Whatever else you could say about last night’s game between Liverpool and Arsenal, you could never say it was boring! It was gung-ho end-to-end stuff that is usually described as ‘a great advert for Premiership football’ although I personally would have preferred a boring 1-0 win for the Gunners!
But our acting captain Per Mertesacker thinks it was a fair result as Liverpool fought right up until the end. “They put pressure on us until the last second.” he told Arsenal.com. “We suffered a bit in the second half but we will take the point. We are obviously disappointed with how it went at the end but we couldn’t keep the ball as much as we wanted – especially in the second half. They put a lot of pressure on us in the last 10 minutes. Benteke came on and they were more dangerous. We will continue with that point and it is still a good point for us and we are still at the top.
“We came back twice so they gave us a lot of confidence in the second half. It was such an intense game for both sides. The fans carried the – especially at the end. Maybe they deserved it with how they played in the last 10 minutes and we will take the point. We are a bit disappointed in the end but we will take it.
“…. I feel we gave absolutely everything until the end. When you give your best until the end that is always a success. We will take the point and we will continue and we are in a situation where we can drop points and it was not what we wanted. They put a lot pressure on us in the end and maybe they deserved to score at the end because we could not get out of this situation. On the counter we were not good enough and we suffered in the last 10 minutes. We came back twice and scored the third and took the lead for a long time in the second half. That must give us more confidence for the game against Stoke on Sunday.
“It is what it is in the Premier League. It was an intense game and was back and forth and what we saw today ws a brilliant display from two sides that gave absolutely everything to take the point. I’m happy with the effort but not 100 per cent happy with the result and we will carry on.”
I can’t help but agree that the last ten minutes were awful for Arsenal, especially as Liverpool brought on Benteke and we brought on…..Gibbs, the Ox and Arteta! I wonder if that could have had anything to do with it…..