Angry Mikel Arteta quietens Liverpool taunts and saves Arsenal from greater humiliation | OneFootball

After the mockery came the comeback. After the outlandish praise came the cutting criticism. After the boos for one of Liverpool’s finest players in recent years came the Arsenal equaliser. An afternoon that threatened to be a hubristic embarrassment for Mikel Arteta instead produced a response which nudged Arsenal towards a place in next season’s Champions League. And yet he has rarely been more scathing, more obviously annoyed. A manager who left Paris with bullish bravado departed Liverpool lacerating his side.

While some in the Anfield crowd turned on Trent Alexander-Arnold, Arteta turned on his own players. “What we did in the first half is nowhere near the level so to do it after that is not acceptable,” he said. “Especially the defending standards and the errors after we gave the ball away, which is totally prohibited against this team. We were very far off it. Yeah, we had a reaction, but I hate reaction, I like action. What I saw in the first 25 minutes or 30 minutes, I was killing myself.” An apology followed – “sorry for the words I use” – but, it transpired, the most painful element for Arteta was not the taunts from the Liverpool public.

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Liverpool fans reminded Arteta of their status as champions at Anfield (Getty Images)

When Arsenal trailed after two goals in two minutes, the Kop latched on to Arteta’s already infamous assertion that Arsenal were the outstanding side in the Champions League. “Best team in Europe, you’re having a laugh,” came the chorus.

Fifteen points behind Liverpool, Arsenal have not been the best team in England, either, by quite some distance. Liverpool were not slow to remind them; the cover of the programme read “champions” and the same word was chanted. Yet Arsenal have not been beaten by them. They will end the season with twin 2-2 draws. The second might have been deemed all the more admirable because, by the interval, it seemed Arsenal were likelier to get thrashed than procure a point. A fightback, however, was not enough to placate an angry Arteta. “I was really, really upset,” he said.

So how was Alexander-Arnold feeling when a sizeable minority of the Anfield crowd jeered him? “You can understand the mixed emotions going through his head,” said Arne Slot. On a day of mixed emotions, the Liverpool fans had other concerns when, seconds later, Mikel Merino levelled.

In a game of two halves, the Spaniard was not alone in experiencing contrasting fortunes. Merino rescued a point for Arsenal but was also red-carded. Andy Robertson got a belated first assist of the Premier League season but missed a chance to win it, volleying wide in the 89th minute, and then had a 96th-minute goal chalked off because of a foul by Ibrahima Konate.

Conor Bradley was serenaded regularly but found wanting defensively, particularly at the start of the second half. Alexander-Arnold almost scored with a free kick and, in injury time, delivered a wonderful cross that only needed a finishing touch from either Darwin Nunez or Diogo Jota. Neither provided one.

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Andy Robertson had a late goal disallowed as Liverpool pushed for a winner (Nick Potts/PA Wire)

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Martin Odegaard missed a late chance (EPA)

There was no cathartic end for him; merely the sense that some Liverpool fans will not forgive him for walking away. Nor was it an entirely happy afternoon for his replacement-in-waiting. Promoted to start, Bradley arguably had to be replaced after he was troubled by Leandro Trossard and booked for fouling Myles Lewis-Skelly. Slot sent for Alexander-Arnold. The soundtrack changed.

“Maybe he is positively surprised how it went,” claimed the Liverpool manager. “There were a few [booing] but more clapped. Was it half and half, was it 60-40? If you clap it is not as loud as if you boo.”

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The departing Trent Alexander-Arnold was booed on his introduction but had a better reception at the final whistle (AP)

When the volume was turned up before the break, it was to laud a dominant Liverpool and ridicule a floundering Arsenal. Their afternoon began terribly and not merely because what could have been a special set-piece goal, as conceived by coach Nicolas Jover, instead had Bukayo Saka bobbling a shot wide.

Arsenal provided Liverpool with a guard of honour before the game. They were similarly obliging thereafter, offering them a route to goal. “When the team plays like this, that’s on me,” said a self-flagellating Arteta. Arsenal were shambolically open, their offside trap malfunctioning, a usually reliable defence failing to pick up Liverpool players.

Like Slot, who wasn’t looking, they were caught unawares by a quickly taken throw, Robertson left unattended to cross for a similarly unmarked Cody Gakpo to head in. Then Mohamed Salah pierced the offside trap for the on-rushing Dominik Szoboszlai and he squared for Luis Diaz to have a tap-in.

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Mikel Merino was sent off with 10 minutes to go but Arsenal clung on for a draw (Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

“It could have been three or four, to be fair,” said Arteta. David Raya made fine saves from Diaz and Curtis Jones to stop the lead from being bigger. Then it vanished as Arsenal, faced with the prospect of a fourth successive defeat and their worst run since the dog days of Arsene Wenger’s reign, instead faced an angry Arteta. “What happens in that dressing room stays there,” he said.

Arsenal emerged transformed. The catalyst for the turnaround was Trossard, who, shifted to the left, chipped a cross for Gabriel Martinelli to head in from his new role as a striker. Alisson saved from Ben White and Martinelli and terrifically to push Martin Odegaard’s thunderbolt onto the post, but Merino reacted fastest to head in the rebound. Odegaard then almost won it for the 10 men in the 95th minute.

Arsenal were depleted by then, Merino getting a second booking for chopping down Szoboszlai. “Six times we played with 10 men this season,” lamented Arteta. This time, their indiscipline was not blamed on officials. Arsenal finished the game with a 5-3-1 formation featuring four left-backs. And yet the full-back to command more of the attention was Alexander-Arnold. While Slot downplayed his reception, the manager who provided the explosive analysis was Arteta.