Liverpool earned a 2-2 draw against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.
Mikel Arteta believes Arsenal’s first-half performance was ‘total domination’ as they were held to a draw against Liverpool.
The Gunners were unable to make their pressure count as they had to settle for a 2-2 stalemate at the Emirates Stadium. Bukayo Saka and Mikel Merino bagged for the home side before the interval. Arsenal put Liverpool under plenty of pressure in the opening period, but could not make it count, with Virgil van Dijk notching Liverpool’s equaliser before the break.
And in the 81st minute, after an improved Liverpool performance, Mo Salah calmly finished to earn his side a share of the spoils.
Arsenal were missing William Saliba, Riccardo Calafiori and Takehiro Tomiyasu while Gabriel and Jurrien Timber were forced off through injury. And Arteta was ‘very proud’ of the performance’ his troops delivered despite failing to take all three points.
The Gunners boss said: “Very proud of the team, especially with the situation we are going through at the moment – probably you cannot imagine. I think in the first half it was total domination, we were really good, really dominant, really efficient and the result probably should have been bigger.
“Without conceding nothing basically we gave two goals away. That’s the really frustrating part, and that we couldn’t see the game out, especially looking at ourselves and two things that we didn’t do in certain aspects.
“We had five injuries in the back line. We have to adapt to it and we will continue to adapt. It’s the situation that we have. Support them and praise the players because the courage again today was unbelievable and keep going. I’m very disappointed that we haven’t won the game today. I think we were better. In two things that we had to do a bit better we didn’t. And some other stuff obviously.”
Arsenal fans wanted Van Dijk to be given a red card when the game was goalless following a fracas with Kai Havertz. Asked about the incident at his post-match press conference, Arteta said: “I haven’t seen the replay.”
