Arsenal 2-2 Liverpool: Why Arne Slot’s side will be happier with a point
Slot had to change things, so he pushed right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold into central midfield more and more in the second half to give Liverpool an extra man in that area.
He also dropped his two central midfielders who were operating ahead of Ryan Gravenberch – Curtis Jones and Alexis Mac Allister – deeper so Liverpool had more options when they played out from the back. It was the same when Dominik Szoboszlai replaced Mac Allister for the final half hour, too.
At the same time, when Gabriel went off injured, Arsenal adjusted and dropped off rather than continuing to press, and it felt like they were trying to protect their lead instead of looking to score more goals.
That changed the shape of the game, but Liverpool still had to be wary of the Gunner’s threat on the counter – and tried to balance that with pushing for an equaliser.
Against the so-called lesser teams, you can leave one-on-one situations across your backline, but Arsenal’s players in the high positions are some of the best in the world and capable of beating people individually very easily, as we saw with Saka’s goal.
With all that in mind, Liverpool’s plan was to try to keep hold of the ball longer and hope the Arsenal players would switch off to allow them opportunities, without leaving themselves open at the same time.
But, again, you go back to the fact the Gunners are a top team defensively too. We have seen already this season how good their focus is – against Manchester City with 10 men, for example – and they don’t often make the kind of mistakes to let the opposition in.
While Liverpool had lots of possession after the break – 63% – they did not necessarily have much of it in dangerous areas. A lot of it was in the middle of the pitch, where Arsenal were camped, and they were happy for Liverpool to play around them and go from side to side.
In the end, Arsenal only left themselves open a couple of times, and one of them was for the chance that Liverpool made it 2-2 from.
