Let’s look back at the notable highlights surrounding the epic match between Arsenal and Liverpool at the Emirates fortress.

The highlight of the midfield in the first half

With home advantage, Arsenal quickly imposed the game on Liverpool in the first minutes. Coach Jurgen Klopp’s players were constantly forced towards their own half of the field and could not advance the ball more than half the field.

Not only that, the close pressure from behind by Declan Rice or Jorginho caused the players on The Kop’s оffensive line to constantly lose the ball. If they were luckier, Arsenal would have scored the opening goal from captain Martin Odegaard in the 10th minute, after central midfielder Alexis Mac Allister had the ball stolen right in the middle of the field.

During most of the first half, Liverpool’s attacking situations were easily resolved by Arsenal.

Arsenal had complete control in the middle of the field.

Reiss Nelson is too immature

The 24-year-old young English striker was given the lowest score on Arsenal’s аttаck by Sofascore.

Reiss Nelson played energetically on the day he started, but he still couldn’t help Arsenal find what they were missing. That was the goal.

Nelson moved smartly to catch Aaron Ramsdale’s pass, but he decided to go past goalkeeper Alisson Becker and then kιck the ball out. Since then, Nelson no longer posed any dаnger towards Liverpool’s goal before ceding his position to Gabriel Martinelli in the 62nd minute.

Nelson missed the opportunity to open the score for the Gunners in the opening minutes of the match.

Kai Havertz makes fans bored again

In fact, Havertz did not play too badly in this match, but when looking at the number of opportunities he missed, many people had to question his presence at the top of the Gunners’ аttаck.

Havertz had a total of 6 shots in this match, including 2 situations where the ball went into the middle of the goal and 3 times the ball went out.

However, what is worth mentioning is that when the German international took two shots in the right direction, he was both in an empty position, but he shot without power and there was no dаnger to Alisson’s goal.

Havertz failed every time he faced the goal.

How long will Mikel Arteta lie to himself?

Of course, Arteta can justify this loss partly because of the absence of key striker Gabriel Jesus, but the previous 4 consecutive matches could not score more than 1 goal, including 2 blank losses. The Spanish coach could not continue to hide the problem that the Gunners were having.

Arsenal could have won if in the first half they took advantage of opportunities to score. The Gunners made 13 shots, 6.5 times more than The Kop, but the strikers on the аttаck line missed good scoring opportunities.

Perhaps after this match, both Coach Arteta and Sports Director Edu Gaspar need to seriously consider recruiting someone capable of converting opportunities into goals in this January transfer window, if they do not want a shortage of goals. Missing goals still persists.

Arsenal can only blame themselves after missing too many scoring opportunities.

Jurgen Klopp’s mastery

The German coach brought a completely new Liverpool in the second half by bringing Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez back to play in their strong positions and immediately, this tactical adjustment was effective with 3 shots. Dаnger points in the first 5 minutes.

Since then, Arsenal was no longer able to control the match like in the first half, but instead, they continuously faced dangerous аttаck situations from The Kop. 

Diaz and Nunez played quite well in this match.

Not only that, Klopp’s substitutions proved extremely effective, Diogo Jota and Ryan Gravenberch both contributed to both goals for Liverpool. 

Gravenberch brought in a free kιck at Arsenal’s end, indirectly bringing in the opening goal thanks to Jakub Kiwior’s own goal after an uncomfortable ball from Alexander-Arnold.

Meanwhile, Jota had a favorable pass to help Luis Diaz increase the score to 2-0, sealing the victory for Liverpool.