Arsenal, Liverpool draw 3-3 in EPL
London, Dec 23 (IANS) Arsenal and Liverpool battled to a 3-3 draw here as two of the English Premier League (EPL)’s most-potent offenses put on a show, though it was defensive lapses that proved decisive.
Phileppe Coutinho (26th minute) and Mohammed Salah (52nd) gave the visitors 2-0 lead on Friday at London’s Emirates Stadium. But Arsenal hit back with goals within five minutes of Salah’s strike.
Neither side looked sharp during the opening minutes in front of nearly 60,000 crowd, reports Efe.
The hosts’ weakness in midfield invited Liverpool to try their luck on the counter. And the approach paid off in the 26th minute, when Coutinho beat Arsenal goalkeeper Petr Cech with a header at the right post after the ball lifted off Salah’s drive to the legs of a defender to make it 1-0.
Liverpool had chances to increase the lead before the half-time break, notably on a Sadio Mane scissor kick that ended up hitting the woodwork.
The second goal came seven minutes after the re-start, courtesy of a strike by Salah that deflected off a defender and past Cech at the left post. The Egyptian star struck his 15th goal as he continues to be the season’s leading scorer.
Seemingly in the driver’s seat with a 2-0 advantage, the visitors proceeded to concede three goals in five minutes.
The onslaught began within a minute of Salah’s goal, as Arsenal pulled one back on a ferocious header by Alexis Sanchez.
Three minutes later, Granit Xhaka scored on a shot from 35 metres out that Liverpool keeper Simon Mignolet should have stopped.
With the Emirates rocking, a give-and-go between Alexandre Lacazette and Mesut Özil culminated with the lattes slipping the ball past Mignolet to put Arsenal up 3-2.
Yet the tide turned again in the 71st minute, as the ball took a Liverpool bounce and landed in the net after Cech made the initial stop against Roberto Firmino.
Salah got a chance in the final minutes of regulation to give his team the win, but fired wide.
The draw leaves Liverpool in fourth place with 35 points, one more than fifth-place Arsenal.
Thrilling game at the Emirates. A point may not be the result we wanted, but the team showed good mentality in the 2nd half,” Ozil posted on Twitter after the game.
Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp was quoted as saying by his club’s website: “We had five minutes where we were very often had obvious problems and individual problems — all the goals. It’s not in this case (about) the team defending.
“Then, after these five minutes, we reacted then much better and deserved in the end the point. It’s the minimum that we deserved tonight. The result is not what we wanted, but the performance for 89 minutes was what we wanted,” the German tactician added.
“We played 94 minutes (with added time) and the five minutes were very decisive tonight and difficult to explain, but good to learn from because we need to react differently.”
