Liverpool and Arsenal leave promise of more intrigue to come in fascinating draw

Who’s happier with this point, Liverpool or Arsenal? Wrong: the correct answer is Manchester City.

This was an opportunity to one side or the other to assert some early dominance in the title race, and for a long time it looked as though Arsenal were on course to seize the initiative and almost eliminate the four-point gap that has opened up between second and third.

The Gunners looked younger, fresher and keener than Liverpool going into the break – only for their efforts to see out the three points to finally come undone. Liverpool, for their part, will be frustrated that they had to come from behind twice, but pleased that they were able to do so.

Some games are fascinating for their tactical nuances and intricacies, but the two sides here setting up in something close to mirror image made it something much more enjoyably pure: we were going to get two similar teams slugging it out to quite simply see which of them was the better at football.

The most significant bit of tactical mindgames was accomplished by Mikel Arteta days before the game even kicked off as he kept Bukayo Saka’s injury status tightly under wraps, only to unleash him from the start to devastating effect.

For the second Sunday in a row, Andy Robertson was left tripping over his own feet, landing on his face and spinning with such ferocity you wondered if he was desperately trying to generate a small localised tornado that would pull Saka back into his proximity.

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Saka skinned Robertson on the way to opening the scoring off Ben White’s lovely ball over the top – Robertson not at all helped by Virgil van Dijk’s extremely casual attitude to getting back and cover exactly that eventuality – before the Arsenal winger smashed the ball with unstoppable force into the near top corner.

In spite of that obvious weakness in the Liverpool setup, the game was reasonably even for the first 25 minutes or so, and devout followers of The Flow Of The Game could have no objection to van Dijk nodding home off a Trent Alexander-Arnold set piece that was helped on by Luis Diaz’s headed flick-on across the box.

But the rest of the half belonged very firmly to Arsenal, whose quality forced Liverpool to become increasingly kicky and scrappy in a desperate efforts to try and stem the hosts’ momentum.

It didn’t work: all it did was give Arsenal a series of chances to show off their own considerable set-piece capabilities. Mikel Merino had been denied a tap-in off a brilliantly whipped-in Declan Rice delivery from the right immediately after van Dijk’s equaliser, hilariously shouting for a penalty after blazing wide without realising it was his own teammate, Gabriel, who had inadvertently tripped him up.

But unmarked by teammates and defenders alike, the midfielder made no mistake from a virtually identical cross as the first half drew to a close, putting a firm header past a helpless Caoimhin Kelleher to ensure Arsenal’s primacy was reflected on the scoreboard with a 2-1 lead.

That is when the tactical battle kicked in. Arteta seemed to have asked his side for more patience, more conservatism, and a willingness to manage the result to completion; sure, score a third if you can, but above all else don’t concede a second. Liverpool, naturally, went the other way.  That entertainingly open first half gave way to a tenser, more suffocating second: Liverpool pushing forward with greater and greater urgency, Arsenal trying to stifle and control.

And as against Manchester City, Arsenal did that job very well right up until they didn’t. In a bizarrely similar move to Chelsea’s earlier opener against Newcastle, Trent Alexander-Arnold’s ball in behind the defence for Darwin Nunez was remarkably well-placed, and the Uruguayan made short work of entering the box before squaring for the otherwise relatively quiet Mo Salah to apply a simple finish.

That 2-2 scoreline was a far more frustrating one for Arsenal than it was for Liverpool; over to the hosts to start playing to score with renewed impetus. They duly did, and being Arsenal this season, there was some late refereeing controversy, with a very soft foul given for an aerial challenge on Dominik Szoboszlai that even the Liverpool man did not claim for.

Everyone in the ground except Peter Drury had heard the referee’s whistle before Kai Havertz ran the loose ball against the post, however, rendering Gabriel Jesus’ finish moot; most of the Liverpool defence had already stopped playing.

What did we learn from this game? In all honesty…not a lot, about either team nor about what it will mean for the Premier League title race. But at this stage of the season, we don’t need definitive answers; better to keep the intrigue alive for another day.

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