Warri-born ex-Man City CB names the two Liverpool players that impressed him the most against Arsenal

Speaking in his post-match reflection of Arsenal's 2-2 draw with Liverpool in the last Premier League fixture of matchday nine, Nedum Onuoha namechecked two Reds players that stood out in the fixture.

The Warri-born former Manchester City defender named skipper Virgil van Dijk and his defensive partner Ibrahima Konaté as the two players that stood out for Arne Slot's men.

Bukayo Saka gave Arsenal the lead, racing past Andrew Robertson before dribbling past the left back and powering a shot beyond the reach of Caoimhín Kelleher.

Van Dijk restored parity for the away side, heading the ball home from Luis Díaz's flicked header, but Mikel Merino put the Gunners back in front just before halftime.

Mohamed Salah grabbed the equalizer for Liverpool, placing Darwin Núñez's pass into the net to register his 11th goal against Mikel Arteta's side across all competitions

Asked about whether Liverpool could have done better against a weakened Arsenal side, Onuoha expressed his discontent with the performance of the Merseyside outfit and namechecked Konate and Van Dijk as the two players that stood out for them.

“Yeah, to be honest I agree with Frank. I think Liverpool probably should have had more today. I think when you look at the defence Arsenal did have in there and you see that second goal where you see the speed of Salah, the speed of Nunez, like how often do we get a chance to see that win the game and the chance and in reality it is not often," he told ESPN FC.

"I think it is times they sort of felt they lacked creativity,maybe some of that was to do with the way Arsenal were defending overall and I think to even mention my side of things here, I didn't think after this game Thomas Partey would have been able to say I had a good game against Luis Diaz, I had a good game against Cody Gakpo.

"It seemed like some of the individual battles Arsenal were managing to win which was a big surprise to me because this Liverpool side even though they have not been at their absolute best throughout this season, they have had plenty of moments where you can see how good they can be but I don't think we saw that today but then the question you be well did they do enough well, were they resilience to come from 2-1 down and you know to be able to fight the way through for a point.

"But I think Slot said it himself like you know some of the best players today, they are the centre backs. I thought Van Dijk and Konate if Liverpool were probably two of their key player because around them it seemed like at times there was a sense of chaos but I would have thought today would be a game for the frontline of Liverpool but it just turned out turned out to not be the case at all."

With the result, Manchester City were able to cement their spot atop the table, having climbed to the top of the standings after beating Southampton by a solitary goal on Saturday at the Etihad.

They sit one point ahead of Liverpool and have five points more than Arsenal and Aston Villa, who occupy the third and fourth spot respectively.

Abdulkareem Abdulhamid

Photo Credit: liverpoolfc.com

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