Alexandre Lacazette is electric as Arsenal draw 1-1 with Liverpool but Mohamed Salah struggles

Jonathan Veal 23:39 03/11/2018
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  • Alexandre Lacazette celebrates

    Arsenal and Liverpool shared the spoils in a brilliant advert for the Premier League as they drew 1-1.

    It was an enthralling game in north London between two sides committed to playing high-energy, attacking football.

    Here, we assesses how their respective front lines fared in the game.

    ARSENAL 

    GOAL 

    In Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette Arsenal have a prolific pairing, with 14 goals between them in all competitions so far this season. Lacazette had been playing second fiddle but he rose to the occasion with a brilliant strike to earn his side a point. He beat Alisson Becker to Alex Iwobi’s pass, cut back inside and curled a fine effort past a number of bodies and into the corner.

    GOAL THREAT 

    The Aubameyang-Lacazette duo looked the most likeliest for the Gunners for much of the game, with both having good chances in the first half. Aubameyang had two efforts blocked for corners, the first narrowly missing the target. Lacazette had earlier come closest to finding the back of the net when he was superbly played in by Mesut Ozil but he drilled wide from a narrow angle. The Frenchman did actually breach Liverpool’s defence, but he was offside.

    CHANCES CREATED FOR OTHERS 

    Aubameyang had a quiet evening but he provided Arsenal’s best chance in the first half. He whipped in a delicious curling ball which saw Henrikh Mkhitaryan outjump Reds goalkeeper Alisson and send his header just wide. Lacazette was also involved in a creativity capacity as he ended the evening with two key passes, but neither led to serious chances.

    LIVERPOOL

    GOAL

    Liverpool have arguably the most fearsome front three in world football, but only one of the trio, Sadio Mane, was involved in their goal. He bombed on down the left side and put a ball in that Bernd Leno could only punch out – with the aid of a deflection – into the path of midfielder James Milner to fire his side ahead.

    GOAL THREAT 

    Unsurprisingly given their prowess, Mane, Roberto Firmino and to a lesser extent Mohamed Salah often threatened. Mane had a goal ruled out for offside when he tucked home the rebound to a Firmino effort which would have stood had it gone in instead of hitting a post. The Brazilian also planted a good headed chance wide while Mane fired another effort over. This was not Salah’s best game, with his curled effort just after Arsenal’s equaliser his best moment.

    CHANCES CREATED

    Other than Mane’s involvement in the goal, the front were unable to create any glaring chances for their side. And as an indication of how poor Salah was, in added time the Egyptian broke and you would have expected him to play Mane in on goal for a likely winner, but instead he saw his pass cut out.

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