Jamie Carragher has slammed Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka for his ‘absolutely idiotic’ decision to get into a scuffle with and inadvertently fire up Liverpool in Sunday’s 2-2 draw.
The Gunners made a pulsating start to the contest and took a deserved two-goal lead, with opening the scoring after eight minutes before Gabriel Jesus nodded home shortly before the half-hour mark.
But with half-time closing in, Xhaka was aggrieved not to have won a foul and got into an argument with Alexander-Arnold, lashing out with his elbow before butting heads with the full-back.
Both players were shown yellow cards and it seemed to light the blue touch paper, ramping up the atmosphere inside a previously flat Anfield, and Liverpool pulled a goal back just before the break.
The Merseysiders were by far the superior team in the second half, laying siege to Arsenal’s goal, and through Roberto Firmino – while they might have claimed all three points but for the reflexes of the excellent Aaron Ramsdale.
Carragher feels Liverpool’s dramatic improvement after going two goals down was triggered in large part by Xhaka’s scuffle with Alexander-Arnold and feels it injected life into both Anfield and Liverpool’s players.
Asked if the incident with Xhaka had an impact on the match, Carragher told Sky Sports afterwards: ‘Yeah I think it did. I mean, it sounds silly, I’m glad Xhaka did it… but I’m angry with Xhaka.
‘I’m not an Arsenal fan, but if I was an Arsenal fan: what are you doing?! It’s absolutely daft. The game is in your hands and you get involved.
‘Even the challenge, the arm, why do it? And now coming back, head-to-head with Trent, riles the crowd up. Absolutely idiotic from Xhaka to do that.
‘And you know what, he’s been fantastic this season in a slightly different role, higher up the pitch, had a huge influence on this team. But that was going back to the old Xhaka.
‘Honestly, who knows whether it led to the goal, we don’t know, but just for an experienced player to do something like that, in this ground, in the position they found themselves in…
‘There was only one way Liverpool would get back into that game and that was with the help of the terraces.
‘If that was just a football game, Liverpool right now can’t compete with Arsenal. But with the energy in the stadium they can. And [Arsenal] almost lost the game.’
Fellow pundit Roy Keane agreed, saying: ‘There’s enough Liverpool fans in the team, they react to that, they’re an emotional team and it certainly helped them, absolutely. But Xhaka, these lads aren’t going to change their ways. He’ll probably do it again next week.
‘But it changes the energy in the stadium, though Liverpool still have to produce bits of quality which they did. And that one mistake didn’t help Liverpool create six or seven great chances in the second half – that was pure quality from brilliant attacking play. But it gave them a bit of a lift, no doubt about it.
‘You have to show a little bit of fight, but there’s a time when to poke the bear and to leave the bear sleeping. He poked it at the wrong time.’
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