Jamie Carragher tore into Granit Xhaka and claimed that the Arsenal midfielder turned Sunday's enthralling clash against Liverpool on its head by winding up the home crowd during an incident with Trent Alexander-Arnold.
The Gunners had cantered into a 2-0 lead and were seemingly in cruise control at a shell-shocked Anfield before a flare-up between Xhaka and Alexander-Arnold.
The Liverpool full-back reacted angrily after Xhaka went in slightly late for a challenge near the far touchline and shoved the Swiss international in the back. Xhaka, in turn, reacted by squaring up to the Liverpool full-back: a moment that sparked the subdued home support into life.
Reacting at the time, Carragher - who was commentating on the match for Sky Sports - fumed: "I mean what is he thinking though, Xhaka? Two nil up away at Anfield, throws his arm or something into Trent. Just ridiculous. Trent reacts and then the crowd gets up, the ball’s already gone. It’s two nil, moments before half-time."
Mohamed Salah scored shortly after the incident to set up a frenetic second-half finale which culminated in Roberto Firmino bagging an 87th minute equaliser to ensure the match ended 2-2 : a result that puts a serious dent in the Gunners' title hopes.
And the manner in which Xhaka fired up the Anfield crowd was eerily similar to an incident involving Mikel Arteta which turned the very same fixture on its head back in November 2021.
The Gunners have a wretched record at Anfield - where they last won in the Premier League back in 2012 - but looked comfortable before Arteta became embroiled in a touchline row with Jurgen Klopp almost 18 months ago.
Join the debate! Do you think the incident between Xhaka and Alexander-Arnold ended up costing Arsenal victory? Let us know here.
The Spaniard's decision to engage proved to be the catalyst for Liverpool to take control; this time around, Arteta could only watch on from the sidelines as the 'Xhaka of old' resurfaced at the worst possible time.
Carragher doubled down on his assessment after the match, adding: "I think it did [get Liverpool going]. It sounds silly, I’m glad Xhaka did it but I’m angry with Xhaka. I’m not an Arsenal fan but if I was an Arsenal fan, what are you doing, doing that? It’s absolutely daft. The game’s in your hands, you get involved - even leading the challenge with the arm, why do it? And now going back head-to-head with Trent riles the crowd up and it’s absolutely idiotic from Xhaka to do that.
"Do you know what? He’s been fantastic this season in a slightly different role higher up the pitch, had a huge impact on this team, but that was going back to the old Xhaka.
"Honestly, who knows if it leads to the goal, we don’t know, but it was just for an experienced player to do something like that in this ground, and the position they found themselves in, there was only one way Liverpool could get back into that game and that was with the help of the terraces."
