Honours even in Anfield Christmas Cracker
Liverpool 1 Arsenal 1, 23rd December 2023.
LIVERPOOL 1 (Salah 29)
ARSENAL 1 (Gabriel 4)
So the festive spoils were shared between England’s current top two footballing heavyweights and after the Reds of Liverpool slowly grew into a first half largely dominated by the visiting “Gunners” of Arsenal, so they too grew into a second half that threatened at first to be an end-to-end thrill ride but which petered out with ten minutes to go into an agreeable draw for all, and Arsenal will sit proudly atop the Premier League tree this Christmas.
There can be no real arguments from either side of this titanic footballing divide as to today’s drawn point for each team with Arsenal flying out of the traps early and thoroughly deserving their 4 minute lead given to them by their central defender Gabriel Magalhães. In truth the goal was rather gifted to the tall defender by some shambolic defending from the Liverpool rear guard as they, together with Reds goalkeeper Alisson Becker, dithered with a rudimentary free-kick from Arsenal captain Martin Ødegaard, and his Brazilian teammate headed into a largely open goal. It was an early lead deserved on the back of their fast start, high pressing and either side of this vital early goal striker Gabriel Jesus could easily have doubled their advantage and for nearly half an hour the game, and Arsenal’s utter dominance of it, reminded me of the 2–2 draw between the team’s towards the end of last season.
Arsenal fully on top.
Liverpool frantically trying to gain a foothold in the game.
As with their April encounter, Liverpool grew into the game the longer the first half went and once again it was the tried and tested combination of a long, raking ball forward from Trent Alexander-Arnold to a marauding Mo Salah on the right wing that saw the Reds level, and with their first shot on target of the entire game. Bringing Alexander-Arnold’s fantastic pass under control, the Egyptian King embarrassed Arsenal full-back Oleksandr Zinchenko, not for the first time this evening, nor the last, before cutting inside and rifling an unstoppable shot past David Raya in the visitors goal at his near post. The constant battle between Salah and Zinchenko was mirrored on the opposite flank with the tussle between Arsenal’s best player this Bukayo Saka and the Reds left-back Kostas Tsimikas and was only curtailed by yet another injury to add to the Reds woes in this department. Saka crudely bundled Tsimikas off the pitch, crashing into Reds boss Jürgen Klopp. Thankfully the big German recovered from the tumble but his Greek born defender didn’t, was immediately substituted by Klopp, and his long line of injury casualties grows by the game and at the busiest footballing time of the season.
As the Reds grew into the first half so Arsenal replicated this in the second but not before a flying no holds barred, end-to-end start to the half that culminated in Joe Gomez, on as substitute for the unlucky Kostas Tsimikas threatening not once but twice to finally score his first ever goal as a professional, and in his second decade of trying! He came closest on 53 minutes as Liverpool had grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck and roared on by the Anfield faithful, poured forward in search of a game defining goal. Gomez would again go close to that elusive goal on 74 minutes with a fierce shot beaten away at his near post by David Raya, but this was the last real goal scoring chance of the game before each team rather settled for a Premier League point apiece. Whilst Arsenal did indeed grow into the game the longer the second half progressed, they never in truth forced Reds goalkeeper Alisson Becker into any meaningful saves, and whilst Raya didn’t make any saves either, he was thankful for both the outside of his near post that was kissed by a deflected drive from Reds substitute Harvey Elliott, as well as the full width of his crossbar when Liverpool should have turned their second half dominance into a winning goal on 72 minutes.
As an Arsenal corner came to nothing and their skipper Martin Ødegaard miskicked a return ball into the Liverpool penalty area, the Reds raced into a counter-attack with Mo Salah leading the charge that turned into a faintly ridiculous five on two, attack versus an overwhelmed and completely out-numbered defence. The winning goal was there for the taking as Salah rolled a perfect pass into the sprinting forward run of Trent Alexander-Arnold and with only David Raya to beat, he thundered his close-in drive against the Arsenal crossbar before it bounded away to safety.
So honours even in a pre-Christmas cracker that sees Arsenal retain top spot in the Premier League by a single point almost mid-way through the season. 3 games in just 6 Anfield days has seen draws with old foes Manchester United and Arsenal and a thumping win over West Ham in the Carabao League Cup and as this evening’s game entered the final 10 minutes of an agreeable draw all round, several Liverpool Reds looked out on their feet and happy for the referee’s final whistle, Mo Salah and Dominik Szoboszlai among many, many more. Not a criticism. Just a simple plain fact. As is the spectre of the Reds next fixture in under 3 days time at Burnley and then only a further 5 days until Newcastle United arrive at Anfield in a new calendar year of 2024.
The Reds looked tired and leggy come the final whistle and deserved this evening’s draw against a fully formed and finished article team in Arsenal. This Liverpool team is being re-built before our very eyes, moulded, shaped and evolved into being in real time and more than matched an Arsenal team that are arguable favourites to claim their first Premier League title in two decades. All simple plain facts. As is the incredible realisation that mid-way through this Premier League season the Reds have only lost once (due in large part to the farce that is VAR) and are still in every competition they entered in August.
But the injuries are piling as high as the coming fixture schedule and patience must be afforded to the Mighty Reds in this transitional season of evolution.
For there will be glory around the fields of Anfield Road if not this season, but in the seasons to come.
A final word from The Boss
“I just saw two really good football teams, a really good game, super-intense. Top, top, top moments for us; could have won, maybe should have won. In all the interviews I had so far, I forgot completely Trent’s shot off the crossbar. That’s why I said, ‘I’m not sure, they could have won’ but with that chance we should have won the game. I only realised that when I had the radio interview. Besides that, they had the better start, we came super back in the game. Anfield was outstanding tonight, I think everybody felt it. It was brutal. It was really nice to see what we can do all together”.
“The reaction to the 1–0 was fantastic. We were super-intense, nearly too intense; we tried massively to influence from outside that we have to calm down in moments, that we have to mix it up a little bit better. That’s what we did, created really good moments with that. “Scored a wonderful goal; maybe the best pass I saw in my life”.
“Second half, we started extremely well. I’m not sure if it’s directly from the first second but we had them where we wanted to have them, our high press was absolutely exceptional, they lost it there a little bit. And we should have created better chances with the high ball wins we had there, that’s definitely something we should improve if we have similar situations again. They are really good and really physically strong, I have to say, in all positions, wow. It’s a good football team. Thank God, we are as well, that’s why it’s 1–1”.
Thanks for reading. Can I draw your final attention to that rather delightful self-published book from May 2023 on the Mighty Reds of Liverpool in the middle of this article before you subscribe here as you wouldn’t want to miss such exciting content!