Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain: 'You need to win those games when you don’t play well, especially away from home at a hard place like Anfield'

Published: December 22, 2014
by STEVE BARNETT

Premier League
LIVERPOOL 2, ARSENAL 2

ALEX Oxlade-Chamberlain is calling for Arsenal to start “grinding out wins” following the disappointment of conceding a late equaliser at Liverpool on Sunday.

Goals from Mathieu Debuchy and Olivier Giroud saw the Gunners come from behind to lead 2-1 at Anfield despite putting on another lacklustre performance on their travels. Martin Skrtel’s equaliser, seven minutes into stoppage time, gave Liverpool a fully deserved point, leaving the Ox ruing the missed opportunity to take all three points. 

“You need to win those games when you don’t play well, especially away from home at a hard place like Anfield,” said the Arsenal midfielder. “It’s really disappointing for us. Liverpool set the tempo in midfield. They closed down really well but we had to expect that. We saw it out until nearly half-time and it was a blow to then go 1-0 down. But we responded well.

“The manager said that, if we came out well in the second half by building on the goal we got late on, that we’d have a good chance of winning the game,” Oxlade-Chamberlain added. “To be 2-1 up so late on leaves us really disappointed that we weren’t able to see it out.”

A much-improved Liverpool performance resulted in them taking a deserved lead when Coutinho made space in the area before drilling home a low right-foot shot off the post on the stroke of half-time. That lead, however, lasted just over a minute as Debuchy got the better of Skrtel to head past the flat-footed Brad Jones.

Giroud looked to have sent Arsenal on the way to avenging their 5-1 thrashing at Anfield last season when he put them ahead just after the hour mark. That win looked even more odds-on when late Liverpool substitute Fabio Borini was sent off for two quick bookable offences.

But Skrtel, heavily bandaged following an earlier clash with Giroud that resulted in referee Michael Oliver adding nine minutes of injury time, rose to meet Adam Lallana’s corner in the 97th minute and power a header past Arsenal keeper Wojciech Szczesny.

ARSENAL: Szczesny, Chambers, Debuchy, Mertesacker, Gibbs, Oxlade-Chamberlain (Campbell, 90), Flamini, Cazorla, Sanchez (Monreal, 94), Giroud (Coquelin, 82), Welbeck.
Subs not used: Podolski, Walcott, Martinez, Maitland-Niles.
Attendance: 44,703.