Close, but no cigar for Suarez or Reds

“What do you think they’re smoking over there at Emirates?” tweeted Liverpool owner John W Henry in July when Arsenal’s bid of £40,000,001 for Luis Suarez triggered not a release clause but a war of words.

Gunners fans had plenty of answers on Saturday night of course. “Victory cigars!” tweeted one. “Big, fat Cubans” added another on the same theme after Arsenal proved that, on the pitch at least, they were too hot for Liverpool to handle.

Back then, Arsenal’s argument was that it was cruel to keep such a talent at Anfield, home not even to Europa League football this season, when it could be paraded in the Champions League, until the quarter-finals.