London: Having totally dominated the play, particularly in the first half, Arsenal went down by two late goals to Liverpool. It was a story of missed opportunities to score and Arsenal who have won the FA Cup on 14 occasions – more than any other team – were out of the competition as early as the third round.
Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta, who admits being short of a striker and that it’s “unrealistic” to solve the problem, said: “At the moment it does not look realistic. What my job is, and what we have to do, is improve our players and try to get better results with the players we have.
“One thing is what we need and another is what we can do. What we need to do now is stick behind these players, train them and make sure they visualise something very different to what is happening now. They’ve done it (before). We’re not going to reinvent the wheel, because they’ve done it.”
He added: “It is very difficult, but if the team are getting hammered and not playing well and not deserving to win football matches, I’d be much more worried. I’m worried because I love winning and we have to win many more games. At the minute, that’s the thing we have to change and probably what has to be reset. When my team play with courage and attitude against probably the best team in Europe right now (Liverpool) what can I do but stick by them and support them.”
This was Arsenal’s third successive defeat in a run of just one win in seven matches. It was a game they should have won comfortably if it wasn’t for glaring missed chances. Martin Odegaard’s powerful shot crashed against the bar in the 11th minute followed by his fine pass to Kai Havertz which the German mis-kicked. Then a fierce drive by Ben White was tipped over the bar.
Apart from Havertz’s other missed chances, Bukayo Saka also wasted opportunities. The easiest was the shot he put over the bar from a chip by Havertz across the goal from the left.
Liverpool too were unlucky with Trent Alexander-Arnold hitting the bar and then in the second half seeing his fine pass to Darwin Nunez wasted as he shot narrowly wide. Another miss was by Diogo Jota who headed against the bar from a corner which resulted after the Arsenal goalkeeper made a brilliant save from Luis Diaz.
Liverpool had to wait till the 80th minute for the first goal and that too was an own-goal. Substitute Ryan Gravenberch was fouled by Odegaard and from the resulting free-kick Jakub Kiwior headed past his own keeper.
Arsenal launched a sustained attack for the equaliser but five minutes into added time Liverpool brought about a clinical finish for their second goal with Diaz driving high into the net from a pass by Jota.
Liverpool manager, Jurgen Klopp, said: “I’m super proud. It’s a difficult draw (match at Arsenal). With all the things we had to consider, we scored the goals and brought the kids on (substitutes). We fought for 95 minutes.”
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