Arsene Wenger delighted with Arsenal's ability to recover from ‘nightmare’ first-half against Liverpool

Arsenal went 2-0 down after 50 minutes, and it could have been far worse

Jack Pitt-Brooke
Emirates Stadium
Saturday 23 December 2017 00:21 GMT
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Arsene Wenger was pleased with his side's fighting spirit
Arsene Wenger was pleased with his side's fighting spirit (Getty)

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Arsene Wenger could not hide his relief after his team recovered from what he described as “nightmare” first half to salvage a 3-3 draw with Liverpool at the Emirates.

Arsenal went 2-0 down after 50 minutes, and it could have been far worse, only to roar back into the game with three goals in five second-half minutes.

But Wenger admitted that, had details gone the other way, his team would have lost and lost badly. Even though they were briefly 3-2 up during the second half.

“That is the frustration of the night,” Wenger said. “On the other hand, to be completely honest, it could have been game over at half-time. We had a nightmare first half, not compact enough, not composed enough, and overall at half-time we could have been punished more.”

Wenger said that his team were fortunate to only be 1-0 down at half-time given that they were barely in the game in the first half. “The positive thing was that we were only 1-0 down,” he said.

“We played too deep, we were too far from each other, we needed to push high up, support the strikers more and play with the hand-brake off. We had too much trouble from long balls and not enough composure to get the ball down and play.”

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