Arsenal took the lead twice against Liverpool this afternoon, but were pegged back on both occasions so the spoils were shared in a 2-2 draw.
Bukayo Saka put us in front before Virgil van Dijk headed an equaliser, then Mikel Merino headed us in front before the break. An injury to Gabriel early in the second 45 impacted our performance, and Mo Salah got on the end of a Darwin Nunez cross to equalise again.
Arsenal did have the ball in the net late on, but referee Anthony Taylor had blown for a ‘foul’ which was never a foul.
Here’s how the players rated this evening.
Read the Arsenal 2-2 Liverpool match report and see the goals here
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0 for the boss
0 seems harsh but agree his tactical/unforced subs always feel reactionary and a little too late to make any real diff.
This attitude always makes me think of Charlton fans who thought Alan Curbishly had taken the club as far he could. Remember what a mess we were before he arrived and be grateful (not to mention dealing with 6 defenders and his captain being out ffs).
Unfortunately, certain individuals wait to jump at anything negative because they just don’t like Mikel.
Context doesn’t matter to these people
We are quick to forget. Thats the problem.
It’s just 5 points and all these naysayers have thrown out their toys.
It’s still early in the season and these boys have stayed in touch despite the mitigation circumstances. these boys and Arteta are going to do some great things this season.
Well said. What we’re lacking now is fine margins. We’ve been on the end of all the bad decisions (baring Wolves of course).
He’s doing what he has to do with the unprecedented financial resources available to an Arsenal manager.
What? We have spent a rather large amount of money over the last few seasons you realise? Poorly at times, but a lot.
Not here to talk about Charlton, but goodness, I loved watching Claus Jensen. He was a round magician, the Jan Molby of the 2000s.
In my opinion the only real question marks Mikel has to answer is about is the decisions he made in the summer transfer window. They knew how many games we had this season with the new format of the Champions League, so to let the likes of ESR, Nelson and Nketiah go without any real additions was clearly going to catch us out. And sure, there are some opinions on those players that perhaps they are not good enough, but whether people like it or not, those guys have contributed in terms of goals, Nketiah did win us games last… Read more »
Exactly, only one defender was playing in his preferred position at the start of the game. No defender was in their usual position when we conceded the second with no first choice defender present on the field. A half cooked Ben White, a 32 year old MF at RB, an 18yo MF playing at LB, and a CB pairing that has never played together. This would’ve been a 5-0 thrashing a few years ago. Media wants us to throw away games for their entertainment. There have been some extraordinary circumstances in at least 4 out of 9 we’ve played. 3… Read more »
Definitely not 0, but I wish he threw some threat much earlier. It was clear Liverpool would equalise and I’d love to see us looking for more goals instead of parking the bus as soon as we take the lead.
We didn’t park the bus, Liverpool were alway going to come out with more threat second half and losing Gabriel caused a sense of anxiety in the whole stadium and the players. We don’t have a Devine fecking right to just control every gave we play. Get some perspective and context. Many on here are talking complete reactionary rubbish. Liverpool are a class team. We dominated them first half without Saliba odegarrd and califiori.
Didn’t catch the game, but this wouldn’t be the first time I’ve seen people mistake an inability to advance the ball forward as “parking the bus”. One is an intentional tactic to defend instead of attack, the other might happen when playing against some of the best pressing teams that ever existed like Liverpool or City and either down a player, or missing some of your best players, or both.
not that I like making excuses for it to be honest. I think like most fans I hate watching us when we get pinned back like that, and I’d like to see us improve to a point where that doesn’t happen. But I guess that’s probably an unrealistic expectation when you lose some of your best defenders, especially your best ball playing defenders in Saliba, Gabriel and Calafiori, and the fourth one (White) is playing in a position he hasn’t played in years, and your best ball playing DM is playing at RB instead. I think even City would struggle… Read more »
Holy shit I am getting so bored of watching these games now, like I really am, because every single time the refereeing is absolutely grotesque, and its happening at such a consistency I really don’t know how it is being brushed off as just ‘incompetence.’ Quite literally every single game this season where we have dropped points, there has been a refereeing incident that has massively contributed to us not winning the game, or being able to win the game. And the only thing thats more ludicrous than their disgraceful officiating is this mafioso like silence in the post match… Read more »
Ah, but it “all evens out in the end” and “Arsenal fans are just conspiracy theorists”. Like hell, this league is as bent as a nine bob note and anyone who can’t see it should check out Specsavers. Nothing will be done because fans are too tribal to get together and call it out. I read somewhere long ago that the TV contracts have a specific clause that nobody is allowed to disagree with the referees, I’d love to know if it’s true because they shut down any discussion so fast. Theo is pathetic, but probably just what they love,… Read more »
Brilliantly said and I couldn’t agree more. Whether it’s incompetence or for me far more likely at this point corruption, how we’re refereed in the EPL is a farce. We are held to different standards from other teams, as evidenced by the outrageous punishments we’ve received over the slightest, most dubious infractions and how those same infractions by other teams go unpunished time and again. We see these double standards not just from week to week but often multiple times within the same game. The officials take points from us again and again and they are seemingly able to do… Read more »
I do think arteta is acting more negative in games. He seems to be a bit more paranoid. But here’s the thing – with the PGMOL, the press and the injuries who could blame him ? Not sure how he’s supposed to move us forward if he’s just fighting fires every week while there’s an agenda to stir chaos and anger where we are involved. My only fear with Arteta is that he is so talented (and people inside the game know this to be true) – that every trick in the NW book is being used to rattle him… Read more »
It’s as if PGMOL trying to make an example of us for calling them a disgrace. Every week the topic is always abt the refereeing, this bullshit is getting tiring. Them ref all can go to hell
This.
They just choose to go to the letter of the law when judging us. Which removes any grey area argument you can have against it. Any subjective call we know will be penalised.
Am I insane or is the Kiwior foul at the end not a foul? If anything it’s a foul on Trent for making no attempt on the ball and only impeding Kiwior. The classic Harry Kane coward’s move.
These fucking refs, these prick former refs they pay for pointless comments on tv, pgmol and all their media apologists are doing my head in, really effecting the enjoyment of the game. Not good.
Terrible referring as normal, the corner situation at the end sums it up
Disagree. The yellow for Jesus telling him about his crap corner decision sums it up. “I was wrong but I may not be criticized. Here’s a yellow for your truth.”
There is a conspiracy, people can deny it all they like but it’s true.
It isn’t.
Jumping higher than someone making no attempt at the ball is a clear foul all day mate. 😐
And unfortunately dipshit nobodies like Taylor will inevitably move into the hierarchy when retired and the endless spin-cycle of shit that is PL refs will continue.
Partey man of the match for me.
Someone slap a turd on Taylor’s cunty head please.
I have to admit i was a bit worried at the start but he was fantastic.
Nice little innovation from the manager, solid execution from the player. Even when the results aren’t lining up, they’re still thinking on their feet. They deserve a bit of luck.
Solid away performance. I say that because every 50/50 seemed to go Liverpool’s way today. Eugh
Martinelli should have had a penalty and I still can’t figure out why a foul was called on our 3rd goal.
Injuries are killing us. At least Saliba will be back.
Partey quietly had another great game for us. Very pleased for him.
Saka a clear MotM, but was also encouraged by Rice, easily his best game of the season. Would have liked Nwaneri and Jesus on earlier in the second half, seriously lost momentum after the Gabriel injury.
Shoutout to Partey as well, thought he was outstanding
I thought Liverpools second goal was mostly on Kiwior.
Gets pulled apart in a way that Gabriel wouldn’t.
Or on Martinelli for losing the ball after great work by Skelly, who then wasn’t in position when Liverpool broke. Wasn’t Kivior’s fault at all.
It’s a little bit on Kiwior for chasing the centre forward to the wing, but yeah the other two contributed a lot.
Martinelli is just not going to be the player we all hoped he’d be, upgrade needed
It’s hard to say if it was on him, Lewis-Skelly or White, perhaps a combo of all of the above. MLS got caught on the initial pass to Nunez, Kiwior then tried to cover for him so he foolishly abandoned Salah who was more central, and White was in a great central position to then take Salah but also abandoned him. It was almost a comedy of errors that you’d only expect to see from a back four made of players who basically have never played with each other.
Still want to see replays of the penalty decision in the first half. Feels like they rushed that one and spent twenty minutes deciding if we were offside for our goal.
Yes, probably frustrated they couldn’t find a way to rob us for the goal
Waiting for Howard Webb to ring them before making a decision.
It was a great fight from the team, so I wouldn’t like to sound too critical, but I wish we could have seen Jesus and Nwaneri on the pitch a little bit earlier…
it’s too boring watching the refs have this much influence in every match and the league as a whole. just as boring as seeing martinelli on the ball. really, it’s the worst i’ve seen in a couple years. even worse than willian. im not even hoping for a goal anymore, just shoot on target. there is no way on earth we’re gonna win the league with someone delivering such consistently mediocre performances. at least havertz scores every now and then.
Couldn’t disagree more. He was MOTM against Shaktar and had some good moments again today in both halves.
We keep dropping points from winning positions. But to be fair, with as many injuries as we have, today’s performance was darn good. One mistake on the counter which we all I new was coming once Gabriel and Timber came on. But what can you do? The question is will we get enough players back to start winning matches in order to keep pace with Man City or will we fall too far behind before we get healthy. I cannot stand internationals.
Sorry. When Gabriel and timber came off…
I can’t wait for the next time we go 4-0 up so we get a contentious decision, in which everyone can say “well you got that blatant decision” …….cause right now coincidence doesn’t cut it
I broke a mirror back in May whilst working on a decorating project. It’s my fault and i’m so very sorry.
Has the fight for the top 4 just officially started today?
Top 4 and win champions league. I’ll be happy with that this season
Win the league
Mixed feeling on this one. Thought we did well at half time but we reverted to sitting too deep as if like we were down to 10 men.
Injuries didnt help either, which is the biggest worry now for us. We ended the game without Gabriel, timber, tomiyasu, tierney and saliba (suspended). Tts almost 3/4 of our defence missing. Hope we have better luck w injuries as season goes on.
And Calafiori.
Bang on, we play really negatively when we go up. Makes little to no sense as we were bossing the game.
Gonna disagree that we sat back. We started turning the ball over and had to sprint back to defend. Only once did we not got back quickly. Pool got no change out of us when we got back. When we defended our backline was generally at the edge of the box not deeper. Pool scored on a set piece and on one counter. They did not run us around in the second half.
They can’t defend these calls anymore, they are blatant. Howard Webb is a fucking disgrace.
I’m so tired of these refs and these injuries, man
Sorry Havertz was a have not today.. No threat and quite clumsy today a 5 out of 10 would flatter him today. Can’t argue he works hard but he is not a great central forward. Thank you Saka once more, for me he is the best since Henry and win a trophy or not his legacy should remain for years and I would put a statue right now as he is what I call world class. Let’s show black lives actually matter. Forget the knees at the beginning of each game but let’s make him history and put him outside… Read more »
Thanks for thumbs down guys. Please keep on your knees as to obviously don’t care about real BLM and that’s not supporting a communist stupid enforcement on football players as if they are racist and actually doing something that means a lot. Saka deserves a statue not because he is great but because he is legend.
We are getting upset but let’s not get too over fixed about the knee thing. I think it served it’s purpose but no longer relevant and also stupid to ask professional people to keep doing this. What has more importance in my mind is acknowledgement whether you are black or what on you achievements and Saka for me as a white person deserves acknowledgement. He deserves a statue not because he is black or white but because he is legend. The knee thing is just communist bullshit. Let’s celebrate an amazing man
Think about it guys this knees has become rather tedious and obviously communist dictatorship on our game. The most important thing is recognition of People. And that’s why I suggest statute for Saka. He is amazing and a Londoner. Get off your knees and let’s have a statue of a great Londoner, Englishman. He is not just black, he is world class
Let’s stop this Communist knee bullshit. Let’s try and actually be real. For me some of my legends are Ian Wright, Henry,Kanu, Viera, and now Saka. Each of those players deserve a statue outside the Emirates. This crazy knee thing means absolutely nothing. What means most is whatever the nationality or colour we make sure they remain in our history. I feel Saka is our present and our history. So please get off your knees and let’s move on. The players are not racist we just need to forget communism and reward a man for what he achieved on the… Read more »
Do you guys actually think by bending the communist knee means anything? Feel free to bend down guys but sorry to tell you this means nothing to black lives.This is just crap and I don’t care about football professionals on the knee. They look stupid. Make black lives matter by rewarding a player like Saka. Please give him a statue. He is legend
Dude, I would also like a statue of Saka, but what on earth are you on about?
Communist?
I suggest you read some history.
Did we play brilliantly today? No. Did we do enough to win? Yes. I am tired of referees just making game changing decisions in our matches and having no repercussions. It’s the fact that he blows his whistle after it looks like Kai might score. It’s just poor optics man. Let the game go on, judge it after using VAR. It’s beyond a joke. I don’t feel like we’re winning it this year… not because we’re not good enough, or arteta is not enough, but we’ve just had so much bad fortune already with injuries and ref decisions. Who knows… Read more »
Disappointed with Martinelli, Trossard and Havertz.
Happy with pretty much everyone else all things considered
Our forwards with the exception of Saka are the reason we won’t win the major prizes , just not enough goals
It’s a little rough for attackers, especially Trossard who is a finisher first and foremost, when you have no creativity in midfield. Saka wouldn’t have scored without that sublime ball from…our center back? It’s long past time we just plugged Nwenari into the Odegaard role instead of unbalancing the team and messing up partnerships.
Arteta has changed us a bit tactically this season, what with injuries, to be more attritional, and rely on our amazing defence. Bit of Mou style tactics. Only now it defence is all crocked…
Pool are a fucking good team. We did alright, given the circumstances, and were basically robbed by Taylor anyway.
Martinelli is so fucking ineffective at producing effective moments.
Would be great to get rid of him in January. Come on Arseblog bloke, have a word with the Edu bloke about going for an upgrade. He’ll listen to you.
I’ve never been more disappointed, well maybe against Zaragoza in 95. We should have won this game but stopped going down the right and moved the ball on the left flank where Martinelli was just atrocious in the second half. Led to their equalizer also. Defense played great especially Partey, was truly a let down for those lads.
First game I got tickets for this season and a great game and atmosphere. I would have taken a draw before the game but always disappointing not to win when you go ahead twice. Think timber wasn’t fit, he wasn’t getting close to Salah for the whole second half. Martinelli was also poor during second half, directly responsible for their second equaliser
It’s a bit rich the whole oh Arsenal should have went for it. 1 we have a series of key players missing 2 we have several lads just fit enough to play and or some lads only coming back from injuries 3 Liverpool are a good side probably the best at hitting you on the counter. I think it’s disrespectful and lazy commentary to say we should have went for jugular and to top it off we loose the main cb , if anything this team is super mentally strong. I like roy keane but that so pure clickbait commentary.… Read more »
Well while I agree with most of the ratings, I feel Gabby M deserved more than that.
i thought martinelli was very good as was partey. Thought it was a very good performance considering injuries.
how martinelli didn’t get a penalty in the first and why there was a foul on Kiwor continues to amaze.
what else is var for except decisions like that? With Kiwor why blow the whistle
oh never mind.
Proud of my team today.
Martinelli was shit
Great result, considering God and the referee are not on our side!
God could be a Saudi, man 🤠
Wish I could be there. What a game! Really proud of the boys. And the fans never stopped I could hear them through out the game. Feels like a proper derby game. We should taken all three points if not for the biased Anthony Taylor.
10/10 for blogs’ legendary scream of “play on you fucking arseholes” entering my brain when Liverpool had a man down.
PGMOL are corrupt cunts.
A good effort all things considered, though it says a lot for how far we’ve come that I still feel disappointed. Really think Raya got himself into no-man’s land for the second.
Finally, Taylor is an utter ball-sack wanker and was before the disallowed goal. And I hope Neville chokes on some cheese.
Havertz and trossard played poorly. I wonder if an earlier nweneri sub could have given us better flow in midfield.
Havertz was good, he links so much of our play, amazing feet for a big fella. Couple is moments we could have been more clinical and it’s a different result. Merino first free kick, Jesus at the end, Saka on Martinelli’s first half cross.
A draw that feels a bit like a loss despite us not having our first choice back four at the end and going into the game a bit makeshift. We were also on the end of some shit refereeing. VVD could have been off early on, they had a player kick the ball away without punishment and the disallowed goal was harsh too. Still, the players we had in our second choice back four were still solid options who are far better and more capable than anyone we had in the squad Arteta inherited. In the end, a point against… Read more »