Battle-scarred Skrtel rescues 10-man Reds
MARTIN SKRTEL powered home a header deep into stoppage time to give 10-man Liverpool a 2-2 draw against Arsenal in the English Premier League yesterday.
In the seventh of nine minutes of injury time, Skrtel leaped high to head a right-wing corner from Adam Lallana into the bottom corner. Despite being mostly outplayed, Arsenal recovered from conceding a 45th-minute goal to Philippe Coutinho by scoring in first-half injury time through Mathieu Debuchy before Olivier Giroud swept home from close range in the 64th.
Substitute Fabio Borini was sent off two minutes into stoppage time for picking up two quick bookings, yet there was still time for Skrtel to rescue a point for Liverpool, who climbed a place to 10th. Arsenal are sixth, four points off the top four.
It was the least Liverpool deserved for an effervescent performance that overran Arsenal at times but exposed the team’s biggest problem this season – a lack of a true goal scorer to finish off a glut of chances.
In the end, the Reds relied on a centre back to get the team out of trouble – in a lengthy period of injury time allotted after Skrtel himself was trodden on by Giroud early in the second half, requiring a long stoppage to put eight staples into his bleeding head.
‘‘He is a strong character, a real warrior, and thankfully he stayed on and scored a great header,’’ coach Brendan Rodgers said.
In Liverpool’s situation, though, a point is not enough if last season’s runners-up are to climb back into the Champions League places.
With almost half the season gone, Liverpool are nine points behind fourth-placed West Ham.
‘‘There is a bit of work to do but at least we are moving in the right direction,’’ Rodgers said.
‘‘Our performance today was outstanding: the passing and intensity and the pressing in our game is starting to return.’’
Arsenal have been guilty of starting big games slowly in recent years and the team did so again here, with Liverpool’s pace and movement too much for Arsene Wenger’s side and Mathieu Flamini being badly exposed as Arsenal’s holding midfielder.
Liverpool’s fluid 3-4-3 formation, again containing winger Raheem Sterling as a main striker, seemed to befuddle Arsenal and the only surprise was that it took almost 45 minutes for the home side to score – and even then it was from an error.
‘‘We had problems to get our flow going,’’ Wenger said.
‘‘Maybe bad memories last year.
‘‘Some players were not at their best.’’
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