Mikel Arteta claims three Arsenal players were ‘phenomenal’ against Liverpool

Arsenal remain top of the Premier League table following their 1-1 draw against Liverpool at Anfield (Picture: Getty)

Mikel Arteta hailed his Arsenal side after the emerged from Anfield with a creditable point which ensured they remained top of the Premier League table.

The Gunners took an early lead through Gabriel’s header but were pegged back before the half hour mark when Mohamed Salah scored his customary Anfield goal against Arsenal.

Few would have predicted the scoring would have ended at that point but combination of wayward finishing and superb defending ensured neither goalkeeper was beaten after Salah had rifled a left-footed shot beyond David Raya.

Though the visitors created a number of promising attacking opportunities, Artetaacknowledged it was the performances of his two central defenders and midfield linchpin Declan Rice that really stood out.

‘Those three were phenomenal,’ said Arteta in his post match press conference.

‘But I think the whole team as well and how we step up to the level that they put today, is one of the best Liverpool’s I’ve seen this year.

‘They made life really difficult. The game became really, really chaotic, the crowd provokes that as well but we handled the situation really well.’

‘There are some things we have to improve, especially killing games with the amount of dominance that we are showing,’ added the Arsenal manager.

‘Sometimes the results have been too close, where we have had to dig in the last few minutes to maintain results and that is it, nothing else.

‘Hopefully, we have sustained that level with five key players out because we lost five very,  very important players for us for many, many months.

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‘The team has still shown that so that is something we really have to maintain which is the quality in the squad and how willing they are to do what they do every single day.

‘They’ve certainly got more experience and it was a very different game to last year. What they did today, in this stadium, in this atmosphere that they created as well was something else.

‘The maturity and the courage that we showed, I think we should be really proud of our players.’

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