I heard Mikel Arteta complaint but Liverpool knows it doesn't fully add up

Only when the season ends will we know just how important that result was for either Liverpool or Arsenal .

A point was fair, with neither at their best, but both teams will have shuffled out of the Emirates Stadium with frustrations to some extent. Arsenal, at home, might think that it should have been able to see the game out when it went in front. Liverpool , undoubtedly, can play a significant amount better than it showed here. On another day, either could have, therefore, produced quite a statement, but it wasn't to be.

Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk came up with decisive moments while Bukayo Saka, back from injury, and Mikel Merino, with a set-piece goal, will feel they could have come out on the winning side. That is why, when the dust settles, neither can argue.

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By the time the end of the campaign, little murmurs about refereeing decisions and key absences will have been forgotten about. And in truth, neither of those things should be overly relied on to explain the outcome of this particular match-up.

William Saliba was missing through a suspension while injuries to Martin Odegaard and Riccardo Calafiori are unfortunate, but no more important than Liverpool being without Alisson Becker and Diogo Jota . Bukayo Saka didn't last the 90 minutes but he has more than enough influence on proceedings in the time he was on the pitch.

"With everything that we’ve been through in the last few weeks, with all the injuries and situations that we had, the team was exceptional," Mikel Arteta told Arsenal's official website post-match.

"The energy that we created, the way we dominated the top team in the league at the moment, and where we’re coming from, it says a lot about how much we want it and, as well, the quality that we have."

Arteta made reference to the injuries in his press conference too. "Very proud of the team, especially with the situation we are going through at the moment — probably you cannot imagine," he said. "I think in the first half, it was total domination, we were really good, really dominant, really efficient and the result probably should have been bigger."

As well as injuries, the Arsenal crowd was unhappy with the referee, Anthony Taylor. He blew, just about correctly, for a foul that denied Kai Havertz a goal when Dominik Szoboszlai was fouled and was having none of the time-wasting that didn't end up paying off for the Gunners.

Taylor did, in fact, give Arsenal many free-kicks, largely because Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez , in particular, were guilty of giving away several needless niggling fouls. Those broke the game up and gave Arsenal an easy way out under pressure on too many occasions, especially in the first half.

Arteta was broadly fair on how the game unfolded, but his mention of the injuries doesn't tell the full story. Even if it did, the Gunners had such fortune on that front last season that it was inevitable that more setbacks would come this. Quite simply, it is normal for most teams to miss key men at times, even in big and decisive fixtures.

Liverpool had its moments; Arsenal did too. In a game in which a seven-point gap was potentially there to be opened up, it wasn't the ideal result for the Reds, but it was always a likely one. It was, on balance, a fair one, with Arsenal's injury absences far from telling the full story.