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By IAN LADYMAN Published: 03: 28 AEST, 12 May 2025 | Updated: 05: 39 AEST, 12 May 2025 249 View comments With eight minutes of this extraordinary afternoon remaining, Liverpool were awarded a free-kick as Arsenal were reduced to ten men by a sending off. The score was 2-2 and Liverpool’s best dead ball player stood over it. Facing the Kop, he had the opportunity to win a game against a big rival that had been slipping away. Not long ago, Trent Alexander-Arnold did win a big match for Liverpool at Leicester at a time when his team were labouring a little. They needed someone that day and he was the one who delivered, tearing off his shirt to celebrate with his team’s travelling fans. He was the hero then but he was not the hero here. That was not going to be allowed to happen, whatever the outcome of a shot at goal that ultimately missed the post by a foot. Because judgement has now been made in the case of Alexander-Arnold and the free transfer to Real Madrid. Arsenal overturned a two-goal deficit to draw 2-2 against champions Liverpool at Anfield The Gunners gave Arne Slot's side a guard of honour after Liverpool won a 20th top-flight title Trent Alexander-Arnold was booed by the Anfield crowd - a week after announcing his exit Following his confirmation last week of his intention to leave, Anfield – or at least a loud and sizeable chunk of it - has turned its back on the 26-year-old once and for all. So what would have happened had that free-kick flown in? Is it possible to cheer and boo at the same time? We will maybe never know but that was the state of things in that moment and it all felt desperately and quite shockingly sad. This is a nuanced debated. Alexander-Arnold is leaving having not signed a contract renewal. So a £100m+ generational talent is lost for nothing. In this world of Premier League spending rules, that’s a hard one for everyone in red to take. Even so, this felt ugly and this felt wrong. Alexander-Arnold has just played his part in winning a Premier League title, the seventh serious trophy of his eight years in the team. He was born round the corner from the stadium. He has done his bit. He has earned his money and his shot at a different kind of life in Spain. This should have been another day of celebration and unity for Liverpool on the road to lifting a 20th league title in two weeks. It was a day a fierce rival came to town already beaten in the one race that matters. But instead it was an afternoon that ultimately saw Anfield split, a day that saw some supporters visibly telling others to reign in the venom. We knew Alexander-Arnold had been getting some heat on social media. But we like to think that doesn’t really reflect the real world don’t we? Surely an Anfield crowd wouldn’t fall to those levels? That assumption turned out to be very wrong indeed. Cody Gakpo opened the scoring, heading in a cross from Andy Robertson in the 20th minute Within 90 seconds of their first goal, Luis Diaz made it 2-0 to Liverpool from a few yards out Not everybody booed him. Plenty clapped and cheered. But the dissent was clear and visceral and it continued every single time he touched the ball. It didn’t change the game because Arsenal had long since recovered from a quite dreadful first half to score a goal. Liverpool led 2-1 when Alexander-Arnold replaced Conor Bradley and then scored their equaliser three minutes later. So, no, it didn’t change the game but it fundamentally altered the occasion. Earlier, this had felt like another party in the sun. By full-time, it felt like a public flaying of a family member and in the middle of it all somewhere was a football match. To that point, Liverpool were fabulous in the first half and Arsenal were not. Mikel Arteta’s team looked and played like they had left their heart and soul in Paris after Wednesday’s Champions League exit. The vacant and distant look on Bukayo Saka’s face as Arsenal gave Liverpool a guard of honour before kick-off said everything. This was a fiesta Arsenal had no wish to be part of and within twenty minutes they were two down. Arsenal did have two early chances. Saka missed tamely when Liverpool’s offside trap failed at a free-kick and then Thomas Partey and Leandro Trossard made a mess of things when Curtis Jones lost the ball in his own penalty area. But the visiting team were nowhere near the levels against a Liverpool team playing with freedom and after David Raya saved well from Luis Diaz in the 8th minute, Arne Slot’s team struck twice. Mikel Arteta's side drew one back through Gabriel Martinelli two minutes into the second half Mikel Merino was among the goals once again as he drew the Gunners level in the 70 minute Cody Gakpo must have thought his chance had gone as he galloped down the left on to an Andy Robertson pass. Arsenal bodies got across to cover. But the Londoners went to sleep as Liverpool took a quick throw-in and when Robertson crossed to the near post, Gakpo was all alone to head down and in. Anfield was alive and almost immediately the lead was doubled. Again it was too easy for a ball to played over and beyond the Arsenal back four and when Dominik Szoboszlai poked it past Raya, Diaz eased past an ambling Jakub Kiwior to nudge it over the line from a yard. There was an awful lot that was bad about that goal for Arsenal. Too many players were not fully engaged and against a team playing with as much belief as Liverpool, punishment was always like to arrive. For a while thereafter, Arsenal looked there to be embarrassed. Diaz could have scored at the near post from a Mo Salah cross while Jones was denied at full strength by Raya as he tried to curl the ball in from 18 yards. Arsenal were drowning but an early second half goal – Trossard crossing for unmarked Gabriel Martinelli to head in – proved to be their raft. They grew quickly on the back of that and Liverpool regressed. The psychology of football at work. Merino was sent off soon after his equaliser, stunting his side's hopes of a complete comeback Liverpool (4-2-3-1): Alisson; Bradley (Alexander-Arnold 67'), Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson; Gravenberch (Elliot 83'), Jones (Mac Allister 66'); Salah, Szoboszlai, Gakpo (Nunez 66'); Diaz (Jota 79') Subs unused: Kelleher (Gk), Quansah, Tsimikas, Endo Goals: Gakpo 20', Diaz 21' Booked: Bradley Manager: Arne Slot Arsenal (4-3-3): Raya, White (Calafiori 78'), Saliba, Kiwior, Lewis-Skelly; Odegaard, Partey, Merino; Saka (Zinchenko 88'), Trossard (Tierney 78'), Martinelli Subs unused: Neto (Gk), Timber, Henry-Francis, Nwaneri, Butler-Oyedeji, Sterling Goals: Martinelli 47', Merino 70' Booked: Lewis-Skelly Sent off: Merino Manager: Mikel Arteta Referee: Anthony Taylor Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson saved from Ben White and Martinelli before pushing a Martin Odegaard shot on to the post and out for Mikel Merino to nudge in the rebound. Merino was gone within minutes. His foul on Szoboszlai was desperate and late and the second yellow card inevitable. Invited to have another tilt at winning it, Liverpool came hard. Salah crossed for Robertson to volley wide and the Scot nudged in a rebound from a Raya save in the 96th minute only for a foul to be called on Ibrahima Konate as the corner had arrived. A goal then may have allowed Alexander-Arnold to get off the field amid a different kind of atmosphere. As it was, he applauded the Anfield crowd on his way off. Some clapped him back. Others didn’t.
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