10 Most Dramatic Late Winners In Domestic English Football

The odds of the two sides vying for the title playing each other in the final game of the season are extremely slim, but in the 1988/89 season that was the exact unlikely scenario facing Liverpool and Arsenal. It was proper Roy Of The Rovers type stuff, one final game to decide who finished that season as champions.

Arsenal travelled to fortress Anfield needing to win by two clear goals or more in order to win the title on goals scored. On goals scored. Let that sink in for a second. Not even on goal difference, goals bloody scored.

Arsenal scored a first through Alan Smith on 52 minutes, and suddenly an unlikely victory seemed remarkably possible. However, try as they might, they struggled to find a way past the tight-knit Liverpool defence as time began to tick hurriedly away.

Looking back though, what followed was too perfect an ending for it not to happen. A long ball up from Lee Dixon was flicked on by Alan Smith and Michael Thomas was suddenly charging forward towards the Liverpool box. Commentator Brian Moore's memorable “it’s up for grabs now” soundbite is no doubt seared in to the minds of fans from both sides, and it perfectly captures the finality of that one vital moment.

Next thing you know, Thomas was through on goal and slipping the ball past an advancing Bruce Grobbelaar into the back of the Liverpool net.

The travelling Arsenal fans went wild and the Liverpool players and management team sank to their collective knees. It was the most dramatic ending to a league season in memory and it etched Michael Thomas and his aesthetically questionable celebration into English football folklore.