Arsenal show their magic and courage, Liverpool show resilience, but it's advantage Man City
Yesterday at 05:44 PM
On the day the clocks went back both Arsenal and Liverpool felt they took a step forward.
Arsenal look a different force with Bukayo Saka back. They had to avoid a defeat that would have made their title ambitions looking slim, even with three-quarters of the race to run, and they played with more passion and purpose than recently.
Liverpool were far from their best but raised their game after a difficult first half and took a point at the home of one of their main rivals for the Premier League.
Meetings between these two have conjured up some classics down the years, Charlie George in the 1971 FA Cup final, Michael Thomas and it's up for grabs now in 1989, Michael Owen's late brace to win the 2001 FA Cup and Andrei Arshavin's four in a 4-4 thriller in 2009.
Even the first encounter, 131 years ago, when the Victoria Line was a royal bulletin rather than a nearby Tube route, was a 5-0 romp for Liverpool.
This 2-2 draw could not be compared to any of those compelling collisions but Arsenal fans loved seeing their team fighting this hard, and Liverpool fans enjoyed seeing their team fighting back.
Liverpool showed their resilience. They didn't play that well, they lacked intensity in the first half, but they hit back twice.
They demonstrated why Virgil van Dijk and Mo Salah, their goalscorers, need their contract situations addressed urgently. Too good to lose.
Trent Alexander-Arnold, another whose Liverpool future is in doubt, was below-par but was still involved in both goals.
Curtis Jones rarely, if at all, gave the ball away and certainly enhanced his reputation.
Ibrahima Konate risked a penalty with a challenge on Gabriel Martinelli but otherwise delivered another assured performance.
Liverpool's head coach, Arne Slot, continued to impress with his impact on his players at half time and picking up a useful point.
Manchester City are a point clear but know Liverpool, well-coached and well-organised, are in the hunt.
Arsenal, who were slipping in the title race, showed that rumours of their demise are premature.
How can they be written off when they have Bukayo Saka capable of such magic as turning Andy Robertson inside out, and beating Caoimhin Kelleher rather easily at his near-post for Arsenal's ninth-minute opening goal?
How can they be dismissed lightly when they worked a clever set-piece, Mikel Merino timing his run perfectly to meet Declan Rice's free-kick, for their 43rd-minute second?
Their manager, Mikel Arteta, remarked on Sky Sports afterwards that his team needed to show ‘more courage to play’ in the second half, and they certainly failed to maintain their earlier urgency.
But their hunger in the first period was visceral; it was like Arteta's players felt their season depended on these 90 minutes.
They are not psychologically brittle; they are just losing defenders to injuries and suspensions at key times.
Some Arsenal fans took to the forums and the social media platforms to accuse Arteta of lacking courage, which was nonsense. Arteta did not lack courage when sending on two teenagers, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri.
Individual mistakes cost Arsenal, not Arteta's management. Kai Havertz and Thomas Partey were beaten in the air by Luis Diaz and Van Dijk respectively for Liverpool's first equaliser.
Martinelli was too lax in possession and Lewis-Skelly caught upfield for Liverpool's second.
Alexander-Arnold, whose corner had led to the first, released Darwin Nunez down the right, and Salah applied the coup de grace.
Salah's tenth goal against Arsenal and took him to joint eighth with Robbie Fowler on 163 goals, overtaking Jermain Defoe, on the Premier League's all-time goalscorers list. Liverpool have to keep Salah.
It was hardly Arteta's fault that he had to keep juggling a defence already missing the suspended William Saliba and the injured Riccardo Calafiori.
Gabriel limped off and Jurrien Timber hobbled off. Arsenal had a central midfielder (Partey) at right-back, a right-back (Ben White) at centre-back, and now a player depicted as surplus to requirements (Jakub Kiwior) at left centre-back, and a teenager (Lewis-Skelly) at left-back. (A penny for Oleksandr Zinchenko's thoughts).
It was not Arteta's fault that his defence sat deep when ahead; they were forced back by a Liverpool side finding greater intensity in the second half.
It was also not Arteta's fault that Arsenal were unfortunate about a controversy at 2-2 with the game slipping into seven minutes of added time.
Jones sliced his attempted clearance, then leapt to head it away from Liverpool's goalmouth. The ball was there to be won, dropping to earth, and Kiwior had every right to go for it.
Dominik Szoboszlai was static, Kiwior ran in and jumped, heading the ball forward and falling over the back of the Hungarian.
Szoboszlai did not complain, and hardly reacted as the ball was seized on by Havertz. He lifted the ball over Kelleher and on to the post with Gabriel Jesus turning it over the line.
Anthony Taylor blew two seconds after Kiwior's leap, and tried to explain it was a foul on Szoboszlai which seemed non-existent, and why not first let the move play out?
If that was a foul, there will be few aerial challenges allowed in the future. Arsenal finished with a real sense of grievance over Taylor's decision.
They need to use that as fuel driving them to catch Liverpool and City.
It’s a three-horse race but City look the real thoroughbreds.
