Arsenal missed the opportunity to extend their Premier League top spot to 8 points, when they were held to a 0-0 draw by defending champion Liverpool at the Emirates Stadium.
The home team dominated most of the first half, but the clearest opportunity of the match belonged to Liverpool. In the 27th minute, defender Conor Bradley shot and hit the crossbar after a mismatched combination between William Saliba and Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya.
Without a true center forward because Hugo Ekitike was absent due to injury, Liverpool still improved the game after the break. However, the away team did not create any truly dangerous situations enough to convert the advantage into a goal.
The hot spot came in a dispute in the penalty area, when Florian Wirtz fell after Leandro Trossard's tackle. The referee did not award Liverpool a penalty, and the VAR only checked for a short time before upholding the decision.
Dominik Szoboszlai - who once decided the first leg in August with a beautiful free kick - almost recreated that moment in the last 10 minutes, when he launched a long-range shot that hit the crossbar. However, that was also the rare time the two teams approached the goal, on a night when sharpness in the decisive stage did not appear.
Drama was pushed up in injury time. Bradley had to leave the field on a stretcher after Gabriel Martinelli's foul. After that, Martinelli seemed to push Bradley off the field, causing the players of both teams to rush into a heated argument.
With this result, Arsenal still leads, 6 points ahead of Manchester City and Aston Villa. The two teams chasing are currently only ranking by goal difference.
Arsenal widens the lead gap, but not enough 8 points
Arsenal fell into a half-hearted state after this draw. They consolidated their leading position in the rankings, but the main feeling is still regret, because the 6-point gap is clearly not commensurate with the opportunity that has appeared.
Mikel Arteta's team entered the match with a very favorable opportunity to extend their advantage to 8 points, after Man City was held to a 1-1 draw by Brighton the day before. Therefore, Emirates stands are waiting for a victory against the reigning champion who is facing many problems.
A promotional video and a light show before the ball rolls were used to "activate" the atmosphere on a cold rainy night, but when the match started, Arsenal could not bring the match to the right pace and quality as expected.
Bukayo Saka repeatedly put pressure on left-back Milos Kerkez on the right flank, but Alisson hardly had to make any significant saves.
The "Gunners" closed the match with an expected goal difference of only 0.52 out of 9 shots, Liverpool was 0.36. Arteta became more and more annoyed towards the end - he received a yellow card for constantly leaving the technical area - and the final whistle was responded to with quite cautious applause.
Arsenal is still in the position they are aiming for, but this is also the time they can make Man City pay the price for their erratic performance. Not taking advantage of that opportunity makes the 0-0 draw more meaningful as a drop in advantage than a satisfactory result.
Another difficult night for Gyokeres
Viktor Gyokeres has currently gone through 10 consecutive matches without scoring from a live ball situation. Arteta can continue to argue that Gyokeres contributed more value than scoring, but in fact those contributions were almost not shown in the match against Liverpool.
In 64 minutes on the field, Gyokeres only touched the ball 8 times. Notably, he did not have any touches from the 11th to the 40th minute, and only had one more touch after halftime. This is the lowest touch statistic in all matches he started for Arsenal.
At least two dangerous crosses were put into the area where a team could expect their number one center to appear, but Gyokeres was completely absent.
Of course, there are still mitigating factors when the pre-season period is disrupted due to waiting for transfer completion, besides injury issues. And the reality is that Arsenal is not always operating smoothly in the front line even though they are leading the table. However, to a certain extent, Arteta may be forced to consider other options for the role of leading the attack.
