Arsenal (A) 2025-26 - The Stats

The unbeaten run continues in a game of two halves.

Let me starting by saying a draw is never a good result.

Not for Liverpool.

If you go gung ho in every stalemate, and turn 40% of your draws into wins and 60% into defeats, you are still better off points-wise than you would be just accepting draws.

And draws are even less good when your opponent doesn’t play well. Arsenal, let’s be clear, did not play well.

Liverpool were clear second-favourites going into the match, with Arsenal top of the league and on a five-game winning run. The Reds, by contrast, came into the match on a run of five wins in 15 league matches, let alone five in a row.

Make that five wins in 16. Yeah, sorry - a draw isn’t good enough.

The Reds have now drawn three successive league games within a single season for the first time since October 2015. Nine Premier League sides have picked up more points in their last three matches than the Reds - who are lucky to have both started and finished this run of three draws in 4th position.

In fact, Liverpool are unbeaten in nine Premier League games (W4 D5) but are 6th in the form table in this time. Not 4th.

Too. Many. Draws.

Here’s the top eight of the form table over the last nine:

As you can see, Liverpool have merely spent their unbeaten run falling further and further behind the top three sides, while allowing the likes of Brentford and Newcastle United to keep pace in the race for top four.

That both Manchester United and Chelsea (who are down in 15th in this table with eight points) have had poor runs is the only reason the Reds still occupy a Champions League finishing position.

Having not had a single 0-0 draw in Arne Slot’s first 83 matches in charge in all competitions, Liverpool have now had two in their last three. Going further back, it’s as many goalless games as Liverpool’s previous 157 matches beforehand.

It’s the fourth time this season that the Reds have failed to score in a Premier League game, as many as 2023-24 (3) and 2024-25 (1) combined.

You may have seen the stat about Liverpool also failing to have a shot on target on Thursday night - the first time in their last 600 Premier League matches that they haven’t had one, having last failed to do so in March 2010 against Wigan.

I don’t like shots on target as a stat at all - you can have a 30-yard pea roller hit straight at the GK, but surely that shouldn’t count for more than Conor Bradley hitting the bar in the first half?

But when it’s the first time in almost 16 years and ends a run of 599 games with at least one effort on target, it would be remiss of me not to mention it.

Opta have shot data in Premier League matches since 2003-04 - Thursday was just the fifth time the Reds failed to have one on target in a league match since:

Arsenal really don’t give away a lot defensively - it’s why they are top of the league. In two games against them this season, Liverpool have had just 17 shots in total. On Opta’s records, on just three occasions have the Reds had fewer across both meetings in a league season:

But, ultimately, Liverpool come away with four points from the games, and the Gunners get one.

The Emirates, though, remains a place that the Reds find notoriously difficult to win. Just four victories in 20 league visits, in fact.

Among all grounds Liverpool have played at 20+ times in the top-flight, only at the Etihad do they have a poorer win rate:

As you can see, it wouldn’t be second-lowest on points-per-game (well would you look at that, draws do make a difference!), but the point remains that it’s such a difficult place to win.

The first half in particular on Thursday showed why. Liverpool, set up without a striker, struggled to get out, and their major opportunity - Bradley’s effort off the bar - was after an Arsenal mistake.

But the second half was totally different. Just look at the stat differences in the two halves - particularly passing numbers:

Liverpool went from just over 40% possession in the first 45 minutes, to just under 65% in the second. From 28 passes in Arsenal’s defensive third, to 94.

Fair play to Slot and the players - it was an impressive reversal of the pattern of the game. The manager did refer to the fact that the Reds still struggled to create chances - something that needs to be worked on, but we’ll take the positives.