Pegguy Arphexad played six games for Liverpool, and Liverpool won all six.
The goalkeeper from Guadeloupe arrived on a free transfer in the summer of 2000, after a couple of fine displays against Liverpool in a Leicester City shirt had left Gérard Houllier suitably impressed.
He spent three seasons as the dependable deputy, sat on the bench through the most successful spell the club had enjoyed in years, and came away with six winners’ medals.
Not many players can say they were never on the losing side for Liverpool. Pegguy Arphexad can.
From Guadeloupe to Brittany
Pegguy Arphexad was born in Les Abymes, Guadeloupe, on 18 May 1973, and left the Caribbean as a teenager to join the academy at Brest.
He was still a teenager when he made his first-team debut there, standing in for their first-choice keeper, the Argentina World Cup goalkeeper Sergio Goycochea.
It didn’t last. Brest’s money problems ended in bankruptcy in December 1991, which forced the club out of the league and left its players free to find new clubs.
Arphexad moved on to Lens, where he waited patiently behind the regular keeper and finally got his chance in the last three games of the 1995-96 season. A loan spell at Lille followed, and by then he had also been capped by France at Under-21 level.
Penalty king at Filbert Street
In 1997 Pegguy Arphexad crossed the Channel to join Martin O’Neill’s Leicester City.
He was usually the understudy there too, but in 1999-2000 he made 18 appearances in all competitions, the most of his career, and he made several of them count.
In the League Cup quarter-final against Fulham in January 2000, with the tie locked at 3-3 after extra time, he saved two penalties as Leicester won the shoot-out 3-0.
Later that month he did it again, this time against Arsenal. He came on for the injured Tim Flowers during extra time of an FA Cup fourth-round replay, then kept out spot-kicks from Lee Dixon and Gilles Grimandi as Leicester won 6-5 on penalties.
He was on the bench when Leicester went on to beat Tranmere Rovers in the League Cup final at Wembley.
The night he caught Gérard Houllier’s eye
Liverpool had already seen what Pegguy Arphexad could do at Filbert Street that season. On 3 May 2000 they saw it again, at Anfield, and it hurt.
Gérard Houllier’s side were chasing a Champions League place. Tony Cottee gave Leicester an early lead, Phil Gilchrist added a second shortly after the break, and Arphexad kept out everything Liverpool threw at him in a string of acrobatic saves.
Leicester won 2-0, and Liverpool ended up missing out on a Champions League place.
Houllier didn’t hold a grudge. That summer, with Arphexad out of contract at Leicester, he brought the goalkeeper to Anfield on a free transfer.
Signing up as number two
Pegguy Arphexad knew exactly where he stood. Sander Westerveld was Liverpool’s first choice, and Brad Friedel was coming to the end of his contract.
Looking back in 2020, he said: “When Liverpool come, you don’t think twice. Liverpool are a very strong team and I thought I had the ability to be the first keeper there. When I signed, I knew I was going to be second keeper, but I thought I could be the first one if I worked hard.”
Rather than stay on as Leicester’s back-up, he had chosen to be the deputy at a club chasing trophies.
A winning debut and a record rout
Pegguy Arphexad’s Liverpool debut came at Anfield on 1 November 2000, in the League Cup third round against Chelsea.
Danny Murphy put Liverpool ahead, Gianfranco Zola equalised for Chelsea, and Robbie Fowler finally ended his goal drought with an extra-time winner. Liverpool won 2-1.
Four weeks later he was in goal again, at Stoke City in the fourth round.
It started with a wobble. Inside the first few minutes, Peter Thorne won the ball off him and, with the goal empty, hit the post.
After that it was all Liverpool. Christian Ziege opened the scoring, Fowler helped himself to a hat-trick and Liverpool won 8-0. Arphexad had a clean sheet, and the 8-0 is still Liverpool’s biggest away win.
Liverpool went on to win the League Cup in Cardiff that February, and then the FA Cup and the UEFA Cup in May. He was on the bench for all three finals.
A summer stand-in
His longest run in the side came at the start of the 2001-02 season, when Sander Westerveld was struggling with a thigh injury.
Pegguy Arphexad started the Champions League qualifier away to Haka in Finland on 8 August 2001, and kept a clean sheet as Michael Owen scored a hat-trick in a 5-0 win.
Ten days later he started the Premier League opener against West Ham United at Anfield. Paolo Di Canio chipped a penalty over him, but Owen scored twice and Liverpool won 2-1.
He kept his place for the second leg against Haka, a 4-1 win at Anfield that took Liverpool into the Champions League group stage.
He was also on the bench as Liverpool beat Manchester United in the Charity Shield and Bayern Munich in the Super Cup that August.
Six games, six wins
At the end of that month Gérard Houllier signed two more goalkeepers, Jerzy Dudek and Chris Kirkland, and before the year was out Sander Westerveld was on his way to Real Sociedad.
Pegguy Arphexad stayed, now behind the new arrivals, and his sixth and final appearance came at Portman Road on 9 February 2002.
Liverpool were already 3-0 up when Arphexad replaced Jerzy Dudek in the 55th minute, and they added three more to win 6-0 at Ipswich Town.
He was on the bench again in March 2003 when Liverpool beat Manchester United 2-0 to win the League Cup in Cardiff, and he left that summer when his contract ran out.
Six games, six wins, two clean sheets and six winners’ medals.
“It was strange for me because every time I played for Liverpool I did well,” he said. “The manager told me you need to be an international to be playing for Liverpool. I just replied, ‘If I play for Liverpool, I will be an international.'”
Life after Anfield
Pegguy Arphexad spent the 2003-04 season at Coventry City, with a loan spell at Notts County, and his career wound down at Marseille in 2004-05, where he didn’t make a league appearance.
After hanging up his gloves he moved into sports insurance, which kept him close to the game.
Once a Red
Pegguy Arphexad was never going to be a Liverpool legend. He was the man on the bench, the one who trained every day so he would be ready if the call came.
When it did, he played his part. Six times he pulled on the gloves for Liverpool, and six times he walked off a winner.
He was there for the treble, for the Super Cup and for another League Cup, and he helped get the club into the Champions League.
Once a Red, always a Red.
