Arsenal locked horns with Premier League title rivals, Liverpool, in a contest that had huge ramifications at the top of the table and the game was a good one for the neutrals.
The Gunners needed a positive result after the dismal outing at Bournemouth, so the fans were elated to see Bukayo Saka latch onto Ben White’s lofted pass, sending Andrew Robertson to the cleaners and blasting the ball past Caoimhin Kelleher. Saka was a major doubt for the match, so to return to the first team and score that early was awesome.
Liverpool equalized nine minutes later when Luis Diaz got ahead of Kai Havertz to flick on Trent Alexander-Arnold’s in-swinging corner. With the ball sailing towards the Arsenal danger area, Liverpool captain, Virgil van Dijk, got ahead of his marker, Thomas Partey to level the contest. Arsenal took the lead again when Declan Rice’s sumptuous cross was met by a Mikel Merino bullet header, leaving Kelleher no chance in Hell.
With Arsenal losing Gabriel and Jurrien Timber to injuries, a transition late on saw Alexander-Arnold tee up Darwin Nunez but with Myles Lewis-Skelly and Jakub Kiwior in No Man’s Land, Mo Salah stepped up and got the equalizer that saw the game end in a draw.
FA’s retrospective decision on an off the ball incident
Officiating has been questionable this season, but Arsenal fans expected van Dijk to be reprimanded for his off the ball incident with Havertz. In the sixth minute, van Dijk shoved the Arsenal striker and kicked out on him twice, forcing Havertz to hit the turf. The Liverpool captain was actually bullish in his post-match conference was he was asked about the incident,
“It is a physical game, and these things happen.”
Sadly, the FA has confirmed retrospectively that van Dijk will not be facing any disciplinary action for his antics on the night. On the same night, Gabriel Martinelli was sighted down by Ibrahima Konate and Jakub Kiwior was adjudged to have committed a foul in the build up to the third goal and these are 50-50 decisions that have a huge impact on games of this magnitude.
The level of officiating doesn’t seem to get any better, but one can only hope these things improve in the course of the season.