Superb Salah strike earns Liverpool lucky late draw

For a game that was supposed to tell us more about both sides, especially a Liverpool who claimed a 2-2 away draw, it strangely leaves more questions.

- MIGUEL DELANEY

Even Arne Slot himself pondered “where it exactly will lead towards the end of the season? I cannot tell you yet”. Perhaps that’s why he and Arsenal’s Mikel Arteta declared themselves very pleased as they both portrayed a positive front. The wonder was how much was indeed a front, as there was more debate underneath – not least about injuries.

Liverpool were again oddly flat, and looked like they could soon be susceptible to a bit of a levelling out. The feeling within the Arsenal dressing room was that they would have claimed a properly convincing win if they had their full team. That’s especially so given how good they were in the first half, although that poses a question in itself. An easy answer for Slot, meanwhile, is that Liverpool still claimed a draw and are still within touching distance of the top of the table. The return of 22 points remains immensely impressive for the Dutch coach’s first nine league games at the club, and this one came courtesy of a double comeback.

There was even the emotional elixir of a late equaliser.

Arteta meanwhile said it was the manner of that 81st-minute goal that was the only thing he was disappointed with in the entire game. After a long period when Arsenal had defended close to their own area following the injury to Gabriel, they stepped up, only to be caught in transition. Trent AlexanderArnold admittedly played another divine ball to catch Arsenal’s wayward positioning out, and Darwin Nunez then showed good presence of mind to play in Mohammed Salah for the game’s final goal.

“I’m more disappointed and frustrated about one thing that we didn’t do that we had to do in the second half,” Arteta said. On the whole, however, he declared himself “very proud of the team, especially with the situation we are going through at the moment”. “Probably you cannot imagine.”