Liverpool relocate their champion selves against their successors at a damp and difficult Emirates | OneFootball

It’s hard to say this without making it sound like a backhanded compliment, but Liverpool’s expertly conceived and hard-won point from a goalless draw at Arsenal made a more compelling case for their revival than any of their recent wins.

Liverpool’s results have clearly improved over recent weeks after a dire spell, but all season it’s been hard to shake the notion that Arne Slot’s side have played at pretty much the same vaguely disappointing level all season only to have that base performance level masked by contrasting streaks of compelling yet misleading results.

The recent wins – and even draws have had about them an air of looseness and lack of sturdiness. Victories that should have been straightforward over your Spurses and Wolveses have been allowed to become unnecessarily fraught.

The draws that have followed have been disappointing.

This was something far more impressive from a team obviously and conspicuously lacking in firepower.

The first 20 minutes hinted at a long, damp night for Liverpool in torrential rain. Bukayo Saka was giving the over-eager Milos Kerkez a horrible time and, as it generally has here this season, it all felt like a matter of time.

Yet Liverpool grew into the game. Slowly but surely, they gained a foothold. By half-time they were on an even keel, and even came closest to taking the lead from a clipped Conor Bradley effort that cannoned back frustratingly if aesthetically pleasingly in a shower of raindrops off a stranded David Raya’s crossbar.

The second half, though, will be the one that pleases Arne Slot. Liverpool were the aggressors if anyone was in that second half of what was an understandably low-key affair at the end of the glut of festive games in unhelpful conditions.

While Liverpool’s attacking impetus was blunted by the absences of Alexander Isak, Hugo Ekitike and Mo Salah, they still carried the greater threat. They leant heavily on the idea of Dominik Szoboszlai scoring from distance which, to be fair, is a tried and tested method for Liverpool against these opponents.

The tension in the ground was palpable when Szoboszlai had a couple of free-kick attempts. The first was wild, the second flicked the roof of the net and it felt like it would have been extraordinarily unwise for Arsenal to offer up a third opportunity.

But the most compelling element of Liverpool’s performance came at the other end. Sure, Arsenal were short of their best and had been given the freedom to consider a point here acceptable by Aston Villa and Man City’s shortcomings the night before; but the way Liverpool shut down Arsenal as an attacking threat almost entirely after the break was something nobody else has managed here.

Man City came closest back in September, but Pep Guardiola had to go Full Mourinho and still didn’t quite pull it off. Arsenal’s first attempt in the second half was a Gabriel Jesus header just after the clock had ticked past 90 minutes.

Their first and only corner of the second half came in the sixth of a minimum of four added minutes. Even then it might have been enough, so potent is even a damp-squib Arsenal’s threat, with That Man Gabriel getting his head to a delivery sent long beyond the back post.

But that’s why what Liverpool did here was so impressive. They minimised the danger. They gave themselves as few as possible of those hairy moments.

There were also glimpses of what Liverpool need to have more of in attack while they await the return of their missing forwards. And that’s Florian Wirtz wriggling around and giving defenders conniptions in crowded penalty boxes.

He goaded Leandro Trossard into a clumsiness here; it wasn’t a penalty, in truth, but it was in that ‘gave the officials and VAR a decision to make’ territory that always carries risk. There are clear signs that Wirtz is growing more confident in his role within this team, and in a curious way the sudden acquisition of main man status in the absence of so many others may be helping him.

It seems certain the second half of his maiden season here will be very different to the first. And if Jeremie Frimpong’s decision-making in the final third can be improved we may even be approaching Liverpool Are Back territory

Frimpong’s importance is heightened by the one real sour note of Liverpool’s evening, with Bradley suffering what looked like a serious knee injury in the closing stages. We almost certainly haven’t heard the last of Gabriel Martinelli’s deeply unsavoury attempts to shove a visibly stricken opponent off the field of play.

Yet the very fact Bradley’s enforced exit beyond the 90-minute mark was the first and only change Slot made to his already depleted night highlighted the overall effort. This was a night when, for the first time in quite some time, Liverpool carried themselves with something approaching the conviction and character of champions.