Substance over style – 5 talking points from Arsenal 2-2 Liverpool

Liverpool’s 2-2 draw against Arsenal was a fair result, if not the greatest performance from the Reds, who drew for the first time under Arne Slot.

Arsenal 2-2 Liverpool

Premier League (9) | Anfield
October 27, 2024

Goals: Saka 9’, Merino 43’; Van Dijk 18’, Salah 81’

---

The fight to fightback

Liverpool under Jurgen Klopp didn’t gain the nickname mentality monsters by accident. It may have been Klopp himself who coined it, but it came on the back of a never-say-die attitude in important games.

It’s by design that Slot’s team does not constantly play with the all-out, monster energy and frantic drive of a Klopp team, but in important moments having gone behind against Arsenal, they showed they still have the resilience to come back into games.

It was especially important to do so in this game against a fellow would-be title challenger, and they managed it twice.

It wasn’t a perfect performance from Liverpool, far from it, but not losing was important.

A difficult game was navigated with no shortage of resilience, even if some of the verve seen in previous seasons was lacking.

 

Missing midfield

Liverpool’s midfield was ineffective in the first half, offering neither protection at the back nor a contribution in attack.

Alexis Mac Allister’s lack of defensive ability on the left of central midfield made Andy Robertson’s already tough job against Bukayo Saka more difficult and had a knock-on effect on the attacking threat of Luis Diaz, who had to track back more.

Curtis Jones, man of the match in the last league game in a central midfield position, started further forward and couldn’t get into the game as a result.

There were slight improvements at the start of the second half and then Slot changed things up personnel-wise by bringing Dominik Szoboszlai on for Mac Allister, but they were still not convincing in this area.

In the end, the best approach for Liverpool appeared to be to go long, passing behind the Arsenal defence and missing out the midfield altogether.

One such moment produced the second equaliser which involved a great bit of play from Trent Alexander-Arnolod, Darwin Nunez, and Mo Salah.

 

Coping with injuries

Much of the narrative in the build-up to this game was focused on injuries, and it looked like they might play a part in the game itself too.

Though Liverpool went into the match without their first-choice goalkeeper and striker, also missing solitary summer signing Federico Chiesa, the talk pre-match focused mostly on Arsenal’s absentees.

William Saliba was out through suspension but in the end, Arsenal only had two players missing through injury, Martin Odegaard and Riccardo Calafiori.

Mikel Arteta had suggested Saka and Jurrien Timber would miss the game, but both started and Saka opened the scoring.

Arsenal could feel aggrieved to lose another centre-back, Gabriel, mid-game, and then Timber too. Liverpool eventually took advantage by scoring the second equaliser.

They couldn’t do any more of that, though, and both teams will be happy with this result given the circumstances in which they went into the game or encountered within it.

Van Dijk reacted with some surprise after the match when asked about Arsenal‘s injury list, responding on Sky Sports: “Well, I think they only had two injuries today, isn’t it?

“Yeah [we’ve got our own]. So obviously they played a very, very strong team, and it’s part of the game.”

Even

 

Set-piece special

Arsenal’s set piece coach Nicolas Jover was credited for the goal Arsenal scored from a set-piece as Declan Rice whipped a cross in for Mikel Merino to head home.

Jover is always prominent in the technical area in those moments and is one of the most well-known set-piece coaches in the league.

Gary Neville jibed on commentary that Jover wasn’t stood up when Arsenal conceded from a set-piece at the other end, which was well-worked by Liverpool.

Liverpool’s set-pieces are overseen by coach Aaron Briggs, and the move by Diaz towards the Trent Alexander-Arnold cross at the near post was clever and perfectly executed by all involved as he flicked on for Van Dijk.

They maybe could have done with a few more corners, especially once Kostas Tsimkias came on with Gabriel off injured, but they didn’t create enough in attack to force such situations regularly. And in the end, neither did Arsenal.

 

Can Liverpool bounce back again?

Liverpool bounced back from Slot’s only defeat as Liverpool boss, against Nottingham Forest in September, by winning the next eight games in a row.

They will now need to bounce back similarly with another run of victories if they are to keep pushing in this title race.

There are potentially tricky games against Brighton and Aston Villa on the horizon, but there is the bonus of having some breathing space in the Champions League.

With an EFL Cup game to come in the week, this next run of games will test Slot’s squad rotation and his trust in some of the players who haven’t played much so far.