The match between Arsenal and Liverpool was sparking from the start. Early on Arsenal’s young talent Bukayo Saka created a thing of beauty as he scored. Liverpool’s defensive rock Virgil Van Dijk fought hard to keep his team in the game. Mikel Merino got Arsenal’s summer signing off the mark with the first goal of his Arsenal shirt career.
But the second half was a drastically different game. It was bad news for the Gunners as Gabriel Magalhão and Jurrien Timber suffered injury. Liverpool’s attacking force put pressure on their defensive line which was already stretched thin.
Arsenal’s resolute defence was no match for the Reds. Mohamed Salah always provides the threat and he made the most of that. The task was to be a masterclass in spatial awareness and skill that left Andy Robertson baffled. Arsenal’s goalkeeper Kelleher could only watch Salah pierce through his side’s defence and bury it past him.
This is a big result for both teams. It is a wasted chance for Arsenal to make a telling statement of their title pretensions. Mikel Arteta’s side needs to regroup and stop shipping goals like it is something they have been doing for their whole career. But manager Arne Slot, hired in November to replace Jundel, continues to ride the feelgood factor with Liverpool. As they aim for the title, their consistency against top rivals is a good thing.
Liverpool fans celebrated a hard-fought draw when the final whistle blew. Resilient van Dijk and magic from Salah meant they turned away with a point. But the season runs long and the matches count. Both sides will evaluate the performance work out a scheme and plan for subsequent challenges.
With Liverpool trailing Mohamed Salah stepped up to the plate. Salah calmly tucked the ball past the Arsenal goalkeeper Caoimhín Kelleher after receiving a perfectly timed pass from Darwin Nunez. It wasn’t the hardest of finishes but his clinical form was too much for the Liverpool home crowd to take.
Arsenal Liverpool match
What a moment to capture Salah’s brilliance: A bit of spatial awareness, some quick footwork, with a bit of precision. He twisted the space in a stroke of mesmeric genius twisting Andy Robertson in and out. But it fell to the impish nutmeg of Robertson with the outside of his boot to provide the shooting opportunity, and Salah took it. Liverpool slipped back behind leaders Manchester City into second place, a point behind Pep Guardiola’s champions.
That left Arne Slot’s side four points clear, but Arsenal, who rose to third, trailed them. Arsenal head to Preston and Liverpool faces Brighton in the League Cup where the focus will now shift to both teams. But you’ll be pleased fans, the Premier League drama rages on, and the tension increases.
At Emirates Stadium, Arsenal and Liverpool tied 2-2—a game of two sides that, at either end, could have won it. It played out as a high-stakes poker hand, where each side would raise the stakes, one by one. But it was Manchester City who, despite the pulsating action, were best placed to benefit from it.
Advantage to Manchester City
When you are in Premier League football, it is so much like 22 players running for 90 minutes and it’s so run out, so Manchester City in the end gets the win. History has warned us that for the rest of the league, City are an incredibly formidable front-runner. They may not have hit the heights of the season so far, but they are top of the league a single point ahead of Liverpool and a huge five points in front of Arsenal. The city seems to have a standing reservation with the winner’s podium.
Fixtures like these have your scoreline at 2-2. The term points towards a match in which both teams go home knowing that they could’ve won, it could have gone either way, but they might also have lost. This match was a representation of that sentiment. We saw one dominated territory, the other forced-dominated territory, then the next and so on — Arsenal and Liverpool trading blows. It didn’t seem like collective mistakes, it felt like one team, especially at a time.
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