Arsenal played out a 1-1 draw at the Emirates Stadium against Liverpool on Saturday. The result leaves the Gunners one point below rivals Tottenham Hotspur in the Champions League race, whilst Jurgen Klopp’s side have moved a point ahead of Manchester City at the top of the Premier League. The Citizens host Southampton on Sunday.
James Milner opened the scoring for the visitors on the hour after Bernd Leno failed to deal sufficiently with Sadio Mane’s cross from the left.
Unai Emery’s side came away with a point thanks to an excellent solo effort from Alexandre Lacazette in the final 10 minutes.
Here are how the players fared:
Arsenal
Bernd Leno 5 – Made a couple of saves but ultimately at fault for the opening goal.
Hector Bellerin 6 – Offered width going forward and largely kept Sadio Mane in check down the wing.
Shkodran Mustafi 9 – Excellent performance from the German centre-back who made a number of timely interceptions and helped prevent Roberto Firmino from testing Bernd Leno all day.
Rob Holding 9 – Some last ditch challenges and interceptions around his own penalty area in an excellent performance from the centre-back. Neither centre-back was at fault for Liverpool’s goal.
Sead Kolasinac 6 – Mohamed Salah created a couple of chances from down the right wing but was unable to test the Arsenal goalkeeper himself.
Lucas Torreira 9 – Some excellent tackles time and time again inside his own half to win possession back for his side. Lucas Torreira was often useful in possession of the ball too.
Granit Xhaka 8 – Good use of the ball in front of the defence today as Granit Xhaka connected with a few nice passes. The Swiss international saw a lot of the ball at the Emirates and made some good challenges too without picking up a yellow card today.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan 6 – Created the odd chance for his teammate but Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s possession was largely away from goal.
Mesut Ozil 5 – A quiet game from the German aside from the odd nice pass in the final third.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang 5 – Saw little of the ball down the left wing, didn’t test Allison and was ultimately substituted.
Alexandre Lacazette 8 – Worked hard up front and an excellently timed run to latch onto Alex Iwobi’s through ball led to his equaliser.
Substitutes
Alex Iwobi (24 mins) N/A – Came on to provide an excellent slide through ball for Alexandre Lacazette’s goal.
Aaron Ramsey (19 mins) N/A – Late substitute when Arsenal were chasing the game but Aaron Ramsey saw very little of the ball to make any impact.
Danny Welbeck (11 mins) N/A – Got in one good position but didn’t make anything of it.
Liverpool
Allison 6 – Rounded by Lacazette for Arsenal’s equliser but otherwise Liverpool fans can’t have any complaints about Allison’s performance.
Trent Alexander-Arnold 7 – Kept Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang quiet down the wing but was beaten by the off the ball run of Alexandre Lacazette in a lazy effort for Arsenal’s goal.
Virgil van Dijk 9 – Missed two good headed opportunities from set pieces but was otherwise a rock at the back once again for Liverpool today.
Joe Gomez 7 – Got caught out of position a couple of times but neither centre-back can be criticised for Arsenal’s goal.
Andy Robertson 7 – Kept Henrikh Mkhitaryan quiet for most of the game and put a couple of crosses into the box himself.
Fabinho 8 – Mesut Ozil had a quiet game as Fabinho broke up the Gunners’ play on a few occasions.
Georginio Wijnaldum 6 – Steady game in midfield without really offering much in either attack nor defence.
James Milner 9 – Smashed home Liverpool’s goal when the ball fell kindly to him, James Milner put in a great battling performance in midfield that saw him win aerial battles, tackles and create chances.
Mohamed Salah 6 – The Egyptian forward created a couple of chances but failed to test Bernd Leno all game.
Roberto Firmino 5 – Anonymous for much of the game before being replaced in the final 10 minutes.
Sadio Mane 6 – Made some promising runs off the ball but was never picked out by a teammate when in good position. As a result, Sadio Mane found himself on the fringes.
Substitutes
Xherdan Shaqiri (12 mins) N/A – Barely touched the ball as Arsenal dominated the final 20 minutes.
Joel Matip (1 min) N/A – Brought on for Mohamed Salah in stoppage time to help run down the clock and see out the 1-1 draw.
