[19] Furthermore, Liverpool had never previously been defeated when playing forwards John Aldridge and Ian Rush together.[20] The home side therefore the overwhelming favourites to win the title – the Daily Mirror's sports sections led with the headline "You Haven't Got A Prayer, Arsenal".[21] To defuse the tension, Graham gave his players two days off after their draw with Wimbledon.[14] The mood in training was relaxed and the squad travelled to Liverpool on the day of the match, which surprised several players.[22] During the coach trip, Graham showed his players a video of Arsenal's successful 1970–71 side to inspire and motivate his players.[23]

In the United Kingdom, the game was shown live on ITV's The Match, which aired a live Division One game most weeks of the season from 1988 to 1992.[24][25] Elton Welsby presented coverage and his guest was the England manager Bobby Robson.[26] The match commentator was Brian Moore, alongside former Tottenham Hotspur manager David Pleat.[26] On radio, the action was described by Peter Jones and Alan Green on BBC Radio 2.[27]

Shortly after receiving the trophy, Adams was called over by pitchside reporter Jim Rosenthal for a conversation on the field, explaining his absence from the celebratory team photograph for the press.[35] The Arsenal captain spoke of how his teammates were "really fired up" before the game and was delighted with the effort they put in during the course of the match.[36] Graham was proud of his team's performance, and credited Adams, who "suffered an awful lot of stick which has given football very little dignity."[37] When asked about the result he said, "Nobody outside Highbury expected us to do it, but when you lose belief you might as well get out of football."[37] Dalglish paid tribute to his players and refused to blame the fixture rearrangements for losing out to Arsenal, lamenting "It just wasn't to be."[37]

Stuart Jones in The Times wrote how Thomas's late strike was "...worthy of the occasion, defied belief, logic and all expectation. So did Arsenal's performance as a whole."[38] The Guardian's David Lacey opined that Arsenal were deserved winners, calling the match "a marvellous night for English football" after the events at Hillsborough and other crowd disorders had overshadowed the sport.[29]

The events of the night formed the pivotal point of the 1997 film Fever Pitch, an adaptation of Nick Hornby's bestselling book of the same name.[39] Hornby disagrees his book was responsible for gentrifying the sport, arguing "the owner of an international media empire" had more of a profound impact.[40]

Moore's goal call for Arsenal's winner ("Thomas, it's up for grabs now!") has become synonymous with English football and is one of the sport's most memorable lines.[41][42] In 2002, it was selected as one of the top ten commentaries of all time by The Observer,[43] and the phrase It's Up For Grabs Now is used as the title of the Arsenal commemorative DVD of the match.[44] It's Up For Grabs Now is also the title of a podcast, hosted by comedian and Arsenal supporter Alan Davies.[45]

Manchester City's league win of 2011–12 bore comparison to Arsenal's in that the title was decided in the final seconds of the season.[46]

The match has been cited as a pivotal turning point in English football. Author Jason Cowley noted how instead of rioting, Liverpool fans stayed on after the game and applauded Arsenal "as if they understood that we were at the start of something new; that there would be no returning to the ways of old".[1] Cowley noted that "the speed and audacity of a movement that took the Kop's breath away and left Kenny Dalglish standing open-mouthed in disbelief by the Liverpool bench epitomised the healthier qualities of English football as the game approaches the 90s" and "describes the match as "the night football was reborn" and that the event "repaired the reputation of football".[1]

Dominic Fifield suggested Arsenal's win "had shattered the myth that Liverpool were invincible",[47] while Si Hughes in The Daily Telegraph wrote it "...set in motion the decline of one of football’s grandest institutions."[48] Although Liverpool regained the championship a year later, the club's dominance waned.[47] In February 1991, Dalglish resigned as Liverpool manager after an FA Cup replay against Merseyside rivals Everton, citing stress as the principal cause.[49] His successor, Graeme Souness, struggled to sustain the club's success with a conservative hierarchy and ageing squad, despite investing in youth players.[50] Liverpool throughout the 1990s and 2000s declined as a league force and it would be 30 years until Liverpool would be crowned top-flight champions since Dalglish's, winning it in 2020.[51][52]

Arsenal were unable to take part in the European Cup as English clubs were still banned from European competition.[53] Graham's side went on to further successes in the early 1990s, winning the League title again in 1990–91, followed by a domestic cup double and finally the European Cup Winners' Cup.[54] Despite his part in denying them the title, Thomas went on to play for Liverpool in a spell between 1991 and 1998, scoring the opener in their 2–0 victory over Sunderland in the 1992 FA Cup Final.[55]

The title decider at Anfield is not only seen as the starting point of a renaissance in English football, but also the moment where businessmen started to see the untapped commercial potential of live football on television.[1][56] In the early 1990s discussions were in progress between broadcasters and football chairmen over forming a breakaway league.[13] With the backing of The Football Association, all of the First Division clubs resigned from the Football League to form the Premier League. The new division was created to ensure clubs could capitalise on television money and divide their earnings amongst themselves instead of the lower leagues.[13] After a lengthy bidding process, satellite company BSkyB were awarded exclusive rights for £191m, over five years to show 60 matches per season.[13] This represented an increase of 1,800% on the 1983 deal.[57] In addition to broadcasting, clubs increased their revenue through higher ticket prices; for some like Arsenal, this was to facilitate the phasing out of standing terraces to ensure stadia complied with the Taylor Report.[58][59]

In 1999, the match was ranked at number 60 in Channel 4's 100 Greatest TV Moments.[60] In 2002, the match was ranked at number 15 in Channel 4's 100 Greatest Sporting Moments,[61] and in 2007 Thomas's goal was voted the second greatest moment in Arsenal's history (second to completing an entire league season unbeaten in 2003–04).[62] To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the win, Arsenal's away kit for the 2008–09 season was styled on the same design as that of the 1988–89 season.[63]

General

• King, Anthony (2002). The end of the terraces: the transformation of English football in the 1990s. London: Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 0-7185-0259-0.
• Leighton, James (2016). Rocky: The Tears and Triumphs of David Rocastle. London: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4711-5333-4.
• Moore, Brian, Pleat, David (commentators), Welsby, Elton (presenter), Robson, Bobby (studio guest) (26 May 1989). The Match [Liverpool v Arsenal] (Television production). ITV Sport.
• Smart, Barry (2005). The Sport Star: Modern Sport and the Cultural Economy of Sporting Celebrity. London: SAGE. ISBN 1-4711-5333-9.
• Soar, Phil; Tyler, Martin (2005). The Official Illustrated History of Arsenal. London: Hamlyn. ISBN 0-600-61344-5.

Specific

• Cowley, Jason (2009). The Last Game: Love, Death and Football. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-84737-185-0.