Liverpool’s three stars: Arsenal (A)
A turbulent Friday night clash between Arsenal and Liverpool at the Emirates Stadium saw both sides leave with a point apiece in a thrilling six-goal shootout.
Philippe Coutinho and Mohamed Salah found the net for the Reds before a catastrophic few minutes gifted the Gunners three soft goals.
A powerful Roberto Firmino strike rescued a draw for Jurgen Klopp’s team, but the German manager will surely return to Merseyside frustrated after watching his side throw away their commanding lead.
Anyway, here are my three stars for Liverpool.
Roberto Firmino
Firmino was superb in the central striker role. His positional awareness, coupled with his intelligence on and off the ball, allowed Liverpool to control the game from the front (in the first half, at least).
He continues to demonstrate why he’s the perfect striker for Klopp, holding up play to buy his fellow forwards time, making good runs into attacking channels, and giving the opposing defence a different kind of problem to the pace out wide.
He should have scored a header in the first half, but his equalising goal towards the end was a welcome boost with 20 minutes of the game remaining.
Mohamed Salah
Let’s face it, this man’s going to be in every ‘Three Stars’ article these days. This wasn’t his best game by a long shot, but he still caused the Arsenal defence all kinds of problems with his pace and quick feet.
His deflected shot in the first half allowed Coutinho to score a teasing header for the opener, and his goal was excellent as always. Like Firmino, he had more chances and on another night would have taken them, but Salah remains our most dangerous player this season.
James Milner
I’m sure some will disagree with this, but my third and final star is James Milner. When skipper Jordan Henderson went off with an early hamstring injury, vice-captain Milner was thrown straight into the fray and took his chance to shine in midfield.
He put in his usual everywhere-on-the-pitch-at-once performance and complimenting the attack with great passing and intelligent forward runs (his pass to Salah that led to Coutinho’s goal was inch-perfect). Milner’s always an asset for the Reds.