front with Henry, leaving Bergkamp on the substitutes' bench. Ashley Cole played in defence, ahead of Sylvinho, who did not feature in the matchday squad. For Liverpool, Houllier named Owen in the starting line-up, and chose Šmicer and Murphy to play in midfield. Gary McAllister, Patrik Berger and Fowler began the final as substitutes. Arsenal in their usual home strip of red shirts and white shorts kicked off the match and immediately won a corner, which was dealt with by Westerveld. A run by Heskey six minutes later resulted in the player taking a tumble under Gilles Grimandi's challenge, but his appeals for a penalty were ignored by referee Dunn. Arsenal began to dominate play, with Vieira at the heart of their best moves. The midfielder won a challenge with Heskey in the 17th minute and sent the ball in the direction of Freddie Ljungberg, who in turn passed it to Henry. The Frenchman went around Westerveld and shot the ball goalwards, which was cleared off the line by Stéphane Henchoz. Television replays later showed the ball hitting Henchoz's arm before going wide; although Henry appealed for a penalty, it was turned down as the incident was missed by both the referee and his assistant. Owen came close to scoring in the 20th minute, but for his shot to be blocked by Martin Keown. Arsenal continued to find the best openings, but struggled to split open the Liverpool defence. A long range effort by Grimandi was easily saved by Westerveld as the final approached the half-hour mark, and a duel between Wiltord and Jamie Carragher on the right side resulted in a Liverpool corner. Two minutes before the interval Henry was penalised for drifting into an offside position, having collected a long pass. Liverpool resumed play and won a free-kick in the 48th minute; Murphy's delivery found Heskey, whose header forced a save from David Seaman. Arsenal enjoyed their best spell of the match soon afterwards, but failed to make use of their set-pieces. A free-kick taken by Pires was easily handled by Westerveld, and nothing came out of the resulting corner. Pires and Henry combined in attack for Arsenal and the latter came close to scoring, had the Liverpool goalkeeper not intervened. The ball rebounded to Cole who shot goalwards, but Sami Hyypiä cleared off the line. Hamann was shown a yellow card for fouling Vieira in the 57th