Arsenal vs Liverpool match report
Mikel Arteta and his Arsenal squad travelled to Anfield to face off against Liverpool in what was a very important game for both sides going forward. The game ended in a stalemate, but after a lot of action on the pitch and plenty of chances from both sides, I’d say the game ended in a fair result. Arsenal are sitting pretty on top of the league at the moment going into Christmas, and it will be a huge boost for the gunners going forward.
Here’s a run down of everything that went down.
The game started very much looking all Arsenal, with Saka unlucky to score in the first minute of the game and Arsenal looked to be coming out with high tempo and looked ready to go and it didn’t take them long to get onto the scoresheet. Arsenal were awarded a freekick in the 3rd minute and after a lovely ball whipped into the box by Odegaard landed on the head of Gabriel, whorocketed the ball into the back of the Liverpool net, beating Alisson and putting Arsenal 1-0 up and well and truly in the driving seat.
Liverpool were quick to react and looked determined to get a goal back before half time, missing a few chances before a perfectly timed long pass from Trent Alexander-Arnold from their backline all the way to the wing, where Salah was waiting to run onto it. Zinchenko probably could have put a foot out to stop the first pass, but it ended up beating him and finding Salah, who dropped his shoulder, cut into the box, beating Zinchenko, and then firing a rocket into the back of the net, beating Raya and putting Liverpool back into the game.
Arsenal didn’t put their heads down and continued to try get back in front. Tsimikas was nudged down by Saka in the 30th minute, coming into contact with Klopp and was forced off the pitch early, due to what turned out to be a collarbone injury. Liverpool kept coming and were lucky not to go ahead in the first half but Arsenal defended well.
In the second half there was plenty more action and Liverpool looked like they were likely to score again, but the defensive duo of Gabriel and Saliba stayed strong and some how managed to keep the ball out of Raya’s net. Arsenal continued to push but couldn’t manage to find the back of the net.
Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold came very close in the last 20 minutes after a lovely run from Salah saw three Liverpool players in the box. He ended up passing it to Alexander-Arnold, who fired the ball first time and luckily for Arsenal, hit the crossbar.
The final whistle blew, and the points were shared. Anfield is a very hard place to go to and get any kind of result, so a draw isn’t the end of the world when nobody has managed to win there this season. Arsenal can walk away proud. They didn’t let the occasion get to their heads and put on a very good performance and walked away with a point to sit top of the ladder going into the Christmas period.
What were your thoughts on the game Gooners?
Daisy Mae
CALLING ALL ARSENAL FANS! Anyone who would like to contribute an Article or Video opinion piece on JustArsenal, please contact us through this link…
Happy with the point. Happy with the performances of Rice and Gabriel. Not happy with the performances of Zinchenko and Martinelli. I am curious to see what the top teams do in the January window.
Obviously Liverpool had watched enough videos of our matches, they were so much on Martineli and Saka, we can’t fault him,
Saka had Odegaard and white, Martineli had Havertz and Zinchenko all against a Liverpool that had a fierce midfield and attack, all sprinters.
When Manchester City played us, Haaland was kept totally quiet, does that mean, he’s at fault?No.
I bet we would’ve won the game if Timber or Tomiyasu played inverted-LB and if a very strong CF like Vlahovic led our front-line
We relied too much on Jesus’, Martinelli’s and Odegaard’s skills to penetrate Liverpool’s defense
Totally agreed with you 👌
Hope the Gafar sees things that way. I also thing Matinelli and Saka needs strong competition to make them keep performing well and stay on their toes. Unlike Matinelli, Trossard changed the dynamics of the game when he came in the last 15 minutes.
I wonder why Arteta makes Ichenko to “suffer” against tough opposition when Kiwior is available.
👍🏼
Someone needs to tell Martinelli to not hold onto the ball for too long, he was awful yesterday, missed a sitter too.
The game could have gone either way with odegard and zinchenko nearly costing us when they both fumbled a routine ball coming their way.
Good game in the end, very physical but good game. Onto the next one.
Probably we were lucky to get a draw but can’t be happy with the draw be it Liverpool or mancity or anyone else. Zinko is really weak spot in big games and opponent easily target him, so why we didn’t double up against Salah?? We could have put the game to bed in first half but we let them grew in the game. It’s definitely a missed opportunity. But proud that we didn’t surrender to them as we used to and showed a fight till the end. After this match they will think twice before overthrowing all their players in attack and will give us more respect.
Zinchenko should not have been allowed to face Salah one-on. Not many defenders in the world can stand Salah in that type of situation.
We should have done what most opposing teams do when our own Saka has the ball – they swoop on him with two or more players to prevent him cutting in from the left. That’s what we should have done against Salah yesterday.
The 5 on 2 situation was a real worry. It should never happen. Unless Klopp had spotted a flaw and exploited it. I should never happen, ever.
If Martinelli had raced towards the goal instead of holding back we would have scored more goals, both Jesus and Saka put the ball exactly where you’d want it straight across the goal only for Martinelli and Havertz not to read it. But in the end, I do believe a draw was a fair result. We still have some difficult away games to come in the second half of the season but at least Anfield is now out of the way while we remain with a birds-eye view of things
Very good result. Considering that we are yet to hit our full stride, getting positive results to stay top by Christmas was imperative. We controlled and managed that rampant Liverpool side quite well. We had 49% possession. Probably the best defensive game by Odegaard and Havertz. Martinelli and Saka also defended well that they had no energy in attack.