Liverpool failed to capitalize on their dominating performance in the 90 minutes period; having had more shot in the game against their rivals 16 to 6.
Divock Origi and Harry Wilson both saw efforts saved by Bernd Leno and with only Mohamed Elneny failing to score for Arsenal. It was left to Willock to secure a 5-4 victory with the decisive kick, which got pass Adrian despite getting a hand to it.
Head Coach Arteta’s decision to stick with first-choice Leno was rewarded as the Germany international made a string of saves in the second half, while Liverpool’s second-choice Adrian with an outstanding performance of his own kept the score goalless with an instinctive stop from a close-range Rob Holding headed effort.
With both sides fielding second strings there was no surprise the game quality would drop,
but both squads had the depth and quality to avoid a rather ordinary first half.
The second half saw goalkeeper Leno given far more to do, with Van Dijk’s low flick effort saved well and Marko Grujic chances twice denied; once from a long range and again another from a looping header.
In between, the Gunners shot stopper also saved from Diogo Jota, who cleverly nutmegged Sead Kolasinac with his ball playing chest control from Curtis Jones’ cross-field pass.
Gabriel Magalhaes had a quite wonderful game. This would be the second game they played together keeping a clean sheet. This resulted in only the second goalless draw in 21 years between both teams.
