Liverpool vs Arsenal: Instant Reaction

Thoughts at full time

Straight into it.

Headline: Christmas is not ruined

I wanted to end the run of not winning at Anfield but more importantly, I selfishly didn’t want to spend Christmas stewing about a bad result or a bad performance.

That is exactly what we got here and it also means that Arsenal will go into Christmas day in first place once again and that is a good feeling and very good for the title odds.

It will change ever so slightly because I only controlled for one match during the simulation but this should have Arsenal in a very strong position moving forward into next week.

This was probably the second hardest match on paper for Arsenal and coming away from a point, especially one where the performance pointed to Arsenal getting a bit fortunate and I think being sucked a bit too much into the game that Liverpool wanted to play.

Arsenal came out early and imposed themselves and were able to generate a goal from a free header in the box. After that, the good scoring opportunities really fizzled out with execution and a lack of commitment to making the runs to get on the ends of things happening over and over again.

Arsenal looked content to try and play on the break a bit more and try and see if they could beat Liverpool at their own game trusting that their defense could withstand the pressure (which it mostly did).

However, the story of the match again was that the execution was lacking in the final third and Liverpool were able to edge the match creating more threatening moments.

A 1-1 scoreline here is not unfair but 4 out of 10 times I think this ends up with Liverpool coming out on top, with Arsenal only coming out on top 2 out of 10 times.

Arsenal were able to mostly limit Liverpool to only getting chances from mistakes but they also felt susceptible to being forced into those mistakes more than should have happened because they were not able to impose the dominace on the match for long stretches and needing to retreat into their shell defense and try and play out from the back.

Liverpool were able to generate 11 high starts in this match and forced Arsenal to go long 34 times in the build-up stage. We are not used to this and saw the ball spending a lot more time in the Arsenal half than we have at any other point this season without Arsenal being down a man. It did not look like Arsenal and that the moment was too much for us here.

I expected more and better dominance from the midfielders but in this match that didn’t manifest itself and the battle ending up even with perhaps Liverpool getting the better of the duels in the middle of the pitch.

Ultimately Liverpool are a good team and a good team at home can and will impose themselves on a match but I still expected more from Arsenal, especially this Arsenal that has such a unique style and one that was coming off a masterclass in control and forcing a team to bend to their will.

The point here is good, it is something that keeps Arsenal in the driver's seat for the title. It took some good fortune to get there but in the end the point is all that matters.

Stock Rising: Oleksandr Zinchenko

This was a bit of a Rorschach Test match for him but I am going to try and make the case that his standing rose in this match.