Arsenal 0 Liverpool 0
What a bore fest. I thought Arsenal looked really good in the first 30 minutes pinning Liverpool back but not creating anything really substantial to worry Liverpool in front of goal. Liverpool then managed to get a hold of the ball and started passing it around nicely and hit the bar after a misunderstanding between Saliba and Raya but couldn’t find that bit of quality to stun Arsenal throughout the game. Liverpool actually dominated the second half in terms of possession but lacked that real quality in the attack without the likes of Salah, Ekitike and Isak which would have made a real difference if available. Jeremie Frimpong was probably Liverpool’s best attacker getting in behind time after time but just didn’t have that end quality in his crossing. Arne Slot will be delighted with the draw seeing as he’s missing so many players in the attack keeping Liverpool in 4th place with a well-earned clean sheet.
Absolutely disgusting behaviour from Gabriel Martinelli. There wasn’t really any controversy throughout the match up until the 92nd minute where Conor Bradley went down in what looked like a possible ACL injury without speculating too much obviously, then Gabriel Martnelli decides to throw the ball at him and then push him over whilst he’s already in agonising pain on the ground, the real surprise is that the Liverpool players didn’t lose their heads at him and get a red card because I’d be absolutely fuming if I was them. Bradley then got stretchered off and I’m not sure when we’ll see him next, hopefully it’s not too soon for Liverpool’s sake.
The Victor Gyokeres experiment has to end. I think it’s safe to say that Victor Gyokeres has been pretty awful since he joined Arsenal in the summer and he made no impact in this game yet again when Arsenal needed that spark to get ahead in the game. He just offers nothing in terms of hold-up or link-up play and then when a cross comes in he’s nowhere to be seen so I’m not sure what Arteta is expecting when he seems to be starting every game at the minute. I know Gabriel Jesus may not be an out and out striker but he offers far more in the attack than Gyokeres is currently doing even if he’s not scoring.
Liverpool have sorted out the defence. Liverpool’s defence has been a weak point throughout this season so far but it seems that Arne Slot has found the solution to tighten up at the back. Ibrahima Konate seems to have found his form in the last month or so along with Milo Kerkez who seems to be finding his form recently and played really well against Bukayo Saka tonight. Alisson didn’t have much to do in the Liverpool net tonight and that’s down to the work of the defence and midfield. Liverpool limited Arsenal to 3 corners in the whole match which was massive in limiting Arsenal’s main attacking threat. Liverpool have now only only conceded 4 goals in their last 6 matches which is a huge improvement on the previous months for Liverpool.
Title race still on? Tonight was a real chance for Arsenal to strengthen their grip on the title with City yet again dropping points but they never really got going and now sit 6 points ahead of Villa and City. If there is gonna be a title race this year City really have to get their act together as even though Arsenal were poor tonight they aren’t going to drop points often and again you seen the strength of their squad subbing on Jesus, Eze, Lewis-Skelly and Madueke in their search of a goal. Will Semenyo be the lift that City need to get back to form over the next few games? I suppose we’ll wait and see over the next few weeks.