Individual mistakes could cost Arsenal the Premier League title and Liverpool urgently need to sort out two things

On the day the clock turned back, both Arsenal and Liverpool felt like they had taken a step forward.

Arsenal look at another force Bukayo Saka back. They had to avoid a defeat that would have made their title ambitions look slim, even with three-quarters of the race to go, and they played with more passion and purpose than recently.

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Liverpool were far from their best but raised their game after a difficult first half to take a point at home to one of their main Premier League rivals.

Meetings between these two have produced some classics over the years: Charlie George in the 1971 FA Cup Final, Michael Thomas and now up for grabs in 1989, Michael Owen’s late brace to win the 2001 FA Cup and Andrei Arshavin’s four in a 4 -4 thriller in 2009.

Even the first meeting, 131 years ago, when the Victoria Line was a royal bulletin rather than a nearby tube route, was a 5-0 battle for Liverpool.

This 2-2 draw couldn’t compare to any of those enthralling clashes, but Arsenal fans loved seeing their team fight so hard, and Liverpool fans loved seeing their team fight back.

Liverpool showed their resilience. They didn’t play very well, they lacked the intensity in the first half, but they hit back twice.

They showed why Virgil van Dijk and Mo Salah, their goalscorers and two key players, need to address their contract situations very urgently. Too good to lose.

Trent Alexander-Arnold, also whose future at Liverpool is in doubt, was below par but was still involved in both goals.

Curtis Jones rarely gave the ball away, if at all, and certainly enhanced his reputation.

Ibrahima Konate risked a penalty with a challenge on Gabriel Martinelli, but otherwise delivered another assured performance.

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot continued to impress with his impact on his players at half-time and grabbed a useful point.

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Manchester city are clear, but know that Liverpool, well coached and well organised, are in the hunt.

Arsenal, who were slipping in the title race, showed that rumors of their demise are premature.

How can they be written off when Bukayo Saka is capable of such magic as turning Andy Robertson inside out and beating Caoimhin Kelleher quite easily at his near post for Arsenal’s opening goal in the ninth minute?

How can they be dismissed lightly when they have created a clever set-piece, with Mikel Merino timing his run perfectly to meet Declan Rice’s free-kick for their second in the 43rd minute?

Their manager, Mikel Arteta, commented afterwards on Sky Sports that his team had to ‘show more courage to play’ in the second half, and they certainly failed to maintain the earlier urgency.

But their hunger in the first period was deep-rooted; it was as if Arteta’s players felt their season depended on these 90 minutes.

They are not psychologically fragile; they only lose defenders through injuries and suspensions at important moments.

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Some Arsenal fans took to the forums and social media platforms to accuse Arteta of lacking courage, which was nonsense. Arteta did not lack courage when she sent out two teenagers, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri.

Individual mistakes cost Arsenal, not Arteta’s management. Kai Havertz and Thomas Partey were beaten in the air by Luis Diaz and Van Dijk respectively for Liverpool’s first equalizer.

Martinelli was too lax in possession and Lewis-Skelly took the field for Liverpool’s second.

Alexander-Arnold, whose corner had led to the first, released Darwin Nunez on the right and Salah applied the final blow.

Salah’s tenth goal against Arsenal moved him into joint eighth place with Robbie Fowler with 163 goals, overtaking Jermain Defoe, on the Premier League’s all-time top scorers list. Liverpool must keep Salah.

It wasn’t Arteta’s fault that he had to continue to juggle a defense that was already missing the suspended William Saliba and the injured Riccardo Calafiori.

Gabriel limped away and Jurrien Timber staggered away. Arsenal had a central midfielder (Partey) as a right-back, a right-back (Ben White) as a centre-back, and now a player portrayed as surplus (Jakub Kiwior) as a left-sided centre-back, and a teenager (Lewis). -Skelly) at left back. (A penny for the thoughts of Oleksandr Zinchenko).

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It wasn’t Arteta’s fault that his defense was deep when he was in front; they were pushed back by a Liverpool side who found more intensity in the second half.

It was also not Arteta’s fault that Arsenal were unhappy about a controversy at 2-2, which saw the match go into seven minutes of extra time.

Jones interrupted his attempt to clear the ball and then jumped to head the ball away from Liverpool’s goalmouth. The ball was there to be won and fell to the earth, and Kiwior had every right to go for it.

Dominik Szoboszlai was static, Kiwior ran in and jumped, headed the ball forward and fell over the Hungarian’s back.

Szoboszlai did not complain and barely reacted when the ball was handled by Havertz. He lifted the ball over Kelleher and onto the post as Gabriel Jesus turned it over the line.

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Anthony Taylor blew two seconds after Kiwior’s jump and tried to explain that it was a foul on Szoboszlai that seemed non-existent, and why not let the move play out first?

If that was a violation, few aerial challenges will be allowed in the future. Arsenal ended with a real sense of resentment over Taylor’s decision.

They have to use that as fuel to get Liverpool and City.

It’s a three-horse race, but City look like real thoroughbreds.

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