The debut at the Emirates has left a sour taste. The taste was though sweetened by seven wins in ten matches. Saturday's taste was somewhat bitter-sweet with the FA Cup exit and the show of red strength by the Kop. Yesterday's successive defeat to Arsenal and the 6-3 scoreline leaves a severe ulcer in the mouth.

Rafa's promise to Dudek to let him defend the Liverpool goal in the Cup matches proved too costly once again, and maybe the promise to Dudek should have been offset by the unwritten pledge of fielding the strongest team possible to make us fans happy. The memories of Istanbul are too strong to be tainted by yesterday's non-performance but I feel that we have seen the very last of Dudek's playing career for the reds.

Whilst the fourth official signalled six extra minutes for the first half, memories of Istanbul flowed through me, but those particular six minutes in Istanbul are so special and etched through our memories because they only happened once. This time, they just served to let Arsenal's young kids to score twice, put the tie firmly beyond Liverpool's reach and let the historians search in the records for when was the last time such a reversal result was recorded in the first forty-five minutes at Anfield.

Bill Shankly used to say there are two teams in Liverpool, Liverpool and Liverpool reserves. He is proved right again, as rather than a whole squad Liverpool has got two different teams, the first eleven and the second eleven, such is the gulf between some of the first teamers and the others supposed to be knocking on the manager's door for a chance.

Fowler's elegant goal, Gerrard's sublime volley and Hyypia's header were only soft pain killers for the big ulcer.