MOTD: Arsenal 0-0 Liverpool

By on August 24, 2015

Welcome back to the Premier League. There are few bigger English classics than Arsenal versus Liverpool  and just three weeks into the new season, their meeting at the Emirates provided a memorable, perplexing thriller. There were thirty-four shots and six bookings, yet no goals. Each side sporadically exhibited flashes of brilliance but so many errors, misplaced passes and wayward shots were strewn across ninety minutes of football that neither side can look back on the draw without regrets.

If the game wasn’t bizarre enough already, it somehow ended in a goalless stalemate when a 3-3 draw would have been more fitting.  Arsenal’s defense was fragile the entire match, to be expected considering Laurent Koscielny was sidelined due to injury and Per Mertesacker was out with a virus — Liverpool’s pressure only increased the insecurity, Arsene Wenger told the NBC broadcast — but Petr Cech came up big to properly introduce himself to the Emirates. If he cost Arsenal three points on the opening weekend, he certainly redeemed at least one of those tonight. For Wenger, it’s what is to be “expected” of the former Chelsea stopper.

Not two minutes in, Liverpool signaled their intent to go forward as Philippe Coutinho curled Christian Benteke’s cutback onto the crossbar. Calum Chambers’ frailties at center-back were quickly exposed by Liverpool and alongside him, Gabriel lacked the Premier League experience to steady the ship. In the eighth minute, Milner got onto the rebound of his own low, blocked effort, yet his weak follow-up volley was clawed away from the near post by Cech.

Although Arsenal were potent on the break, Simon Mignolet’s goalkeeping performance would be considered extraordinary if not for being compared to Cech’s. Alexis Sanchez headed Nacho Monreal’s inswinging cross narrowly over early on and Wenger will come to rue Aaron Ramsey’s beautiful goal from Santi Cazorla’s incisive through-ball that was disallowed by a trigger-happy linesman.

However, if not for Cech, Arsenal could easily have been down by two or three goals by the break. Thirty-eight minutes in, Roberto Firmino drove a low cross from the left for Benteke (who to tap in at the far post, only for Cech to somehow sprawl across goal at incredible speed for a thirty-three-year-old, 6’ 5” goalkeeper and block the shot. The Czech Republic international also kicked wide Firmino’s low volley from a half-clear corner at the left-hand post and on the brink of the half, Cech put in another fantastic save to tip a curling effort destined for the top corner off the right boot of Coutinho, who had turned Hector Bellerin inside-out down the left, onto the post and out.

“Obviously it’s a big moment in the game, at nil-nil and you make a big save and everybody expects the player to score,” Cech told the NBC broadcast. “It helps everybody and shifts a little bit of the momentum in the game. I was pleased that the first half ended up nil-nil, and although we scored the goal that was disallowed we made many technical mistakes, misplaced a few balls and it gave Liverpool the opportunity to counter attack and they created a some chances in the first half.”

But it was a game of two halves and in the second, Arsenal cut through a seemingly tired Liverpool. Sanchez hit the left hand post after Olivier Giroud laid the ball off from Cazorla’s low cross and Mignolet swatted Giroud’s poked, six-yard effort out, too. The game was set up for Arsenal to grab late on, only for Mignolet to pull two more good stops from Ramsey’s curler and another low, deflect effort and Gabriel to head a later corner over the crossbar.

“Overall, we kept a really good clean sheet (Liverpool are still goalless this season) but were disappointed we couldn’t score on the night,” summarized Brendan Rodgers. The same could really be said of both teams. Cech and Mignolet embraced after the final whistle and the latter explained, via Liverpool’s official website: “He asked me why I didn’t let one in, and I said the same to him!”

Homepage photo credit: Faisal Zaman, via Flickr

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.