Arsenal and Liverpool shake hands, move on after predictable stinker | OneFootball

Oh no. Arsenal drew 0-0 at home to Liverpool! They’re only six points clear at the top of the Premier League now. They’ll be absolutely devastated…

Jokes aside, thank God the Premier League scheduled this game on its own on Thursday night after a hectic Wednesday consisting of eight matches, most of which were sodding mental.

There was a naive expectation that – on the rainiest night ever, in the last Premier League game of this mad glut of fixtures, with Arsenal not needing to go out and win and Liverpool obviously delighted with a point – this game would be a belter. Instead, it was a bit of a stinker.

There were some annoying similarities to the slightly underwhelming reverse fixture back in August. Back then, it was two teams showing far too much respect to one another, afraid to take risks in case of being punished, and ultimately separated by a world-class moment from Dominik Szoboszlai.

At the Emirates on Thursday, it was less about respect and more about being content after watching rivals drop points earlier this week.

Arsenal were the big winners of Wednesday night without kicking a ball. Aston Villa drew at Crystal Palace and, more significantly, Manchester City failed to beat Brighton at home. Villa are being taken seriously, but they’re also kind of not. City are the only team capable of putting the fear into Mikel Arteta’s side at this stage of the season.

A third consecutive draw for City gave Arsenal the opportunity to go eight points clear of them and Villa, but a draw would be just fine given the context of this bonkers Premier League week. If you disagree that a point is fine for both, put yourself through that again and try to tell us that both Arteta and Arne Slot weren’t happy enough. Be our guest.

Arsenal’s lead has extended from five points to six. Goal difference aside, that’s a two-game swing. A draw at home to the fourth-best team in the league is hardly a disaster. It’s certainly not the start of ‘bottling’ it.

It doesn’t do the Reds any favours in terms of catching Villa in third, but that’s not the target at this stage. It’s all about separating themselves from those below them, and Thursday’s point helps them in that respect.

The real losers of the night were the viewers. The people who went to the stadium. Those who travelled from Merseyside. Those who travelled from abroad! They all witnessed a truly dire game of football.

Not only was it flat, dull and goalless, but there was an alarming lack of quality between two of the ‘Big Six’. It would’ve been a struggle to come up with six conclusions, let alone 16. And at least four of those six would have been about the rain. One might’ve included a Milli Vanilli reference, which no one wants to see.

It was a raucous atmosphere at first. It soon wasn’t.

An unnecessarily strong backpass from William Saliba to David Raya spread obvious nervousness from the pitch to the stands. It was a total lapse of concentration that led to Conor Bradley hitting the bar as the goalkeeper scurried back towards goal. It came during Liverpool’s best spell of the first half, before they proceeded to dominate the ball for the majority of the second period as Arsenal shuffled around the soaking Emirates turf.

We had two Dominik Szoboszlai free-kicks: one from an identical position to his winner at Anfield, sliced miles wide, and another from a more dangerous position that hit the top of the goal. That was the Reds’ only real threat in the second half, despite having so much possession.

Viktor Gyokeres’ eight touches – only one of which came in the second half – were cause for concern. He was anonymous. It was alarming. Gabriel Jesus has to start the next Premier League game. And Kai Havertz has to start the bigger games when he’s fit.

The Swede should’ve made a statement against a big rival. The only statement he made was: ‘Look at how much of a waste of money I am!’

Arsenal’s game plan didn’t play into Gyokeres’ hands, that much is true, and there were some very disappointing Arsenal performances. Myles Lewis-Skelly looked miles off the pace when he came on. Declan Rice wasn’t at it at all. Bukayo Saka looked dangerous against Milos Kerkez but quickly ran out of gas.

But Arsenal aren’t big losers tonight, despite playing rubbish. Liverpool aren’t even small losers, despite probably feeling they should’ve won it.

It’s a fine point for both. But Arsenal and Liverpool are the only non-losers (we refuse to use the w word). Those fans at the Emirates will wish they’d never bothered. At least I got paid to write this.