Arsenal’s impressive 15-month record remains intact despite Liverpool comeback

Arsenal and Liverpool played out a Premier League classic with a 2-2 draw at Anfield on Sunday afternoon.
The north London side had taken an early lead through a clever finish from Gabriel Martinelli before Gabriel Jesus doubled their lead after just under half an hour. However, the Reds fought back and scored just before half-time when Mohamed Salah slipped the ball past Aaron Ramsdale from close range.

Salah then fired a penalty wide past the post before Roberto Firmino eventually equalized in the 87th minute as the two teams ended up sharing the points. But Jurgen Klopp’s side have a number of late chances to earn it, with Ramsdale making a plethora of exceptional saves – in particular denying Ibrahim Konate’s huge kill shot. The England international’s exploits meant that Arsenal’s impressive first-goal record continued. Mikel Arteta’s men haven’t lost a league game in 15 months when they took the lead – they’ve won 28 times and drawn three times in that span after taking a 1-0 lead .

It shows just how far the Gunners have come in Arteta’s tenure, becoming one of the toughest sides in the English top flight thanks to the Spaniard. Sunday’s result put them six points clear at the top of the table, although second-placed Manchester City have a game to play against their opponents.
When asked to sum up the full-time game, Arteta admitted that a draw overall was probably a fair result. “Super intense match,” he said in his post-match press conference.

“We started very well, dominated, got where we wanted. We scored the first goal and played the game where we wanted and scored the second goal and it was time to end the game. Brief before half- time, we gave them hope, we conceded a goal and they inspired confidence in this particular atmosphere and this stadium. “The second half was a completely different story. Not the way we started because I think we started well in the first few minutes. But then we didn’t keep playing great transitional moments against the best team in the world.

“When that happens it’s chaos, there are a lot of balls in your box, it’s hard to get out of those situations and then you have to suffer. We relied on great defensive moments where Aaron took most of them and they missed the penalty.
“Then we could have taken the game because we’ve had three big chances on the break where they’re overworked or it’s two against two, but we lacked that ruthlessness to take the game. When you look at the two halves it’s probably a decent result. The big lesson is probably to play like we did in the first half.”

Do you feel despite the draw, Arsenal was still impressive and a power house to contend with? Leave your comments…