Gary Neville believes Arsenal were fortunate to end their game against Liverpool in a 2-2 draw and urges them to see the positives from the fixture.
The Gunners were at Anfield in one of the biggest matches of this weekend in European football and they knew Liverpool was tough opponents.
When Mikel Arteta’s men raced to a 2-0 lead, it seemed they would finally end their winless run whenever they visited the famous ground.
However, Liverpool ended the first half strongly and started the second very well, which helped them to curtail Arsenal.
The Gunners will feel lucky they did not lose the game, considering the number of chances Liverpool created in the entire match and Neville believes they should be thankful they got the point.
He said on Sky Sports:
“We’ve got six more weeks of this where it’s going to ebb and flow, flip and flop. I have to say, Arsenal were brilliant in the first half but Liverpool just kept on coming back.
“Your goalkeeper has to make big saves in a title run-in. He’s made two at the end that were world class. Konate… could he have gone with his foot, could he have gone with his head?
“Arsenal should think of it as a grateful point rather than two points dropped.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
Liverpool is always a tough opponent and we truly should be happy we returned home with a point, a feat Manchester United and Manchester City could not achieve.
However, the boys must return to winning ways in our next game and the game against City is a fixture we must not lose.
100% blaming what seems to be a loss.. down to that Xhaka moment. How he keeps falling for those sill tricks still baffles the shit out of me nd it was no surprise they scored immediately after that( kop got aroused nd it fed the Liverpool players nd from then on, think the momentum swung to their favour nd we never recovered, almost like we downed tools )😨😨😨
With him being one of the older heads with bags of experience in this league, falling for that was disappointing tbh, as good as he’s been this season he’s truly let the team down today nd I pray he’s gone come next season, his ego has cost us many a times nd I feel that regardless of how good he’s been so far, this will always be a problem to the team.
@Shak you are so pathetic to be whining about Xhaka’s falls in the game. Many of those falls were fowl that were never given for us but check the same thing for Liverpool they were all awarded for them, check those fowls against Gabriel Jesus that were never given and the ones given for Liverpool. The ref really tried to make us loose but thank God we escaped it.
I agree. Konate and Arnold once they knew Martinelli was proving to be a handful. They reported to rough house tactics, attempting to disrupt his game by constant attritional niggle and over physical means. That seemed to be the pattern that spurred on other Liverpool players to do the same. The game for them was to disrupt the game as often as possible and pick up the pieces. Although, we did have our part to play in it! Once they’d succeeded in taking our normal game away from us they resorted to the long ball to Salah and Jota. Salah mainly for his skill and Jota for his physical ability and hold up. Despite using this tactic, we never managed it well and it seemed to yield success for Liverpool as we became unusually panicked. I didn’t think Zinchenko was particularly useful against Salah to which Salah after receiving the long ball, then had to control it(even without attention from Zinchenko or anyone else) was allowed to then make his way all to easy into our box and give us torrid time. I don’t think that Xhaka was overly culpable of anything that contributed to our loss of three point. The game was a frenetic mish mash whereby tempers were always going to flare. Especially when you have a team that doesn’t want to play football but prefers to make a point of not allowing their opponents to play and employing rubbish tactics to facilitate this. Dropped points were not down to one man and certainly not Xhaka. I think for the equaliser, Zinchenko had a lot to be accountable for. Great player but not resolute enough for me as a defender!
Please please please!!!! I dont want to hear about Xhaka this or that again!!! Was everybody blind when our players including Xhaka were getting kicked to bits for 40mins straight??? They managed to cow us, with the blind ref leading the line, little wonder Saka lost his edge and Xhaka his head!! Would you all rather have won the game but have Jesus, Martinelli and Saka unavailable for the next 4 games due to knocks sustain! The entire team and our blind manager collapsed! Period!
There are 8 games left for AFC if they draw at Man City and Newcastle and win the other 6 there’s nothing Man City can do to stop them.
Hands up who wants to pull the trigger on Lee Mason if we lose the League by one point that was CHEATING on the highest scale.
What you all need to realise is that getting kicked nd not getting the deserved fouls due to bias refereeing decisions have always been part of the way the EPL has conducted itself with regards to a few teams ESPECIALLY Arsenal.. so that is totally out of our control nd no matter how my time you call foul, it’s not gonna change!!! On the other hand, how our players control their emotions (especially if it’s to the detriment of the team collectively) is all down to us nd the individual players involved!!! FACT!
If you don’t understand this basic fundamental about how sports nd sporting decisions occur 99.9% of the time, then I’m sorry to say you too have no idea of what champions are made of nd definitely lost the plot!
Elite athletes should be trained to control their emotions nd this is the difference between world-class nd your “average Joe” decent players.
We were in cruise control nd that game was practically in the bag had it not been for that dumb Xhaka moment nd the worst thing is it’s not the first time he’s done this nor is it going to be the last so I’m sorry if think it’s a unfair statement but it is FACTS!