Xhaka reverts to type as Arsenal drop two points at Anfield.

  

Liverpool 2 Arsenal 2    
Premier League   
Sunday 9th April 2023 4.30pm   

Oh Granit. Some things never change. Arsenal were so dominant against Liverpool in the first half that the TV pundits were making out that the game was over. How much are these people paid? Not even half time and a home team goal changes everything. Once I heard them say that I knew it was only a matter of time before Mikel Arteta’s side conceded. And the momentum shifted thanks to that familiar phenomenon – a moment of Granit Xhaka hotheadedness. Ok, he didn’t get a foul he might have felt he deserved. He then fouled Trent Alexander Arnold. So far, nothing major. The Liverpool right back (and on occasion in the first half with questionable success inverted midfielder) pushed Xhaka. And Granit decided to go face to face and within millimetres of a headbutt with TTA. The referee booked the pair of them, but more critically it roused Liverpool’s players and crowd. The end result of the free kick that followed was a Mo Salah goal. So at half time instead of going in coasting two up against a flat opponent, the Gunners, having controlled the game for 40 minutes, were facing a resurgent side with the previously muted crowd sensing blood and right behind them. 

 

Arsenal are a young side, but you’d hope that they’d be guided, in terms of temperament, by the more experienced players. Title run-ins are times for cool heads, who can judge a situation and not allow hot-headed emotion to take their focus off the bigger picture. This is something Xhaka failed to do, and only time will tell if the two points that were lost from a position of dominance will end up costing his team dear. Let us hope not, but after the weekend’s football you can look at the Premier League title race in two ways, both of which are true. Manchester City have their fate in their own hands. Then again, so do Arsenal. The match at the Etihad is the one that all eyes will be looking at, although even that may not be decisive. There are plenty more opportunities to drop points for both sides, and we await to see how extra midweek fixtures affect results for Pep Guardiola’s side, who in all truth are better at managing games than Arteta’s younger collective. 

 

This game was loaded with aspects that recalled two past encounters between the sides, and maybe more. But let’s start with the match exactly 19 years ago when Arsenal entertained Liverpool on Good Friday and won 4-2 – seen as a key moment in their road to winning the Premier League that season. That 2004 fixture felt like a critical match in Arsenal’s title campaign, especially given their two previous matches had seen defeats leading to cup exits. And yesterday felt critical too. 

 

Go further back though and we have the Anfield 1989 title deciding match. A few weeks after the Hillsborough tragedy, and we saw that marked with a minute’s silence and a display on the Kop to remember the victims before the match – the home game that fell nearest the anniversary date this year. If emotions ran high at times in the 90 minutes that followed, they were of course related to something far more trivial than the tragedy that changed the course of football in this country. 

 

Nevertheless the game goes on, and the match that kicked off at 4.30 on 9th April 2023 had an echo of 26th May 1989 with Arsenal’s opening goal. It felt reminiscent of Mickey Thomas’ winner, with Martinelli benefitting from a deflection off a Liverpool defender, then running towards the goal and poking the ball past the onrushing keeper. At the end of the first half, the Liverpool players harranging the officials (justifiably when you saw the linesman hit Robertson’s chin with a raised elbow) took me back to the protests over Alan Smith’s goal all those years ago. Hell, at the end of the match, Arsenal had three centre backs witk Kiwior’s introduction. Adams – O’Leary - Bould were the trio that started on the evening that the Gunners won the title. 

 

Talking of centre backs, there was a fair amount of focus on Holding pre-match – the perceived weak link. He did unfortunately give away a clumsy penalty in the second half, although Mo Salah missing it meant he did not carry the can for the lost two points (which could so easily have been three, even allowing for the missed spot kick). The only change in Arsenal’s starting eleven from the win against Leeds was Saka coming in for Trossard.

 

Martinelli’s opener arrived in the ninth minute after Saka and Odegaard had combined in the build-up, as Liverpool trying to play PepBall in an attempt to negate Arsenal simply didn’t work – as much as anything due to unfamiliarity with the system. Liverpool were not completely without threat – Robertson should certainly have at least tested Ramsdale when he had clear sight of goal and fired wide ten minutes after his side had gone behind. But before 30 minutes were up, their task was made twice as hard when Xhaka put Martinelli through on the wing and he had time to pick out Jesus, who rose on Easter Sunday after making connection with a cross in slightly less miraculous fashion than the man he was named after. Nevertheless it’s a long time since Arsenal got anything from a visit to Anfield and you had to suspend your disbelief at the degree to which they were running the show. 

 

They couldn’t fashion a third goal that would surely have killed the game and then we had the events that led to a 2-1 scoreline at the interval. There’s no point in me running through the sheer number of events that occurred in the second half. Micah Richards excitedly declared it the best game he had ever seen, although I doubt any Gooners that watched the second half could have appreciated the drama the way a neutral might be able to. Then again, Richards is a former Manchester City player so I can see why he might have felt richly entertained. It was like the Alamo in Arsenal’s penalty box at times. 

 

Salah’s missed spot kick made you think it might be Arsenal’s day after all, and on the counter attack, they could have easily scored a third both before and after Liverpool’s equaliser. Tierney was being lined up to replace Zinchenko, but it came too late to spare the Ukrainian’s blushes when he was mugged by Trent Alexander Arnold who had time and space to pick out a cross for sub Firminho to add another to the many he has netted against the Gunners. 

 

Objectively, Liverpool had so many quality chances in the second half that if you were to pick a winner from this game, it should have been them. Aaron Ramsdale pulled off two incredible saves in injury time to save his side a point, the latter leading to Arsenal’s final break of the match and an incredible chance to score that was blown when Martinelli's misplaced a pass to Saka, who would have been clear. In addition he had the option of Trossard free on the left which with hindsight could also have led to a clear cut chance if he was given the ball to square to Saka. Ah well. Liverpool rarely lose at home – even to their most difficult opponents – and many Gooners would have taken a draw before the game and especially when the goal was under siege at 2-2. Forgetting the penalty, Salah missed more than once chance he would normally convert, hitting the side netting instead of dinking the ball over the keeper. 

 

Hindsight will inform us whether this was two points dropped or a crucial point gained. Thomas Partey, Gabriel, Ramsdale and the attacking trio all played very well, and psychologically, the game – especially because they didn’t lose it – should not hurt too much. Play at this level next weekend and they should blow West Ham away. Liverpool may be having a patchy season, but most of their woes have come away from Anfield. There were lessons today that can be learned from – some of them about the requisite quality of certain players with a view to squad strengthening in the summer. Granit Xhaka is playing the best football of his Arsenal career as a result of a change of formation and a more attacking role within it, but there is still something of the Incredible Hulk about his ability to lose control. In the melee of some of those defensive scrambles, you can’t help but wonder if the presence of William Saliba might have eased things and allowed his side to play the ball out of danger and retain possession to relieve the pressure. Nothing against Holding, but there’s a reason the top clubs are interested in the Frenchman rather than the boy from Bolton with the Alice band. It would be nice to hear he is in line for a return to action soon.

 

People talked before the Leeds game about ten cup finals. One win, one draw and eight to go. It’s entering Alex Ferguson’s ‘squeaky bum’ time and Arsenal cannot afford many, if any, further slip ups. Their game management needs to improve, but that isn’t likely to happen over the course of the next seven or so weeks, because it’s something that develops with time and practice, and most of all the right personnel. Mikel Arteta has some that can do it, but after what happened yesterday, maybe not enough. All the same, nothing’s decided yet, and there were definite signs at Anfield that this Arsenal side could get a result at the Etihad. We don’t have too long to wait on that, but West Ham and Southampton need to be despatched before.

 

One more omen. Difficult away game. Missed penalty from normally reliable goal getter means match ends in a draw. Questions around the self-discipline of certain players. Arsenal go on to win the title. Another 2003-04 game, but not v Liverpool. Old Trafford, August 2003, Ruud van Nistelroy. 0-0. History repeating itself? We do hope so…

 

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