What a game of football that was. We got to see Liverpool at their most dangerous and Liverpool at their absolute worst as we get no closer to knowing whether the Premier League trophy will be draped in red or blue ribbons.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Barclays, eh? Liverpool 2-2 Arsenal was what Our League is all about. Jurgen Klopp’s side started very poorly as the Gunners purred, but one incident between Granit Xhaka and Trent Alexander-Arnold poked the bear and gave Mikel Arteta and his players a huge scare.
Arsenal got straight to work with Gabriel Martinelli facing up against Alexander-Arnold within the first 60 seconds. Had Trent successfully dealt with the Brazilian, it would have been celebrated like a goal by the Kop, but he didn’t; he got rinsed as Martinelli won an early corner. At least he didn’t get rinsed and concede like he did at the Emirates in the reverse fixture.
History did end up repeating itself as Martinelli opened the scoring. Andy Robertson slipped, giving Bukayo Saka the chance to drive into a dangerous area, play a one-two with Martin Odegaard, which Virgil van Dijk failed to clear as the Brazilian winger poked past his compatriot Alisson. Robertson nearly made amends soon after but missed a huge chance you would expect any of the Liverpool front three to score.
Arsenal were clearly trying to isolate Robertson and Alexander-Arnold with their constant switches of play and who could blame them? In one-on-one situations, both home players were struggling to have any joy. Exposing Trent once again helped Arsenal double their lead in the 28th minute. It was worryingly simple for the visitors, who took a free-kick in their own half, played one pass to Granit Xhaka, who played a ball over to Martinelli with Trent in a spin cycle, and it was one Gabriel to another as Jesus – on Easter Day nonetheless – headed in.
Arteta’s men remained in cruise control, but Xhaka did something very silly: awaken the sleeping Anfield crowd. He left one in on Alexander-Arnold, who reacted and Xhaka – who should have just walked away – squared up to the Liverpool right-back and got the home crowd all fired up, just like Arteta did when he tried to fight Klopp in this fixture last season. The Sky commentators couldn’t believe their luck. Yes, Xhaka shouldn’t have reacted, but they would obviously overdo the whole ‘Granit Xhaka is an unreliable hothead’ narrative.
Only a few minutes later, the awoken crowd celebrated a goal as Mohamed Salah cut Arsenal’s deficit in half with a rather fortunate goal. Liverpool continued to knock on the door until the half ended in the 50th minute of play. There was more drama even after the whistle when Andy Robertson was literally elbowed by Paul Tierney’s assistant. What did Roy Keane make of this? Well he called the Scotland captain a “big baby”, obviously. Oh, Roy…
Arsenal had to weather a big ol’ storm in the second half with Liverpool tails well and truly up. Rob Holding – who was filling in for the injured William Saliba – gave away a penalty, because obviously he did. Amazingly, Salah passed the ball past the post to potentially give Arsenal a huge title race advantage over the Reds’ old foes, Manchester City. People ask: ‘Who do Liverpool fans want to win the league?’ Spokesman Salah gave his answer.
Aaron Ramsdale made a few huge saves, denying Salah and Darwin Nunez as Liverpool sought an equaliser. The longer the game went on, the more open the game became. Arsenal went from dominating to defending for their lives and trying to punish missed chances on the counter.
The Liverpool pressure eventually paid off. A man who loves playing against the Gunners, Roberto Firmino, nodded in a late equaliser after Alexander-Arnold nutmegged Oleksandr Zinchenko and found his teammate at the back post. Even with little time left on the clock, a winner felt inevitable and everyone but Arsenal fans were begging for a next-goal-wins scenario.
Liverpool might have been very rubbish for about 40 minutes, but Anfield is Anfield. Xhaka poked the bear and Arsenal paid the price. Two points dropped could be astronomical in the title race against City.
Many believed before the game that a win for Arsenal would be enough to win them the Premier League. What about a draw? It is anyone’s guess who takes home the biggest prize now. Jamie Carragher emphasised during match commentary that it is in City’s hands now. The difference is now six points, the reigning champions have a game in hand and host Arsenal. Win both of those and the league is being decided on goal difference.
All that is certain is that this match will be looked back on as pivotal in the race for the title.
We will look back at the fact Arsenal were two goals to the good and cruising but ended up drawing. We will look back at Salah’s missed penalty. We will look back at Xhaka and Trent’s altercation. We will look back at those incredible Ramsdale saves at the end of the game and the counter-attack that followed.
That was a lot to take in and nobody knows what team has the upper hand in the title race. Bring on April 26 at the Etihad. It’s going to be absolutely humungous. Winner takes all. Probably.
READ MORE: 16 Conclusions from Liverpool 2-2 Arsenal
