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For a game that was supposed to tell us more about both sides, especially a Liverpool who claimed a 2-2 away draw, it strangely leaves more questions. Even Arne Slot himself pondered “where it exactly will lead towards the end of the season? I cannot tell you yet.” Perhaps that’s why he and Arsenal’s Mikel Arteta declared themselves very pleased as they both portrayed a positive front.The wonder was how much was indeed a front, as there was more debate underneath – not least about injuries.
Liverpool were again oddly flat, and looked like they could soon be susceptible to a bit of a levelling out. The feeling within the Arsenal dressing room was that they would have claimed a properly convincing win if they had their full team. That’s especially so given how good they were in the first half, although that poses a question in itself. An easy answer for Slot, meanwhile, is that Liverpool still claimed a draw and are still within touching distance of the top of the table. The return of 22 points remains immensely impressive for the Dutch coach’s first nine league games at the club, and this one came courtesy of a double comeback.
There was even the emotional elixir of a late equaliser.
Arteta meanwhile said it was the manner of that 81st-minute goal that was the only thing he was disappointed with in the entire game. After a long period when Arsenal had defended close to their own area following the injury to Gabriel, they stepped up, only to be caught in transition. Trent Alexander-Arnold admittedly played another divine ball to catch Arsenal’s wayward positioning out, and Darwin Nunez then showed good presence of mind to play in Mohammed Salah for the game’s final goal.
“I’m more disappointed and frustrated about one thing that we didn’t do that we had to do in the second half,” Arteta said. On the whole, however, he declared himself “very proud of the team, especially with the situation we are going through at the moment”. “Probably you cannot imagine.”
Some in the Liverpool squad and further afield scoffed at mention of that “situation”. Virgil van Dijk dismissively spoke about “two injuries”, while Slot complained about how Arsenal “always fell down after they had ball possession”.
With Martin Odegaard already out and both Jurrien Timber and Bukayo Saka having only trained once this week, Arsenal then ended the game with their entire first-choice defence out. Worse, as those close to Arteta’s dressing room were keen to point out, they had: their sixth-choice centre-back, a right-back playing alongside him, a 19-year-old at left-back and a central midfielder at right-back.
Despite that, Liverpool didn’t create much… other than on that one Salah counter-attack. But that is also where there was frustration.
Liverpool, enduring some of their own issues, were poor. They were there for the taking. That was illustrated in how Arsenal absolutely dominated them in the first half – and then when it went to 2-2.
Saka’s superb early goal was a distillation of the home side’s display, complementing speed and power with such technique. After a fine ball from Declan Rice, who had one of his best displays in that midfield role, Saka took it down at pace to thoroughly expose Andy Robertson. Such pure skill was then complemented by emphatic power, as the forward hammered the ball into the roof of the net beyond Liverpool’s own stand-in in Caoimhin Keller. It was glorious. It was then all too easily given away as Van Dijk nodded in from a corner. That was almost to be the story of the game.
If that raised new questions of some of Arsenal’s own superb set-piece work, they responded with another goal from a free-kick. It was no less than they deserved after a half that might have been their best of the season, and offered another positive in how it was Mikel Merino’s first goal. The Spanish midfielder looks like he’s going to strengthen Arsenal’s threat from set-pieces, as he was a constant danger.
Arsenal were at that point in such control of play, however, that it made it all the more debatable why they withdrew to the degree they did once Gabriel went off. Again, it would obviously be wrong to discount the fact it was yet another significant injury. The sheer accumulation of them is also going to affect a team’s mindset. Arteta had previously seemed so reluctant to introduce Jakub Kiwior, after all, that he put in a midfielder in Thomas Partey ahead of him. Arsenal just couldn’t play in their normal way.
The wonder is whether they quite had to play like they had 10 men. This is the intrigue. Again, Arteta and many at Arsenal will doubtless point to how the equaliser came from the one time they actually went up, but the point is more about how the game was allowed to become so finely balanced. The manner that Arsenal stepped it up at 2-2 – for Havertz to have a late goal ruled out – shows they could have asserted more control. It might have still been an acceptable point in the circumstances, but that’s the thing.
This is now about more than what you might accept. It’s about pushing things further. It’s about taking such chances to win games in defiant circumstances, and Arsenal more than had that chance. That is what really wins titles, something all the more important in this Manchester City era.
That’s where there could be some regret. That’s also where there’s another question.
Referee Anthony Taylor was booed off, and there was naturally – and understandably – a lot of talk about injuries. This is the noise that now surrounds the club. The wonder is whether fixating on this too much starts to become self-fulfilling, where it starts to give you potential excuses. It’s hard not to link it, even in a superficial way, to how Arsenal so quickly sat deep.
The great irony is of course that Arteta himself so focuses on this issue. He always tries to look to the positives, often to the point of perceived delusion, because of the idea that will manifest on the pitch.
It explains his reaction to the most relevant detail of all, that is beyond dispute. Arsenal lie five points behind City after just five games.
“You don’t want to be in that position,” Arteta said. “You want to be five points ahead but this is where we are. The team is alive, the team wants it. I feel it every single day. The players that cannot play, they are upset that they are not playing. The ones getting injured, the ones that are there are in a good moment. Things will turn up and we are going to be in a better place. But we are certainly there.”
Liverpool, after this draw and despite the pattern of this game, remain above them. It was why Slot could probably leave more content on the day. Arteta would insist this performance speaks better about Arsenal for the season ahead. They both have to find a few new answers
