Don't think anyone did, I was on holiday in Bognor Regis Butlins on the day and had my Arsenal shirt on was walking along and a Liverpool fans was taking the piss telling me we have no chance. Later on after the match I see him can't remember what I said him too busy celebating but he told me too fook off I was only 14 how rude
I remember thinking we had a chance, but that was because I wasn't in to football enough to know how ridiculous that opinion was
I mean, you never know in football - as that demonstrated - but looking back it seems implausible.
It's funny looking back at how little time is given before and after the game to the coverage - now there would be hours either end.
Obviously now we have endless dedicated channels, ITV were already late for the news
I was 5 so my memory of 26th May 1989 is scant at best shall we say, I only have slightly clearer living memory of the 1990/1991 Title…and I think that was the Arsenal vs Man United game being on television and we had been confirmed champions before the game kicked off because Liverpool had lost.
You’re right, it would have been an exceptionally brave pundit to pick us to win it. We hadn’t won at Anfield in something like ten years, Liverpool hadn’t lost at home by more than a one goal margin in three years. Everyone was backing Liverpool because of Hillsborough, they had the mo given they hadn’t lost since losing at Old Trafford in January. We’d lost at home to Derby and Forest and away at Coventry in that same period. And given we practically would have have had the title won if we’d won both our last two home games (lost to Derby, drew with Wimbledon) we’d have only needed a draw. Although ironically I think needing to win helped us because Liverpool didn’t quite know how to play it, were worried about coming forward too much even at 1-0 down.
That's the exact amount of consolation we'd have seen it as had we won on the last day but not won the title.
It actually made for a dull game - not just that we needed to win but by 2 goals. We absolutely couldn't afford to go 1-0 down, that would have been a surely impossible mountain to climb.Although ironically I think needing to win helped us because Liverpool didn’t quite know how to play it, were worried about coming forward too much even at 1-0 down.
Liverpool knew a draw was fine so they didn't want to concede either and then it be "next goal wins". So it was all very cagey.
Obviously the goal spiced things up a bit and the finale speaks for itself.
Still gives me chills watching that goal.
The nearest game I’ve seen to it was away at Bayern Munich where Bayern didn’t really know how to play it when we went there and we ended up winning 2-0 (unfortunately because of the away goal rule 2-0 wasn’t enough)
We did go through a phase of getting thumped in the first leg and then getting a heroic but ultimately futile result in the second