Gabriele Marcotti, Senior Writer, ESPN FCDec 25, 2023, 03:40 AM ET
Happy holidays to one and all! The gift of soccer kept giving this weekend, with the title race in the Premier League taking shape. Arsenal played Liverpool at Anfield to an entertaining 1-1 draw, and Manchester City sit six points off top spot with a game in hand. Tottenham Hotspur are back in fourth (for now) after a win over Everton. In Serie A, the youngsters at Juventus helped secure a win to keep them second behind leaders Inter Milan. All while AC Milan continue to struggle with injuries and dropped points again.
In LaLiga, Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid clinched a much-needed win over Sevilla to go into the new year in third. And finally, Man City’s Julián Álvarez capped off an amazing year since the 2022 World Cup by winning the Club World Cup as well.
It’s Monday, and Gab Marcotti reacts to the biggest moments in the world of football.
Arsenal the happier with draw at Anfield, but both sides on the rise
Break it down to a series of incidents and, of course, Liverpool will feel they should have had all three points, between the Martin Odegaard handball (that VAR didn’t deem fit for an on-field review) and the counter attack that ended with Trent Alexander-Arnold smacking the ball off the crossbar.
Football isn’t only about highlights, though. And over the course of 90 minutes, I think both managers can find plenty of positives. Regular readers will know I’ve felt that Liverpool have managed to go top without quite firing on all cylinders and that there was plenty of room to grow. They showed growth in this game. While the final third was maybe a bit lacking, we saw plenty of the Liverpool of old in the way they engaged Arsenal and transitioned with purpose.
Plus, some of the new tweaks, such as Alexander-Arnold moving centrally to become the deep playmaker and not just for the pinpoint pass that led to Mohamed Salah‘s goal. Alexander-Arnold in that role is all the more important because of Alexis Mac Allister‘s absence: Wataru Endo has plenty of attributes, but range of passing isn’t among them.
As for Arsenal, a point at Anfield is a massive confidence boost for Mikel Arteta’s young side. Both Salah’s goal and the Alexander-Arnold chance were the result of individual errors — Oleksandr Zinchenko getting beaten too easily and Liverpool marching right up the pitch off an attacking corner — of the sort that can be more easily ironed out than systemic flaws. Declan Rice may be more fruitfully deployed further forward in some games, but he showed enough press-resistant qualities to sit in front of the back four against a side that presses extremely well.
The Kai Havertz-Odegaard tandem has room to grow too, of course, but the more minutes they get on the pitch together, the more quickly that will happen.
Most would still assume Manchester City are favourites, but until they make up the ground, Liverpool and Arsenal confirmed that they’re firm title contenders, maybe more. As a neutral, a legitimate three-way race would be a real treat after so many years of City dominance.