Crazy Six-Goal Draw At Arsenal

Sports - Football - Premier League - AFC 3:3 LFC

Three goals in 388 crazy second-half seconds saw Arsenal come back from two goals down, but Liverpool grabbed a third to make it 3-3 and a point each in a gob-smacking encounter at the Emirates on Friday Night Football.

The Reds bossed the Gunners around in the first half and could have been three or four goals up at the break.

Despite losing captain Jordan Henderson early on due to a suspected hamstring injury, James Milner replacing him, the visitors dominated.

But only Philippe Coutinho's first headed goal for the club separated the two sides at half time, both Sadio Mané and Mohamed Salah missing a couple of sitters.

The great Egyptian doubled the visitors' lead after the interval with a deflected strike after another one of his great individual runs, recording his 15th league goal of the season.

It looked like Jürgen Klopp's side were going to crush the home side, such was their command.

But suddenly Arsène Wenger's men woke up!

Alexis Sánchez headed in Hector Bellerin's cross from close range before Simon Mignolet failed to save Granit Xhaka's powerful strike from 25 yards.

A couple of minutes later Mesut Özil clipped the ball over Mignolet off Alexandre Lacazette's cheeky back heel to make it 3-2 and turn the game on its head.

Liverpool were gob-smacked. Frozen, zoned-out defence + slow, insecure keeper = three goals conceded in 388 seconds, their confident two-goal lead out the window.

It was end-to-end stuff after that goal-rush, both sides looking to add more to the scoreboard.

The Reds had the final say thanks to man of the match Roberto Firmino's powerful finish, Arsenal keeper Petr Cech could only slow it down but not stop it from bouncing over the line.

So, 3-3 it ended, the point keeping Liverpool in fourth and Arsenal in fifth, a point between the two.

Under Klopp, the Reds have lost 43 points in the league from winning positions, the most of any team in Europe.

There is no doubt in their strike force, the "Fab Four", but it's the back that crumbled and leaked too much once again.

But hey, we're used to goals galore between these two sides!

There have been 27 goals scored in the past five Premier League meetings (10 for Arsenal, 17 for Liverpool), an average of 5.4 goals per game!

Liverpool have scored 54 away goals in all competitions in 2017, their most in a calendar year since 1982 (66).

And since Klopp's first Premier League game in October 2015, the Reds have seen 279 goals in their games (174 scored, 105 conceded), more than any other side.

I don't know whether to cheer or cry or both, because we're so awesome and useless at the same time (front and back respectively, contrast).

Something/someone has to change in January to make sure these insecurities don't end up costing and make us drop out of the top four!

Arsenal Goals: Sánchez 53', Xhaka 56', Özil 58'.

Liverpool Goals: Coutinho 26', Salah 52', Firmino 71'.

Arsenal Team: 33 Cech; 24 Bellerin, 6 Koscielny (c), 18 Monreal (20 Mustafi 45'), 30 Maitland-Niles; 10 Wilshere, 29 Xhaka; 17 Iwobi (booked 58') (23 Welbeck 78'), 11 Özil, 7 Sánchez (14 Walcott 89'); 9 Lacazette. 4-2-3-1
Subs not used: 13 Ospina, 31 Kolasinac, 34 Coquelin, 35 Elneny.

Liverpool Team: 22 Mignolet; 12 Gomez, 6 Lovren, 17 Klavan, 26 Robertson; 14 Henderson (c) (7 Milner 13'), 23 Can; 11 Salah, 10 Coutinho (21 Oxlade-Chamberlain 84'), 19 Mané (5 Wijnaldum 80'); 9 Firmino. 4-2-3-1
Subs not used: 1 Karius, 20 Lallana, 29 Solanke, 66 Alexander-Arnold.

HT Stats: AFC 0-1 LFC
Possession: 52%-48%
Shots: 4-8
On target: 0-4
Corners: 3-3
Fouls: 4-4

FT Stats: AFC 3-3 LFC
Possession: 54%-46%
Shots: 11-14
On target: 4-9
Corners: 7-8
Fouls: 9-11
Yellow cards: 1-0

Referee: Martin Atkinson
Man of the match: Roberto Firmino
Ground: Emirates
Attendance: 59,409

Click here for my previous LFC match report.

All pictures, facts and stats were taken from the BBC match report, Twitter and SFR coverage.