"You've got to do a lot more" - Ian Wright criticizes 2 Arsenal stars for their failure to prevent Mohamed Salah's equalizer in Liverpool draw
Arsenal icon Ian Wright has criticized Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus for their role in Mohamed Salah's equalizer in the Gunners' 1-1 draw against Liverpool on Saturday, December 23.
Gabriel Magalhaes gave Arsenal the lead in the fourth minute, heading the ball into the back of the net via a Martin Odegaard free-kick. However, Mohamed Salah leveled the scores in the 29th minute to ensure both title aspirants left Anfield with a point.
Trent Alexander-Arnold produced a sublime across-the-field cross into the path of Salah, which Jesus failed to stop. The Egyptian forward then cut inside onto his left foot past Zinchenko with ease, before smashing the ball past a helpless David Raya.
Wright wasn't pleased with the effort to stop Salah, saying (via METRO):
"The thing is, firstly, you cannot give Trent Alexander-Arnold that much space. This is a danger man. Get in his face. Try and deny him (Salah) the ball in the first place, let them pass it to someone else."
"Once you get into this situation (Salah with the ball) he wants to come inside, and Zinchenko knows this, but not many people can stop him. You’ve got to do a lot more. You cannot let him get inside that easy. It’s margins. It’s the margins our manager always speaks about in terms of winning games."
He added:
"You cannot give Salah that time, you cannot give Trent that time. Someone should have been closer to Trent. Once that ball goes over to Salah, someone should have been across to make sure he cannot cut inside. That’s why we have drawn that game. We could not stop that happening."
Arsenal remain at the top of the Premier League standings with 40 points from 18 games, one point above Liverpool and Aston Villa.
"It was a penalty" - William Saliba admits Arsenal were fortunate to not concede spot-kick in Liverpool draw
Arsenal centre-back William Saliba has admitted the Gunners were fortunate to escape a penalty shout during their 1-1 draw against Liverpool on Saturday.
Before Mohamed Salah's brilliant leveler, Arsenal skipper Martin Odegaard was guilty of handling the ball inside the box in the 20th minute from a moment of trickery by Mohamed Salah. Despite the Liverpool players appealing for a penalty, VAR opted to go with the referee's decision.
This left the Anfield faithful furious, which Saliba acknowledged. He told ViaPlay (via Tribal Football):
"Of course, of course it was a penalty. But I am not the referee."
The Reds were unfortunate not to grab the winner in the second half with both Harvey Elliott and Trent Alexander-Arnold hitting the woodwork. However, the hosts arguably could have sealed all three points had they been awarded a penalty in the first half.