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Kenny Dalglish insists Liverpool remain the "best
club in English football, if not world football" despite pushing
great rivals Manchester United a step closer to a record 19
domestic championship titles after snatching a dramatic 1-1 draw
with the last kick of the Premier League game at
Arsenal.
Dirk Kuyt's penalty with the last kick of the game secured a
point for the Reds, who had earlier seen captain Jamie Carragher
knocked out after a clash of heads with John Flanagan and carried
off on a stretcher.
Just moments earlier, though, it had seemed as if Arsenal would
keep up the pressure on United when Robin van Persie scored from
the spot deep into eight minutes of stoppage time.
With United now six points ahead of the Gunners, it seems the
championship is set to return to Old Trafford, which would see the
Red Devils eclipse the achievements of their rivals from
Merseyside.
However, for Dalglish, that would not take anything away from
Liverpool.
"Sadness? In my eyes we are still the best club in English
football, if not world football, so I am not very sad at that,"
said the Scot, in his second stint as manager at Anfield, where he
won a plethora of honours as a player.
"The surprise is that they [Liverpool] have not won the title
for a long time, that is the surprise, but it's not sadness, it's
just a fact of life.
"They never acquired enough points in any season since 1991 to
win it.
"They came close a couple of years ago when Rafa (Benitez) went
close, had a fantastic record against the so-called top four, but
just couldn't get it over the line."
Dalglish added: "It will be fantastic to get back there, but you
need to hit the standards other teams have set.
"That is four games - United, [Manchester] City, Arsenal and
Chelsea. We only dropped two points and that was here."
Dalglish believes his injury-hit squad can take great heart from
recent displays.
"I don't think there's any team anywhere that's shown the same
attitude and commitment that our team showed," said Dalglish, who
took £35million striker Andy Carroll off as a precaution after he
jarred his knee.
"Losing Fabio Aurelio early on, putting a 17-year-old on at
left-back, losing our captain, having right-back at only 18 with
his second game, we have lost our centre forward, we've lost a goal
and eight minutes into injury time they still didn't want to accept
that were going to get nothing from the game.
"You can't speak any higher about them than that."
Dalglish was quick to play down a touchline spat with Wenger at
the final whistle.
"That would be sad too if that was reported," he said.
"I just told him there I still owe him dinner. There's no
problem."
Carragher, meanwhile, maintained there was no cause for alarm
over his head injury despite being carried off on a stretcher, his
neck in a brace and given oxygen.
However, after treatment at the Emirates Stadium, the veteran
Reds centre-half had recovered enough to join in the celebrations
at the final whistle.
"It was a little clash of heads and these things happen in
football. As soon as I came round I was absolutely fine," the
33-year-old said.
"I watched their penalty in the dressing room and then saw that
we got our own.
"I was just praying that we scored because to get four points
out of six from the last two games is fantastic.
"I went out onto the pitch at the end because I wanted to
celebrate with the lads."
Carragher added: "Some of the players we had out there, because
of the injuries we had, still qualify for the youth team so it was
a really good team performance."
