Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger felt his side’s awful display in the first half of their 3-3 draw with Liverpool was partly because of the psychological effect of their recent home defeat against Manchester United.
Beaten 3-1 by United at the Emirates Stadium, where they were two down inside 11 minutes, the Gunners made another dire start against Liverpool and were booed off at the interval.
“I felt we looked paralysed in the first half,” Wenger admitted to Sky Sports after the game.
“We gave away too many balls. It was mainly a psychological factor after the Man United game where we had a bad start.
“It could have been over by half-time. I said to the players ‘the good thing is that we are only 1-0 down’ and that the second half is an opportunity to show a completely different face and a different quality.
“We had nothing to lose. At least go for it.”
Arsenal stormed back after going two down to take the lead but in the end had to settle for a point.
Philippe Coutinho put Liverpool ahead midway through a one-sided first half and when Mohamed Salah made doubled the Reds’ lead eight minutes into the second half there seemed to be no way back for the Gunners.
But three goals in the space of five minutes transformed the game.
Alexis Sanchez reduced the deficit and Granit Xhaka equalised with a long-range effort before Mesut Ozil put Arsenal ahead.
Roberto Firmino’s 71st-minute goal hauled Liverpool level and earned them a point which kept them one point and one place above Arsenal in the Premier League table.
The visitors were brilliant in the first half but there was a touch of good fortune about their opening goal.
The Reds broke quickly on the counter-attack and Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny did a lot right, holding up Salah and blocking the ball only for it to ricochet towards Coutinho, who headed over keeper Petr Cech and into the net.
Another Salah-led counter led to the second goal, this time when the former Chelsea man found Firmino, raced on to the Brazilian’s sublime return pass and then scored with the help of a deflection off Shkodran Mustafi.
But Liverpool then switched off and Sanchez capitalised on Joe Gomez’s hesitation at the far post by heading in Hector Bellerin’s right-wing cross.
And after keeper Simon Mignolet inexplicably failed to keep out Xkaka’s shot, tamely palming the ball into the net, Ozil slotted home after collecting Aexandre Lacazette’s back-heel.
But, just as Mignolet will be disappointed with his error, Cech then similarly failed to get a strong enough hand to Firmino’s shot.