Wenger’s half-time hair-dryer restyles Arsenal

Liverpool 1 Arsenal 2. Gunners skipper Cesc Fabregas said it was the fury of boss Arsene Wenger at half-time that inspired the Gunners to fight back and beat Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday.

The visitors trailed Liverpool 1-0 at the interval after a lacklustre first-half in which Dirk Kuyt scored for the Reds after 40 minutes. It might have been 2-0 if referee Howard Webb had awarded Liverpool a penalty when Steven Gerrard went down in the box under a challenge from William Gallas.

Nonetheless Liverpool appeared well in control at the interval, banishing memories of their midweek home defeat to Fiorentia in the Champions League.

But all that changed in the second half after Wenger had unleashed the Alex Ferguson-style 'hair-dryer' treatment on his under-performing players. "He screamed at us like I've never seen," Fabregas admitted afterwards. "He said we didn't deserve to wear the Arsenal shirt."

Wenger refused to be drawn on the exact contents of his team talk, saying simply: "It was said in the dressing room and it stays in there... but the commitment of Liverpool [in the first half] was better than ours."

Whatever words they were from Wenger, they were hot enough to blast the lethargy from the Gunners and the Arsenal team that emerged in the second half was unrecognisable from the shower that had sauntered round Anfield in the first half.

They drew level on 50 minutes when Liverpool's Glen Johnson scored an own goal. The winner came eight minutes later, and it was a beauty. Andrey Arshavin held off Johnson, turned and whipped the ball in off the post from 18 yards, reducing Reina in the Liverpool goal to a stunned bystander.

After that, Liverpool never looked like finding a second goal and they didn't even manage to force a save out of Manuel Almunia in a second-half display that once again piles the pressure on manager Rafael Benitez. "We'll keep going," he said when asked how the defeat would affect morale, Liverpool having now won just three of their last 15 games. "We'll keep working hard and we'll be ready for the next game." Liverpool now lie seventh and on yesterday's evidence they'll struggle to finish fourth and secure a route to the Champions League next year.

For Arsenal, now up to third, the victory means they're only six points behind leaders Chelsea but with a game in hand. "There's still a long way to go," said Fabregas, of a title race that just got a lot hotter thanks to Wenger's hair-dryer.

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