On May 26, 1989, Arsenal faced Liverpool at Anfield, needing a two-goal win to end an 18-year title drought. Towards the end of the match, Arsenal led 1-0. Alan Smith flicked a long ball to Michael Thomas, who scored in injury time, clinching the title for Arsenal. Ray Houghton, a Liverpool midfielder, expressed regret for not stopping Thomas, believing that a different decision could have altered the game's outcome. Liverpool finished second on goal scored, but reclaimed the title the following season.
More than 35 years on, it remains one of the most dramatic evenings in English football history. When Arsenal headed up to Anfield on May 26, 1989, for a match that had been pushed back a month following the Hillsborough disaster, they knew that if they beat Kenny Dalglish's Liverpool by two clear goals, they would end an 18-year title drought.
As the clock moved past the 90-minute mark with Arsenal 1-0 up, Alan Smith flicked on a long ball from Lee Dixon and found Michael Thomas, who was surging through the midfield. Thomas would slip the ball past Bruce Grobbelaar to score a dramatic injury-time, title-winning goal.
One of the closest players to Thomas as he bore down on the Liverpool goal that night was Reds midfielder Ray Houghton, who admits that he could have taken drastic measures to stop his opposite number from scoring. I remember John Barnes going down the right and trying to take on Tony Adams rather than keeping the ball down by the corner,
It's still my biggest regret, not scything Thomas down that night. You don't want to be the bad guy, but it rankles with me.
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