The first full English Premiership campaign of the 21st century is three days old this afternoon and already it is neck-deep in controversy. The report on the first league meeting between two of Alex Ferguson's "big five" contenders for the title should focus on the fact that for the first time in 14 encounters, a run stretching back six years, Arsenal beat Liverpool.
Sadly, however, thoughts of three points gained or lost seem irrelevant: three players were sent off, only one of whom deserved to go. In a game that was fiercely competitive, occasionally dirty, but rarely on the verge of lawlessness, referee Graham Poll saw fit to reach into his breast pocket nine times to produce his yellow card. Twice Poll followed a yellow with a red and on one occasion Poll went straight for the red. A potentially great night was scarred.
As he was at Sunderland on Saturday, Patrick Vieira was the principal victim, being shown a second yellow despite winning a 74th minute tackle on Dietmar Hamann so cleanly it was visible from Merseyside.
Poll, considerably closer than that, chose to interpret the challenge as a foul or as such an act of violent intent that he booked Vieira, four minutes after the showing him a card for an ugly spat with Jamie Carragher. Another four minutes and Poll had the red card out again, this time for Hamann for a debatable tug at Robert Pires. Both sets of fans sang their derision in unison: "You're not fit to referee."
Perhaps. But then Poll had made the right decision in the 37th minute to dismiss Gary McAllister for an untypically dirty, two-footed assault on Vieira that left Vieira crumpled on the turf, and when practically every challenge features shirt-pulling or push and shove, a referee's job is close to impossible. So there is a degree of sympathy for Poll.
That said, Poll did not help himself by punishing even the most petty interference.
Poll's judgment leaves the Premiership's red card count at five in 11 games. It feels near incidental to note that Arsenal won courtesy of an 8th minute strike from home debutant Lauren and a last-minute shot from Thierry Henry. Unsurprisingly neither Arsene Wenger nor Gerard Houllier mentioned the goals, though Houllier lambasted Poll for giving the corner that led to Lauren's opener.
"Now let me make it straight," Houllier said without being asked a question, "Arsenal were better than us. But I wish it had been 11 versus 11 or, if the referee decides, 10 v 10. But not that. He wrecked the game. All three sendings-off were harsh, it looks as though it has been violent when it wasn't. I couldn't believe it. When we're talking about the referee, and everybody is talking about him, then something's wrong."
Houllier then pointed out that he has never won with Liverpool when Poll has been the main official.
Wenger, while pleased to have won - "we'd be out of the championship if we'd lost tonight" - was again upset for Vieira. Six times now Vieira has been sent off for Arsenal and only Vinnie Jones has a worse Premiership record. The red card count under Wenger in three seasons is 31, but Wenger said: "I feel sorry for Patrick. The referee can explain."
Bemused, Wenger then said: "Usually the physical side of the game here is great and I love it. I love the passion here but, frankly, I don't know where we go from here. I'm not sure the referees know, every year they're told to do something new."
Poll must wish for something new to do and the English Football Association may find something for him.
In the beginning it was all so different. After their Sunderland experience and then Manchester United's comfortable defeat of Newcastle, Arsenal had to kick-start their campaign quickly. They did so with a roadracer's appetite for high speed and Lauren could have had two goals even before he managed one.
In fact, with their first passing movement Arsenal dissected the marzipan-coloured visitors with an eagerness that told of their hunger. When Lauren collected Henry's final pass in the Liverpool area it required a legs-akimbo save from Sander Westerveld to block the shot.
From the resulting corner Westerveld made another save, and in the 7th minute following an improvised cross from Pires, Lauren again forced Westerveld into a close-range stop.
Arsenal then won another corner, and from it Lauren drove the ball past Westerveld. There was an element of doubt about the scorer as Tony Adams gestured that Lauren's shot had clipped his shin before it crossed the line.
The game breathed a little easier after that, though not much. Liverpool disappeared into themselves. Vladimir Smicer's free-flowing dribbling needed to be more than pretty, and both Hamann and McAllister were both unable to slow the tempo. Then came McAllister's lunge, an unprovoked scissors-style effort that left Vieira on the sidelines for four minutes.
In the second half, as Poll's whistle became increasingly audible, the match unravelled. Vieira was so incensed at his dismissal he threw his shirt down in the centre-circle. Hamann merely shrugged at his red card. The football had been overtaken and the last image of the night was of Poll and his linesmen stood alone at the end with the Liverpool assistant Phil Thompson pointing theatrically and laughing.
But this was no joke.
ARSENAL: Seaman, Vieira, Keown, Adams, Pires, Bergkamp (Kanu 76), Lauren, Henry, Silvinho, Grimandi, Luzhny. Subs Not Used: Dixon, Manninger, Cole, Vernazza.
LIVERPOOL: Westerveld, Henchoz, Babbel, Smicer (Owen 70), Heskey (Meijer 80), Hyypia, Hamann, Barmby (Murphy 77), McAllister, Carragher, Traore. Subs Not Used: Song, Arphexad.
