Liverpool 0-1 Arsenal - Live!

15 min: At the risk of upsetting Michael Kelley, that was a bad goal to concede for Liverpool. Diaby's first touch actually took him away from goal, and Reina was a fraction slow in reacting to the shot. It ended up ricocheting off his left knee into the bottom corner. Wenger is jubilant and now Liverpool must do the attacking.

GOAL! Liverpool 0-1 Arsenal (Diaby 13min) That was coming. Arsenal laid siege the the Liverpool area, and the ball finally broke to Diaby on the right. He takes one touch, then unleashes a fierce shot that defeats Reina at the near post. Wahey, the conspiracy theories have started already! "Not even going to pretend to be a neutral viewer?" rages Michael Kelley. "You should just switch the picture to an Arsenal crest to make sure people don't get confused." Eh?

10 min: A smart move from Liverpool, their first of the game, sees Gerrard break down the right and dink over a cross from the by-line. Arsenal clear, though, and that can only mean one thing: Adebayor is whistled for off-side for the third time in the opening few minutes.

8 min: Arsenal win a corner off Kuyt, who looks distraught not to have won what would have been a scandalous decision, but Flamini's effort is easily headed away by Aurelio at the far post. "How I wish I could be more optimistic that the Gunners will be able to carry the day with their attacking, flowing football that has won the hearts and minds of we neutrals around the world!" says Barbara Hughes. "But the Soccer Gods are old and lazy, and seem to spend most of their time dozing off during important matches these days. Talent, technique and creativity earns limited rewards against the efficient marshaling of combat troops."

5 min: Adebayor is off-side again, but only just, after he is slipped through by Hleb on the edge of the box. Liverpool are living slightly dangerously in these early stages.

4 min: Reina's clearance is a poor one, and he's lucky that Eboue, who latched on to the kick, passes to an off-side Adebayor. The Liverpool keeper apologizes to his defence. Gerrard, incidentally, is playing on the left. And now Gallas is unfairly penalised for tackling Torres - he got the ball!

2 min: Adebayor wins a slightly innocuous free-kick 10 yards outside the Liverpool box but Toure's bullet is intercepted by Kuyt and Liverpool clear as The Fields of Athenry reverberates around Anfield.

1 min: Here we go! Hold on to your seats, take the phone off the hook, put the kids to bed etc and so forth. Arsenal kick off but Crouch immediately makes a leggy nuisance of himself in midfield before the ball is returned to Almunia.

A few minutes to go now. What better way to fill the space than to give a first airing of the evening to Gary "Gary" Naylor. "Not that I'm parochial or anything, but every Everton fan is 100% behind Arsene's boys tonight,"he chuckles. "The looming nightmare is that David Moyes snatches fourth place in the Premier League (no giggling now) for a Champions League slot, which is then swiped away by a Rafa Big Cup win in Moscow. And where would David Bentley go then?" It's certainly a problem, Gary.

The neutral's dream, I guess, would be an early Arsenal goal, thus forcing Benitez to throw all caution to the wind and actually play like the home side. It goes against the grain, but I would actually feel quite sorry for Arsenal if they go out tonight. They were superb until a few weeks ago, whereas Liverpool have been stuttering along all season. I'm also fed up of watching Liverpool play Chelsea in the semi-finals, though of course I get ahead of myself. Anfield is wreathed in scraves and echoing to the sound of You'll Never Walk Alone. I suppose this qualifies as a potentially famous European night...

Another inside tip, this time from the States. "I heard a rumor that Tom Hicks will be watching one of his other teams, baseball's Texas Rangers, play tonight instead of attending this match," says Mike Murphy in New York. "Texas sucks - watching them makes Liverpool look exciting." Ouch.

Rider's on and he's talking about Michael Thomas' last-minute winner for Arsenal at Anfield to nick the league title 19 years ago. Ah, memories. I was watching the game with my brother - a Liverpool fan - and am ashamed to admit I celebrated, even though I support Manchester City. He ran out of the room in tears. It still troubles me.

An inside tip about the man in black! "Greetings from Stockholm!" screams Jon Buscall. "My heart sank when I saw the ref for tonight was Peter Fröjdfelt (that's pronounced Froyd-felt). Arsenal are probably the biggest English club here in Sweden so my kronor are on Fröjdfeldt giving the Gooners a penalty at some point." You read it here first.

Emmerdale has just finished, which means I'll soon be able to stop relying on your emails and nick some of Steve Rider's gems instead. In the meantime, though, Glen McCulley joins us from France. "Just a note to say that the normally resolutely pro-Arsenal French footy commentary stutters strangely when it's Liverpool opposite," he oo la lahs. "They appear to have some romantic notion that Liverpool means all that is great in football, and it undoes their seamlessly blatant chauvinsm. Anyway, wonder where on earth that lurve for 'les Reds' came from - lost in translation I reckon."

The anthem for the evening. Forget Handel's frankly mediocre Zadok the Priest, and listen to Archi Campbell. "I know how to make this match exciting," he says. "Get everyone reading this mbm to click on this link at the same time. Hopefully, through some sort of Uri Geller-style mass belief we can inspire the players through the medium of Europop. Surely the song was written for this moment."

You're all so enthused by the prospect of this match, the latest to showcase the wondrous talents of the English Premier League - that's right, folks: there are only three Englishmen among the 22 who will start the game - that one of you has already sent in an email. "Arsenal is our only hope of stopping Rafa Benitez from nullifying and stultifying his way to another Champions League semi-final," rages George Templeton, nailing his colors to the mast in Richmond, the US of A. "For the good of football, Arsenal must win tonight!"

Preamble: Well, Tom Hicks might have better things to do, but we don't. Yes, it's time for Liverpool, who will defend like a team that doesn't necessarily need to score, and Arsenal, who will attack like a team that most definitely does, to thrash out their fourth 1-1 draw of the season before we enjoy the rare sight of an English team actually advancing via a penalty shootout. But before we go overboard with the sarcasm, let's have a sneak peak at the teams, and the big news in every sense is that Peter Crouch will start up front for Liverpool, with Ryan Babel left on the bench...

Liverpool: Reina, Carragher, Skrtel, Hyypia, Aurelio, Gerrard, Alonso, Mascherano, Kuyt, Torres, Crouch. Subs: Itandje, Riise, Voronin, Benayoun, Arbeloa, Babel, Lucas.Arsenal: Almunia, Toure, Gallas, Senderos, Clichy, Eboue, Flamini, Fabregas, Diaby, Hleb, Adebayor.Subs: Lehmann, Van Persie, Song Billong, Silva, Bendtner, Justin Hoyte, Walcott.Referee: Peter Frojdfeldt (Sweden)