Arsenal – Liverpool 2:2: why Arne Slot’s team will be happier if they score a point

Slott had to make a change, so in the second half he moved right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold more and more into central midfield to give Liverpool an extra player in that area.

He also dropped his two central midfielders ahead of Ryan Gravenberch – Curtis Jones and Alexis McAllister – deeper to give Liverpool more options when playing from the back. The same thing happened when Dominik Szoboszlai replaced Mac Allister for the final half hour.

At the same time, when Gabriel went off with injury, Arsenal adjusted and retreated rather than keep pressing, and it looked like they were trying to protect their lead rather than looking to score more goals.

It changed the course of the game, but Liverpool still had to be wary of the Gunner’s threat on the counter-attack – and tried to balance that out by pushing for an equaliser.

Against so-called smaller teams you can leave it one-on-one in the back row, but Arsenal’s players in high positions are some of the best in the world and are capable of beating people individually very easily, as we saw with Saka. target.

With all this in mind, Liverpool’s plan was to try to hold onto the ball longer and hope that Arsenal’s players switched off to give them opportunities without leaving themselves open.

But again, you come back to the fact that the Gunners are also the better team defensively. We’ve already seen this season how good their concentration is – against Manchester City with 10 men, for example – and they don’t often make mistakes like this to let opponents in.

Although Liverpool had a lot of possession after the break – 63% – they did not always have possession in dangerous areas. Much of this took place in midfield, where Arsenal were camped, and they were happy to have Liverpool play around them and move from side to side.

In the end, Arsenal were only left open on a couple of occasions, and one of those came with a chance to make it 2-2 for Liverpool.