Liverpool forced to delay title party as best and worst of careless Arsenal on show

Put a cork in it at Anfield and stick that champagne back in the fridge.

One man’s Bollinger is another man’s Prosecco, but Liverpool’s party will have to wait until Sunday. Careless Arsenal just about extended the title race another four days, but it’s all over bar the sausage rolls and vol-au-vents.

With Liverpool players, watching on TV at their Kirkby training ground, ready to break open the bubbly, the Gunners kept the party streamers on standby. Arne Slot’s champions-in-waiting came close to clinching the holy grail without kicking a ball, but now it falls to Tottenham to be the party stooges this weekend.

Pegged back by Palace substitute Jean-Philippe Mateta’s late equaliser, ultimately the Gunners were grateful to escape with a point and no new injury concerns ahead of their Champions League moment of truth against Paris Saint-Germain next Tuesday. Keeping your powder dry was once the preserve of Bonfire Night technicians trying to stop the rain from making the blue touchpaper soggy at the village firework display.

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And nobody was expecting firecrackers or mortar shells when Arsenal had their biggest game of the season on the near horizon. So it was a major surprise, not least to the latecomers who missed it, that the Gunners went in front inside three minutes from a familiar provenance - the good old set piece.

Apart from Declan Rice bending it like Beckham against Real Madrid, Arsenal’s favourite source of goals had gone quiet of late. But when Martin Odegaard swung a free-kick to the near post, Jakub Kiwior was hopelessly unmarked to plant a firm header beyond Dean Henderson.

Number crunchers make that 66 goals in four seasons from dead-ball restarts since set piece coach Nicolas Jover joined the Arsenal payroll. It was the Polish centre-back’s first goal since February 2024, and Kiwior’s form has been a revelation since Gabriel was ruled out for the season.

If the portents for Palace - who have a Wembley date with Aston Villa in 48 hours - were ominous, to their credit they refused to come quietly. Since Granit Xhaka’s monumental strop in the dying days of Unai Emery’s unlamented reign at the Emirates, an aggregate score of 20-4 in the Gunners’ favour in the last six meetings read like a ransom note.

But moments after Rice was a whisker away from making it 2-0 with a rasping 20-yard shot, Palace’s spirited response yielded an equaliser after 27 minutes. Eberechi Eze’s acrobatic volley from Adam Wharton’s corner bounced through a crowd of players and in off the post beyond David Raya’s despairing sprawl.

Oliver Glazer’s progressive side were undone again three minutes before the break, Leandro Trossard taking Jurrien Timber’s crisp pass in his stride and threading his fourth goal in as many games just inside Henderson’s left-hand post. But the indefatigable Eagles came back for more after the break, Raya expertly parrying Marc Guehi’s effort before substitute Ismaila Sarr somehow missed an open goal from three yards by failing to connect properly with a simple header.

At the other end Gabriel Martinelli’s ‘goal’ was correctly ruled out, after an interminable VAR seance, before William Saliba’s slapdash pass presented Mateta, who had only been on the pitch two minutes, with a gift 30 yards out. The Palace sub lifted his finish exquisitely over the stranded Raya, and on Merseyside the champagne was ready to blow, but a record-equalling 20th title will have to wait until Sunday.

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