By Gary Parkinson
When you’ve been an unparalleled leading actor for decades, it’s hard to play a bit-part role in someone else’s Hollywood ending. A proto-“Agueroooo” moment a week before Sergio’s first birthday, Arsenal’s title-sealing 2-0 victory at Anfield on Friday May 26, 1989 formed the emotional peak of Nick Hornby’s seminal book Fever Pitch and its film adaptation. For Liverpool, though, this was not in the script.
For once, the overdogs here had sympathy: the Reds were meant to win the league and help their city to overcome the searing pain of Hillsborough, six weeks earlier. But George Graham’s Gunners were no one’s patsies, and Michael Thomas’ stoppage-time goal snatched them the title on goals scored.
“In the changing room afterwards, it was hard to comprehend the loss,” ex-Liverpool midfielder Ray Houghton tells FourFourTwo. “The dressing room was devastated,” adds right-back Barry Venison. “You still didn’t really know what had happened. There were strong words in there... a lot of shouting.”
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