Soccer Extreme : A spectacular goal from a natural goalscorer gave Liverpool an important point in London yesterday, but Robbie Keane's future with the club remains opaque as the January transfer window draws near and Rafael Benítez grows restless.Keane scored his goal, his third in 15 appearances in the Premier League since his £20.3m transfer from Tottenham, with a tremendous flourish, racing between Johan Djourou and William Gallas to meet Daniel Agger's long volleyed clearance before burying a ferocious 18-yard half-volley in Manuel Almunia's net.
With just under 10 minutes of the match to go, however, he was withdrawn. Arsenal were tiring as a result of the dismissal of Emmanuel Adebayor with just over an hour gone, and Liverpool were dominating possession and chances. A second goal would have given Benítez's team an overnight lead of four points, and they were certainly looking for it.
But then, on the telephone from West Kirby, from a man sitting in front of a television in the most expensive house on the Wirral, recovering from a painful operation to remove a kidney stone, came the fateful instruction. Benítez spoke, and his words were taken down by Xavi Valero, Liverpool's goalkeeping coach, sitting in the dugout just behind Sammy Lee and Mauricio Pellegrino, the manager's assistants. The instruction was to replace Keane with Nabil El Zhar, a young forward who has yet to score a goal for the club.
The sturdy Moroccan went over to the right flank while Dirk Kuyt moved across to take Keane's role as the spearhead. Five minutes later David Ngog, the French teenager, came on as the new central striker, with Kuyt dropping back. If you were Keane, you would probably have been in despair.
Five clubs have paid a total of £58.3m for the 28-year-old Dublin-born striker, who now holds the Republic of Ireland's scoring record with 35 goals. In his half-dozen seasons with Spurs, 80 goals in 158 league appearances persuaded Benítez to take him to Anfield. Yet last week, when Liverpool struggled to a 2-2 draw at home to Hull City, there was not even a place for him on the substitutes' bench.
His first significant intervention yesterday, after 10 minutes, should have given Liverpool the lead. The Irishman played a cute first-time ball back to Steven Gerrard, who had the time and space to do better than send his low 20-yard drive into the arms of the exposed Almunia. Ten minutes later Keane tussled for a bouncing ball with Gaël Clichy and received a yellow card for overenthusiasm, the first of Howard Webb's questionable decisions.
This was an often ugly, fractious and incoherent match, doing no credit to either team. Had Liverpool's tactics not been run by a man in front of a television screen, the substitutions might have been made with more of a feeling for the flow of the game and the possibility of taking away three points rather than one.
But someone capable of changing his starting line-up 99 times in a row is hardly likely to be putting his feet up and letting his assistants get on with it. This was the most blatant piece of remote-control management since one of Jose Mourinho's little helpers sat in the Stamford Bridge dugout wearing a woolly hat to conceal a pair of earphones through which came instructions from the Chelsea manager, who had been banned from the touchline for a European Cup quarter-final against Bayern Munich. The difference was that Benítez's activities were not against the rules. But while one applauds his desire to remain in control of Liverpool's fortunes, it seemed to indicate something less than absolute faith in the quality of his lieutenants.
"We were in constant touch," Sammy Lee confirmed. "Rafa's presence is missed but the important thing is that he gets himself right for the big fixtures we've got coming up. He was pleased for the boys today. We've come away from Arsenal with a point, and we'd have accepted that beforehand."
To a suggestion that Liverpool might have been more aggressive in their pursuit of victory against numerically reduced opponents, he replied: "In a situation like that you have to be very careful that you don't leave yourselves open. This is a well organised Arsenal team and we had to stay disciplined, compact and focused."
Whether Keane will be trusted to play a further part in Liverpool's attempt to win their first league title since 1989-90 must be open to doubt. "We pick players and teams for any given games," Lee said when asked about Keane's seemingly uncertain status within the squad. "There's no problem with Robbie or his confidence."
Will yesterday's goal, the product of speed, decisiveness and sound technique, have made any difference to Benitez's opinion of a striker who, in his eyes, has failed to provide satisfactory cover for the injured Fernando Torres? Keane and Torres did not make an instinctive match, but Benítez has already discounted the possibility of Michael Owen's return, and David Villa - who proved in last summer's European championships to be the ideal partner for Torres - is out of Liverpool's financial range. So Keane will almost certainly still be at Anfield when Torres returns to action some time in January. But not, despite yesterday's bravura finish, with any great feeling of permanence.