Arsenal 0-0 Liverpool: Sub-par second half causes frustration

Match report – Player ratings – Arteta reaction 

It’s perhaps lost in the frustration of last night that Arsenal once again extended our lead at the top of the Premier League table with a 0-0 draw against Liverpool. The lead just isn’t as big as we had all hoped going into this game.

After City’s draw on Wednesday, there was an opportunity to go 8 points clear – in the end we’ll have to ‘settle’ for 6. Which, in the cold light of day, is hardly terrible, but I think it speaks to the sense of anxiety that is never too far away this season. And when you face a Liverpool side without three of their best attacking players, it’s hard to not look at this as a chance that went begging.

I thought we were the better side in the first half, in a game that played out as I had thought it might. Liverpool came, played cautiously, and sat deeper than they normally would, inviting us to break them down. There were moments, most of which came from Bukayo Saka down the right hand side, but a combination of the final ball not quite being right, Liverpool defending well, and Arsenal’s forwards not quite being on their toes meant there were was no end product.

The best chance of the half fell to the visitors, when a mix-up between William Saliba and David Raya saw the ball fall for Conor Bradley, whose chipped effort came back off the bar. At the other end a ball from Declan Rice was not attacked well enough by the Arsenal men in the box, once again Viktor Gyokeres not on his toes in the way you’d like your centre-forward to be. It was another night to forget for the Swedish international, who had just 8 touches of the ball, by the far the least of any starter. I accept we have to supply him, or any striker, with chances, but I also think that player needs to get involved more. He just looks a bit lost, not on the same wavelength as anyone around him, whether we’re in possession or out. Mikel Arteta has some serious thinking to do about this.

So, 0-0 at half-time wasn’t the end of the world, particularly when you consider how good we’ve been after the break in many games this season. Unfortunately, we produced potentially our worst 45 minutes in a long time. I need to go back and watch again to properly understand why it was such a struggle, but I think a combination of Liverpool playing well, Arsenal being poor on the ball when we did have it, and being out-numbered in midfield is what it boils down to.

Afterwards, Arteta talked about his side being imprecise with the ball, which seems obvious, but the difference between the first and second halves is quite something.

First Half

Arsenal possession: 60%
Liverpool possession: 40%

Arsenal pass success rate: 90%
Liverpool pass success rate: 86%

Second Half

Arsenal possession: 35%
Liverpool possession: 65%

Arsenal pass success rate: 78%
Liverpool pass success rate: 91%

They upped their game considerably, our performance level fell of a cliff. It was interesting to me that on Sky afterwards, Arteta said that Liverpool did pretty much exactly what he expected based on the team they selected, which meant dropping an extra player into midfield to crowd us out, but even with a bench as stacked as ours, we couldn’t find a way to counter that. And it was frustrating to see a team that is normally so technically proficient struggle to keep the ball in any meaningful way.

In fact, if you take the final few minutes out, when Liverpool ‘settled’ for a point and dropped back into their own half, their domination of possession was even greater (almost 70%). I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect a side as good as they are not to have a spell in the game where they enjoy some of the ball, but it’s unusual for Arsenal to allow that for an entire half of football. We simply couldn’t shift the momentum, if you can call it that.

That said, for all their possession, they didn’t have a shot on target. ‘Sterile domination’, as Arsene Wenger used to call it, and if there is a silver lining this morning it’s that they couldn’t make the most of having that much of the ball. Jeremie Frimpong, who gave substitute Myles Lewis-Skelly a very hard time after he’d come on for Piero Hincapie, was guilty of some bad decision making in key moments that otherwise should have been more dangerous for us.

Arteta made changes which had little impact, although Noni Madueke getting the byline and pulling another ball back which we failed to attack properly was another moment of frustration. So too the corner in the last seconds when Madueke delivered to the back post, Gabriel was there but missed the ball – perhaps obstructed, or distracted, by Gabriel Jesus who should have left it to the big man.

In the end a draw, a single point and not three, and frustration that we didn’t make the most of the opportunity we had in our hands. I don’t think it’s fatal or anything, but this was built up beforehand into a night that might go a long way to decide the title (even in January), and it turned out to be something much less enjoyable.

Afterwards, Arteta said:

I think we had two different halves. The first one where we have a lot of domination, created some big situations with players almost inside the six yard box to pick a player up, and we didn’t find the right pass to score the goal. And the second half was a bit more of a struggle. We were very imprecise with the ball.

He also took a moment to acknowledge the recent run, which has seen us take 16 points from a possible 18 through December, following the defeat to Aston Villa:

I have to really praise the team and the players individually for what they’ve done in this Christmas period. Because the demands and the schedule, it’s unbelievable. And what they’ve done, I think, is remarkable. So to come out of this period with all the issues that we had, in the position that we are, in our strong position that we are, I think the boys deserve my credit and everybody’s recognition.

Last night was a real struggle, and obviously there’s significant room for improvement, especially on the second half performance. But no title race is ever without its ups and downs, and if our down in this period is a draw against an admittedly depleted champions and a clean sheet, it could be a lot worse. The FA Cup game this weekend, and more midweek cup action, should allow the manager to rest some of the players who have had to play a lot of late, and put us in good shape to get back to winning ways when we next play in the league on January 17th.

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Just a word on the Gabriel Martinelli incident involving Conor Bradley late on. I didn’t like it at the time, he shouldn’t have done it, he was rightly booked, but I have to think he just didn’t realise how serious it was for the Liverpool player. I think there are certain players who you would say have that bit of nastiness to them and wouldn’t care if an opponent was injured, but he’s really not one of those. So, it was a bit unseemly. I think the Liverpool players taking exception to it was absolutely fine, but I don’t think it was anything other than a heat of the moment situation, an adrenaline burst of competitive spirit late in a game to keep the ball alive and perhaps find a winner.

Update: Martinelli has issued an apology on his Instagram account, saying he didn’t understand it was a serious injury in the heat of the moment. Which, I think, has to be taken at face value as it’s the most obvious explanation for all of it.

I thought Arne Slot spoke well on it afterwards, saying:

I don’t know Gabriel Martinelli, but he comes across as a nice guy. The problem for him, and it’s a problem in general in football, is that there is so much time-wasting in the final parts of games that sometimes you can be annoyed when you want to score a goal and you feel a player is pretending to be injured. I’m 100 per cent sure that if he knew what the injury might be, he wouldn’t do that.

Arteta said:

Knowing Gabi, if anybody knows Gabi, he’s an incredible, lovely guy. And probably he didn’t realise what happened. I hope that Conor is well, I will have a word with him now, with him, to understand that. But probably he didn’t recognise what happened.

It didn’t look good for Northern Ireland international though, and I think as a club that has suffered through plenty of serious injuries of late, we can sympathise with him while acknowledging Martinelli would likely act very differently if he had known how serious it appears to be. Hopefully it’s not what it looks like, but if it is, let’s hope he can make a speedy and full recovery.

I will say this though, someone needs to have a word with Gary Neville on Sky who said he thought a Liverpool player should go and ‘whack’ Martinelli as retribution – even if that meant getting a red card. As the senior co-commentator on their biggest games, there’s a level of responsibility required from him there. Leaving aside how idiotic it would have been for a Liverpool man to do that, meaning they see out the game a man light as well as someone picking up a 3 game ban, it’s just not right that a broadcaster advocates violence of any kind of a football pitch.

As for Roy Keane getting on his high horse afterwards, people in glass houses, regardless of how long they’ve been retired, shouldn’t throw stones. Him, of all people, tut-tutting at how fellow professionals should behave on the pitch is absurd. What Martinelli did was not right, but it’s not even in the same ballpark as dozens of incidents involving Keane and the harm, potential or otherwise, he did towards his opponents during his playing career. Wind it in, Roy.

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Right, I’m gonna leave it there for now. We’ll have an extra Arsecast Extra for you a bit later this morning. That’ll be out before noon.

Until then.