“The five of them are the reasons we didn’t beat Liverpool at Anfield last night”- Arsenal icon Ian Wright lasts FIVE Arsenal players after the Liverpool game

IAN WRIGHT CRITICAL OF FIVE ARSENAL PLAYERS AFTER 1-1 DRAW AGAINST LIVERPOOL

Ian Wright was left frustrated after Arsenal recorded a 1-1 draw against their Premier League title challengers Liverpool on Saturday at Anfield.

Even though Mikel Arteta’s side opened the scoring via a Gabriel Magalhaes header, Arsenal’s lead only lasted 25 minutes when Mohamed Salah equalised.

Ian Wright was critical of Gabriel Jesus’ pressing from the front and Oleksandr Zinchenko’s defending before the ball went in, as he told Premier League Productions (23/12/23 at 7:45 pm).

The Arsenal legend felt that Gabriel Jesus should have done better to stop Trent Alexander-Arnold from pinging a ridiculous ball over the top and into the path of Mohamed Salah.

And how Oleksandr Zinchenko just made it too easy to allow one of the Premier League’s best players to cut onto his left foot and score.

That passage of play proved to be costly for Arsenal because they let their lead slip and couldn’t add to it.

But Ian Wright also felt that Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli also could have and should have contributed more to the game.

Arsenal draw at Anfield 

“Yes, you would have liked to have seen more out of Odegaard, Saka and Martinelli,” said Wright. “But, at the same time, for this team to go to Anfield, where this time last season the wheel started to fall off, and to come away with a draw is a good result.” 

Zinchenko and Jesus for Salah’s goal: “Firstly, you can’t give Trent Alexander-Arnold that much space and you can’t let Mo Salah come back inside.

“You think to yourself, ‘this is the dangerman’. Get in his (Alexander-Arnold’s face before he passes it). Look at how close Jesus gets actually (when trying to press from the front). Try and deny him the ball in the first place. Let them pass it to someone else. 

“Once you get into this situation, with Mo Salah who wants to come inside, then Zinchenko knows this and not many people can stop him. You have to do a lot more. I don’t think Gabriel can come out because he has to guard that space.

You can’t let him get inside that easy. It’s the margins that the manager always speaks about. You can’t give Salah and Trent that much time. That’s why we drew. We couldn’t stop that from happening.”

Arsenal top of the Premier League

That’s the main takeaway from this game. Yes, it’s another disappointing result on the road against the so-called bigger sides for Arsenal.

But the main point is that they are sitting top of the Premier League table at Christmas.

There only issue is that you are halfway into the campaign and the Treble winners, Manchester City, are sitting on 34 points in fifth place, only six points behind the leaders and with a game in hand. 

Whilst Arsenal were only battling with Manchester City for the title last season. You feel that they are in for a tougher test this time around because of the number of teams around them.