After a rather unspectacular season for The Arsenal, finishing fourth to little fanfare and unable to compete in Europe due to the ban on English clubs, the club had a chance to claim some silverware, coming up against the powerhouse of Kenny Dalglish’s Liverpool in the League Cup final.
Liverpool came into the final as reigning League and FA Cup champions, having dominated the previous decade of English football alongside city rivals Everton – Arsenal, on the other hand, hadn’t won a League title since 1970/71.
Going into the game, Liverpool was famous for never losing a game in which talisman Ian Rush scored a goal, so it was just Arsenal’s luck that he went and opened the scoring 23 minutes in.
Although records are there to be broken, and so Charlie Nicholas equalised just seven minutes later, getting on the end of a cross into the box.
The second half was a tightly contested affair, but on 83 minutes, Nicholas doubled his tally as he saw his shot deflected off of Ronnie Whelan and past the wrongfooted Bruce Grobbelaar in goal.
It was the first time in 144 games that Ian Rush had scored in a game for the Reds and didn’t come out as winners.
Arsenal would build on the momentum and win their first League title in seventeen years just two seasons later, against Liverpool at Anfield.