Liverpool 4-4 Arsenal: Andrey Arshavin hits four to dent Kop title dream

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Stunning, sensational, spectacular.

But at the end only a feeling of disappointment from everybody inside Anfield - and a massive cheer from the direction of Old Trafford.

Last night, for all the effort, all the tension, all the sheer captivating and bewitching excitement, the real winners were not anywhere near Merseyside.

Just like last week at Stamford Bridge, in the match of the Champions League season, this was an evening that had everything.

Great goals, sensational attacking play, shocking defending and the sort of drama that would be considered infeasible if it was served up as a film script.

Yet while nobody will forget what they witnessed, the repercussions may haunt Anfield for another 19 years. That is how long they have waited to celebrate the title, a drought that has left a burning emptiness in the stomach of every true Kopite.

And while Yossi Benayoun's late prod salvaged the point that took Liverpool back to the Premier League summit and denied Andrey Arshavin the full glory his sensational four goals should have brought, you can bet Fergie will have raised another glass to his new best mate Arsene Wenger.

Wenger and the Scot have rarely been on speaking terms in the past and are likely to resume hostilities again next week, in the two matches that will truly define Arsenal's season.

Yet as Anfield pulsed and swooned, sank into despair and then dreamed those title dreams again, it was Wenger's attacking instincts, his refusal to play the percentages, that may perhaps have decisively tilted the race for the crown.

When Liverpool, thwarted time and again by Lukasz Fabianski - yes, that Lukasz Fabianski - in the first half and then thumped in the solar plexus when Arshavin took full toll of Javier Mascherano's error - turned the game around in the space of six minutes after the break, Wenger might have accepted it. After all, the Gunners' cause would have been better served by United having to play their strongest side against Portsmouth, Spurs and Middlesbrough over the next couple of weeks.

Fernando Torres' brilliant header, sucked into the net by the Kop, was followed by an act of genuine attacking courage as Benayoun somehow beat Bacary Sagna's flailing boot to head home at the back post.

Despite being without Emmanuel Adebayor and Robin Van Persie, Wenger went for broke as he sent on Theo Walcott, the England winger inducing a collective panic attack in the surging Liverpool ranks.

But even that might not have been enough without the sheer quality of Arshavin, who latched on every Liverpool mistake with brutal, beautiful efficiency.

His first, before the interval, was incisive and deadly, a left footer in off the bar after Cesc Fabregas and then Samir Nasri had caught Mascherano in possession.

That was harsh on Liverpool but Torres, so purposeful, so direct, and then Benayoun profited from Dirk Kuyt's industry, a corner appeared to have been turned, only for Arshavin to transform the mood again.

First, the little Russian spotted Alvaro Arbeloa dawdling, won the ball and unleashed an Exocet that scudded into the bottom corner.

Three minutes later, as Fabio Aurelio made a total Horlicks of Samir Nasri's cross, Arshavin was equally deadly from six yards.

Liverpool, showing the courage of champions, responded. Torres twisting into space to find the bottom corner.

The end of the drama? Don't you believe it. Torres was denied by a goalline clearance from Kieran Gibbs - who had been exposed all night by Kuyt - before Walcott broke from a Liverpool corner in stoppage time, ran 60 yards before feeding left for Arshavin to smash home with perfect technique.

Even then there was another twist, Benayoun finding the space to poke through a crowded box and level again, before the Kop howled in fury when Howard Webb ignored penalty claims against Abou Diaby in the last seconds.

An incredible, relentless evening. Yet, for the second time in a week, a draw felt only like heroic failure for Liverpool. And failure tastes just as bitter, however heroic it is.

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