Arsenal's night of anxiety shows there is still long way to go : Liverpool force first Gunners blank at the Emirates

Raining on their parade : Picture by @YTJourno

Premier League

Arsenal 0

Liverpool 0

The folly of believing three Man City draws in a row had just about finished the title race was exposed as just that.

Champions Liverpool became the first side to leave the Emirates this season with a clean sheet and only the second after Man City to claim a draw here.

Having also prevented the Gunners from scoring in the reverse fixture at Anfield, they have done their best to keep those Gunners title ambitions on hold.

The point was fully merited. They were by far the better side in the second half and an off-key Arsenal seemed to wilt in the teaming rain, misplacing passes and struggling to join up the dots as a disciplined Reds pressed effectively and defended excellently.

The consolation for them is they do have a six point lead at the top of the table - if not the eight they were aiming for ahead of the FA Cup weekend break.

It was another game that sadly also raised questions about the efficacy of Viktor Gyokeres - or lack thereof. He struggled to make himself a target, never able to hold up the ball or run in behind those well organised white away shirts. It was no surprise when he made way for Gabriel Jesus in the second half.

For all Arsenal's promising first-half dominance and the constant threat posed by Bukayo Saka down the right - seemingly having the beating of Milos Kerkez every time - it was the Reds who came closest to opening the scoring when Conor Bradley's chip came back off the crossbar.

The chance came after William Saliba's pass back to David Raya caught the Arsenal keeper by surprise and he could only knock the ball forward to the Liverpool defender, who had instigated a rare raid. It served to ratchet up the anxiety levels which never really went away after that.

Mikel Arteta's arm waving probably only served to increase the tension in his troops.

The stress mounted as Liverpool grew in confidence, and time on the ball. They monopolised the start of the second half and panicked Arsenal into uncharacteristically hasty clearances that ensured the ball kept coming back at them.

When the Reds won a free-kick centrally 30 yards out, a nagging sense of deja vu took hold as Dominik Szoboszlai lined up to take it. From a similar position he had smashed in a late winner when the sides met at Anfield - one of only two league defeats suffered by the Gunners so far this season. Thankfully this time, the Hungarian shanked it well wide.

He would get another chance from closer in later on and did not clear the bar by much.

With Jeremie Frimpong impressing down the right flank as Liverpool built spells of pressure, and with concerns that a Leandro Trossard challenge on Florian Wirtz might have resulted in a penalty, perhaps this was an occasion where a point was better than nothing.

In the end, those single points as well as wins will decide the destiny of the 2025-26 title race.

Gunners: (4-3-3) Raya - Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Hincapie (Lewis-Skelly 57) - Odegaard (Eze 78), Zubimendi, Rice - Saka (Madueke 78), Gyokeres (Jesus 65), Trossard (Martinelli 65)

Reds: (4-2-3-1) Alisson - Bradley (Gomez 95), Konate, van Dijk, Kerkez - Gravenberch, Mac Allister - Frimpong, Szoboszlai, Witrz - Gakpo