Arne Slot and Mikel Arteta clashed for the first time as managers in a competitive fixture on Sunday, with Liverpool travelling to the Emirates Stadium as both teams hoped to close the gap to league leaders Manchester City.
Arsenal had much the better of the first half, dominating the chances and taking a 2-1 lead into the break despite being denied what looked like a clear penalty.
But Liverpool rallied after the break, and injuries to Arsenal’s Gabriel and Jurrien Timber didn’t help as Mohamed Salah ultimately found his team a late equaliser.
Those two injuries to Arsenal players resulted in quite a few stoppages, with both players initially going down, trying to play on, then going down again as they had to be substituted.
But Slot was unsympathetic, suggesting after the game that the injury breaks were tactically timed.
“There were so many times that they were on the floor, which can happen so many times in football,” Slot began.
“I don’t blame them for that but it always happened after they had ball possession. That took the energy out of the game in my opinion.”
Slot was booked for his reaction to one such incident, and he claims that was due to a misunderstanding.
“I said to [Ibrahima Konaté]: ‘This is a fucking joke,’ and the fourth official thought I said to him: ‘You are a fucking joke.’ But that’s definitely not what I said,” Slot explained.
“But I got a yellow for that and now I’m on two and I have to be careful.”
Managers receive suspensions after three yellow cards, so another for Slot in the coming games and he’ll be sent to the stands for a match.
As for Arsenal’s injury breaks, it’s just silly to claim that the Gunners gained any kind of advantage from losing two more defenders mid-game.
The treatment they received left Liverpool a man up on a couple of occasions, and both ultimately had to withdraw with fears of injury absences in the coming games.
Liverpool got a huge advantage from the injuries in the second half, and Slot should have been grateful that they happened.
