VIDEO: Peter Crouch Hat-Trick Downs Arsenal

Video by LFC258

You have to reach all the way back to March 2007 to find the last time Liverpool beat Arsenal at Anfield, but it was done in such emphatic, dominant fashion that it’s more than worthwhile to remember it.

Peter Crouch’s first hat-trick at club level couldn’t have come in a bigger match; having beat Rafa Benitez’s Reds three times earlier in the season, the Gunners were looking to make it a nice round four when they visited Merseyside on the last day of March, but the hosts — and Crouch in particular — had other ideas.

A peach of a finish from an Alvaro Arbeloa cross saw the big man open the scoring before he doubled up just past the half-hour mark, heading home Fabio Aurelio’s cross from the opposite flank. Daniel Agger headed in another and William Gallas toe-poked a consolation, but Crouch wasn’t done quite yet and he made sure he’d have a match ball to take home with him when he turned Kolo Toure in the 80th minute to finish coolly past Jens Lehmann.

The big man won’t be pulling on the famous Red shirt when the two sides run out on Saturday, but some of those standing on the Kop will remember watching Arsenal get spanked at Anfield that day — and, maybe this will be the only time they do it, but they’ll be hoping that either Luis Suarez or Daniel Sturridge pulls a Peter Crouch.