Arsenal vs Liverpool live: Gunners settle for draw on frustrating evening against Premier League champions
Arsenal 0-0 Liverpool: The Gunners remain in pole position to win the title and extend their lead over Man City
Arsenal extended their lead at the top of the Premier League table to six points but were held to a goalless draw in a frustrating encounter with Liverpool.
With their nearest rivals for the title, Manchester City, dropping points on Wednesday, Arsenal had the opportunity to pull further ahead but failed to capitalise at the Emirates Stadium.
The home side looked impressive over the first 20 minutes of the first half and forced Liverpool to defend deep. More than once the visitors scrambled to keep them at bay but the league leaders lacked ruthlessness in the final third.
It was Liverpool who came closest to a winner when an error between David Raya and William Saliba sent the ball to Conor Bradley. He chipped the goalkeeper and struck the crossbar. Liverpool then secured themselves at the back and looked strong in the second half.
The champions controlled the possession throughout the final 45 minutes but without Alexander Isak, Mo Salah and Hugo Ekitike lacked creativity up front. A worry for Arne Slot came in the dying moments as Bradley was stretchered off with an injury marking a sad end to a well earned draw.
Relive the action from the Emirates with our live blog below:
Gabriel Martinelli’s shameful moment leaves sour taste in Arsenal and Liverpool’s drab draw
Arsenal wanted a statement, but there won’t be much more said about this 0-0 draw with Liverpool at all - outside the controversy surrounding Gabriel Martinelli’s shameful moment. It was perhaps surprising that Arne Slot's players didn't respond with even greater fury after he pushed a clearly injured Conor Bradley off the pitch.
It was otherwise very much like the game in August, except without a moment of magic to settle it, or pretty much any creativity at all.
Martinelli’s shameful moment leaves sour taste in Arsenal and Liverpool’s drab draw
Arteta on Martinelli trying to push Bradley off the pitch:
"Probably he doesn't know because knowing Gabi, there is zero intention.
"I don't know what happened to Conor, but hopefully it's not bad, but obviously, there is no intention from Gabi to do anything bad to him."
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta, speaking to Sky Sports:
"We know that the margins are very small. I think we have two different halves.
"The first one, where we have a lot of domination, created big situations with players almost onside the six-yard box to pick a player up, and we didn't find the right pass to score the goal. And the second half was a bit more of a struggle.
"This game needs some magic moments, and at Anfield, [Dominik] Szoboszlai did it, and they won the game, and today it didn't happen, but you cannot win it, you cannot lose it.
"We have some moments where we have the right positional advantages to really hurt them, and then when we got into these areas, we lacked quality to pick the players.
"We've come from a very demanding schedule. The last six games that we've played in this Christmas period, and we've come out of that in a really strong position."
Arne Slot’s borrowed tactics confounds Arsenal and provides glimpse at more stable future
Arne Slot had waited 18 months for a stalemate and then two came in consecutive Thursdays. The cliché is that they arrived like London buses; the accusation will be that this was Liverpool parking the bus.
For Slot, the manager who said it was “hard to hear” that Liverpool had been branded dull and boring, a game that was hard to watch was at least a proof of prowess.
Extending an unbeaten run to 10 games showed a more solid reboot has been a qualified success. A damage-limitation exercise was executed with a studied competence.
Arne Slot’s borrowed tactics confounds Arsenal and provides glimpse at stable future
Neville 'fuming' at Martinelli
Over on Sky Sports, Gary Neville spoke about the Martinelli/Bradley incident.
He said: “I'm actually fuming with Martinelli.
“Honestly, I don't know how the Liverpool players didn't go over there and whack him, to be honest with you and take a red card.
“Absolutely disgraceful, that.”
Arsenal and Liverpool draw at Emirates
Most onlookers will label that match a forgettable one.
It was two sides afraid of losing battling it out with each other mainly in midfield.
There were a few moments of imagination but too little for either team to force a winner.
Full-time! Arsenal 0-0 Liverpool
The points are shared at the Emirates Stadium.
Little chances, defensive stabilites and what seems to be a bad injury for Liverpool’s Conor Bradley.
Arsenal fail to take advantage of dropped points around them but they are lead by six points again.
Arsenal 0-0 Liverpool
90+4 mins: Conor Bradley is subbed off.
He slips on the wet turf and twists over his left ankle near the left hand touchline.
Bradley goes down and Martinelli tries to fling him off the pitch and save time.
The Liverpool players are, obviously, not happy with that and square up to him.
The referee regains control but Bradley in genuinely hurt and is taken off on a stretcher as Joe Gomez comes on.
Arsenal 0-0 Liverpool
90 mins: Four minutes of added time to play.
Gabriel Martinelli dances into the box from the left and shoots but his curling effort is scooped up by Alisson.
Arsenal 0-0 Liverpool
88 mins: Just a couple of minutes left in the 90 now. Liverpool will be happier with this point but it’ll be a third draw in a row for Arne Slot’s men.
The Reds have looked a lot more secure tonight, excluding the opening 20 minutes or so, which is a positive step to build on.
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