A spirited Arsenal were beaten 2-0 by Liverpool on Wednesday night but there were still plenty of positives for Mikel Arteta to take from the Emirates, not least the performances of Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka.
There was nothing to separate the two teams at half-time with Arsenal not intimidated by their title-chasing opponents. Both wingers found space on multiple occasions and gave Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson plenty to think about.
But the best teams find a way to score and that is exactly what Liverpool did in the second half. First, Diogo Jota squeezed a shot past Aaron Ramsdale at his near post before Roberto Firmino came off the bench to make it two moments later to secure the three points.
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Arteta, however, believed the result did not reflect the performance of his side, telling his post-match press conference: "I don’t think the result probably reflects the performance of the team. But from box to box in many moments we were the better team and we did everything that we planned.
"The way the boys performed showed their courage to play the way we wanted to play, the intensity, the understanding of the game, they really raised their level today. But unfortunately, these games are won in the boxes and that was a critical difference today not to get anything out of this game, unfortunately."
Martinelli came closest to scoring for the Gunners in the second half, curling an excellent strike just past the post with Alisson well beaten in the Liverpool goal. It was a strike compared to Thierry Henry and the way the Brazilian terrorised Alexander-Arnold all night was fitting of the Arsenal legend.
Robertson was on post-match media duties for the Reds and, while speaking to Sky Sports, delivered a verdict on both Martinelli and Saka, saying: "Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka are really hard work. It was a really tough game. It was great to have a clean sheet.”
