Arsenal and Liverpool winners and losers as Alexander-Arnold makes difference
Arsenal were dumped out of the FA Cup on their own patch as Liverpool ran out 2-0 winners at the Emirates to seal their place in the next round.
In what was comfortably the most anticipated tie of the round, Jurgen Klopp dug deep and held on in the face of immense Arsenal pressure to then snatch the tie late on. Rarely has one side dominated a first-half quite like the Gunners did in this clash, with Mikel Arteta's men wasting a ludicrous amount of chances.
Kai Havertz was the most guilty party of all, heading wide from close range as well firing straight at Alisson. By the time the interval rolled around, the Germany international alone had five shots on goal. Jakub Kiwior's own goal with 10 minutes to spare made life difficult for the hosts, before Luis Diaz's late strike ended the game as a competition.
William Saliba
What more can be said about this supremely gifted, technically sound and aerially dominant central defender? William Saliba's maturity often defies his 22 years and all of the aforementioned qualities were on display once again against Liverpool.
The France international is elegance personified, dealing with almost everything thrown at him with a borderline arrogant calmness. Darwin Nunez struggled to get any joy out of Saliba and often aimed to target Arsenal's other centre-back, Gabriel.
Saliba's slide tackle on Nunez just before the hour mark was nothing short of remarkable, timing it to perfection to leave both the referee and those in the VAR room with no doubt that it was clean and fair. However, the Frenchman did pick up a rare booking for a pull on Diogo Jota.
Trent Alexander-Arnold
It almost feels disingenuous to call Alexander-Arnold a right-back these days, given the Liverpool academy graduate
Read on m.allfootballapp.com
