Liverpool's winning streak came to an end, but they ended up salvaging a 2-2 draw against Arsenal, which wasn't one of the Reds' better performances this season.

Arsenal 2-2 Liverpool

Premier League (9) | Emirates Stadium
October 27, 2024

Goals: Saka 9′, Merino 45′; Van Dijk 17′, Salah 81′

Caoimhin Kelleher – 6 (out of 10)

Given that all the talk before the game was about Arsenal's missing starters, we must have missed the memo confirming that Caoim is now our undisputed number 1…

Be that as it may, Saka had absolutely no chance with the opening goal as he hit high and hard, and with the second even less so.

At times his footwork was good and he was able to take some challenges. A good save from Jesus at the end, but not a game where he had to do much… apart from the goals.

Trent Alexander Arnold – 6

One of his worst games, the day after his speech about wanting to win the Ballon d'Or.

And yet we saw why he potentially could: that incredible ability to select passes and create chances, even on a bad day, that led to him producing two passes here – no assists, both leading to goals.

Otherwise, it was a story of poor passing, not his best defensive work and certainly nothing that marked him out as captain material when it came to the team's promotion.

Ibrahima Konate – 8 – Man of the match

He missed an early interception but made a few big challenges, including getting a thigh on a bouncing ball in the box as Martinelli lingered dangerously. Great recovery pace to take out the same player in the channel shortly after.

Arsenal's ingenuity at set pieces meant that no one was really marking individual players for the second goal, but Merino ended up between Konate and Jones but no one was near him. However, solid and consistent throughout.

Virgil van Dijk – 6

There were questions about whether he should have covered Robertson closer in the first half – or made up ground more quickly – but he responded with a great pass that won a corner and then headed in to level.

Mostly confident under pressure in open play, but none of the defenders were happy defending set pieces and Van Dijk, as the leader there, has to be the one to prevent constant mistakes or allow them to happen in the first place. There was a great defensive header towards the end, but there could have been more from him.

Andy Robertson – 5

In the end, everything beaten is required by Saka the first time around to lead to a goal in typical Salah style. Not only did I have problems with speed, but also with agility in corners.

No surprise when he was substituted; A slight improvement in the second half, but Robertson seems to be one of the weaker links in this team at the moment.

Ryan Gravenberch – 7

Passed over and sidelined too often in the first half; won his share of battles, but was not committed enough and certainly not on the ball in a progressive sense.

An improved player in the second half, a bit more aggressive – something we were lacking as a team that day – but no one in our away kit had a dominant performance and Gravenberch's position more or less demands such a performance, especially in the biggest games.

Alexis Mac Allister – 6

Overran in the middle, got a yellow card for bringing down Saka and generally looked off the pace as Arsenal overran Liverpool. He doesn't achieve the usual level of composure, control or ability to influence the game at all.

Curtis Jones – 6

Played further forward in this game, in Szoboszlai's team, but was unable to have the same impact in that role as he did in the deeper areas against Chelsea.

Struggled to overcome many challenges in a small space; fell back onto the field after being substituted and was a little more involved from then on. Again, not top performance, but definitely a lot of work.

Mohamed Salah – 7

Really poor performance when given a surprise chance after 15 minutes. Played the role of playmaker in the first half, trying to hold and influence others rather than pose a threat to the goal himself.

Things were a little more complicated in the second half when Liverpool were on top and finally got the chance they wanted – and missed it late on. Is on par with Fowler in Premier League goals.

Darwin Nunez – 6

Extremely hardworking and ran a lot in the first half; The problem was that most of it took place at right- or left-back, rather than out-ball or running behind Arsenal's defense.

It's fair to assume that if there had been other substitutes on the bench – Jota, for example – Nunez would probably have been substituted somewhere in the second half as a matter of course, since nothing really went his way, but him pulled off a defining moment: a strong run into the channel and a perfect free pass to find Salah to equalize.

Luis Diaz – 5

He was given the nod to play on the left wing and would have really expected him to have more success in a direct duel with substitute right-back Thomas Partey.

I beat him one-on-one a few times in the second half, but it wasn't nearly enough of an impact, nor was it consistent enough.

Diaz secured the assist with a header for Van Dijk, but is currently far from his form at the start of the season. Didn't really support Robertson in the first half when he struggled against Saka.

His first half was a disaster defensively; was dispossessed twice, lost 11 of 16 duels, committed four fouls – one on the second goal – and lost two tackles.

Substitute

Szoboszlai (for Mac Allister, 62′) – 6 – Sloppy at first after coming on. After that, better work speed, but no final product.

Tsimikas (for Robertson, 62′) – 6 – Defended slightly better than Robertson in one-on-ones, but not much support play going forward.

Gakpo (one for Diaz, 62′) – 5 – No big impact on the left side this time.

Endo (on for Jones, 90′) – * – Seven minutes of injury time scheduled.

Substitutes not used: Jaros, Davies, Quansah, Gomez, Morton

Arne Slot – 6

While perhaps not too many would have disagreed with the names in the eleven before kick-off, it didn't take long before it became clear that it wasn't quite working for the Reds, particularly in midfield where we were second best and an overloaded team.

A replacement of Jones and Mac Allister might have been the answer, but in general we were slower, sloppier and nowhere near sharp enough.

In that regard, things were certainly better after half-time as Liverpool had more control of the ball and played much higher up the pitch, and the manager tried to take advantage of this by using a triple substitution every hour on the hour to keep the pressure on.

This wasn't a classic Liverpool show.

But Slot did enough to get a result on the day and perhaps, looking at the season as a whole, you'll take the point and be happy with it – there's plenty more to gain later.

Maybe a game from which the boss can learn lessons.