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Joe Willock secured Arsenal’s first win at Anfield since 2012 with the winning penalty on a penalty shootout after 90 minutes without goals to put them into the Carabao Cup quarter-finals last night.
Liverpool paid the price for failing to make the most of their dominance in regulation time, having shot out opponents 16-6.
Divock Origi and Harry Wilson, in sudden death, saw both efforts saved and with only Mohamed Elneny missing for Arsenal it was up to Willock to secure a 5-4 victory with the decisive kick, which Adrian reached in but could not avoid. .
Unusually for matches between these two teams (Anfield’s last nine encounters in all competitions have brought in 48 goals) it was the goalkeepers who took center stage even before the penalty shoot-out.
Mikel Arteta’s decision to stay with Bernd Leno was foreboding, as the German international made a series of saves in the second half, while Liverpool second-in-command Adrian kept the score scoreless with an instinctive save from Rob’s header. Holding at short distance.
It resulted in just the second goalless draw in 21 years between the pair.
Liverpool made nine changes since Monday’s Premier League victory, retaining only Virgil Van Dijk and Mohamed Salah, and Arsenal were left with Leno, Holding and Granit Xhaka after the loss.
Xherdan Shaqiri, who had impressed in the previous round, was left out as two clubs have asked to sign him before the transfer deadline.
With both teams fielding second ropes, it wasn’t a surprise that there was a drop in quality, but there should have been enough depth in both squads to have avoided a rather ordinary first half.
It only came to life one minute before the break when Diogo Jota had a header from Leno with Takumi Minamino firing the rebound off the crossbar from five meters.
The previous game had seen Arsenal attempt to break through the Reds’ high line, having had some success with him in the second half on Monday, in particular trying to use Nicolás Pepe’s pace by isolating him against the 19-year-old right. Neco Williams returns.
It was a tactic of diminishing returns as they failed to register a shot on goal, even though the Ivory Coast international broke away and passed Willock, who opted to fire rather than shoot and Eddie Nketiah was dispossessed at the hand of the goalkeeper Adrian.
The second half saw Leno much more to do, with Van Dijk’s low shot saved well and Marko Grujic denied twice, once from a distance and once from a looped header.
In the middle, the Gunners goalkeeper also saved from Jota, who deftly dropped Sead Kolasinac with the chest control of Curtis Jones’ cross pass.
Arsenal’s attacks were becoming less frequent, but when they received an overload at the far post, Williams cut the ball off Bukayo Saka’s toes – in the starting lineup hours after his first England call – and from the resulting corner Adrian made his one save of the note.
But it was Willock who made eight national cup games undefeated for Arteta since taking over from the Gunners, having led them to FA Cup triumph last season.
