Arsenal came back from 1-0 down to draw against Liverpool at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday, in an encouraging display for Unai Emery’s side.
With most fans and pundits going into the game expecting Arsenal to be on the wrong end of a 4-0, the Gunners surprised everyone by actually having the better of the first half. Liverpool rallied and opened the scoring after the break, but Arsenal fought back and levelled through Alexandre Lacazette.
Though they couldn’t quite get the win, there were a lot of good signs in the clash against one of the title contenders this season. Hopefully, Emery also identifies what the team still need to work on to turn these matches into wins.
Let’s have a look at our individual player ratings for the match.
2Midfield
Granit Xhaka 9
Xhaka led both Arsenal and Liverpool in passes, recoveries and tackles, in an all-action performance that showed exactly what he can do at his best. He completed an impressive seven out of his 11 attempted long balls, and he only made one foul in the 90 minutes.
The Swiss international dominated the midfield with Lucas Torreira, embarrassing Liverpool’s new signing Fabinho on the other side. In the end, the Brazilian was perhaps lucky to stay on the pitch after committing a cynical foul to stop an Arsenal counter, whilst already on a yellow card.
Lucas Torreira 9
The other half of that effective midfield duo, Torreira just did what he’s been doing all season. He made tackles, he broke up counter attacks, he won free kicks and he played the right pass nine times out of ten. The Uruguayan even found himself in a decent shooting position at one point, but he put his effort a little too close to Alisson.
It was great to see that the 22-year-old has this sort of performance in his locker even against the top sides in the Premier League.
Mesut Özil 8
Özil wasn’t quite on the level of the two midfielders behind him. Nonetheless, no one created more chances than him (as usual) and he consistently showed fantastic awareness of his surroundings when given the chance to play a ball around the corner to an overlapping attacker or full-back.
The German’s flick to Lacazette would’ve made highlight reels if the Frenchman could’ve found the net.