Arsenal were once again made to pay for wasting numerous opportunities in front of goal as Liverpool reached the fourth round of the FA Cup with a 2-0 win over the Gunners at the Emirates.
Mikel Arteta's team were in the ascendancy for the majority of the third-round contest, but as has been the case in several games recently, the Gunners lacked a killer instinct in the final third and were deservedly punished.
While Arsenal fired 18 shots without success, Liverpool took the lead against the run of play through a Jakub Kiwior own goal before Luis Diaz put the icing on the cake with the last kick of the game.
As the hectic schedule and international call-ups take their toll, a handful of changes on both ends did not come as a surprise, and two of Arsenal's reinstated players nearly combined for the opening goal inside just three minutes.
A sensational long ball from Aaron Ramsdale found the run of Reiss Nelson, who got in behind the Liverpool defence and skipped past Alisson Becker, but he could only fire into the side netting from a tight angle.
© Reuters
The front-footed hosts remained firmly on top in the early exchanges, but their wasteful ways were coming back to bite them again, as Alisson produced a comfortable save from Kai Havertz's curler in the ninth minute, two moments before Martin Odegaard rattled the bar from inside the box.
Odegaard's chance had stemmed from a Liverpool error at the back, and Arsenal saw another couple of attempts blocked in those frenzied few seconds, before Liverpool managed to slow the game down and make a few inroads in the hosts' defensive third.
It took until the 22nd minute for the visitors to fashion their first chance, but Darwin Nunez could not direct his header on target from a Harvey Elliott corner, and Jurgen Klopp's men were soon penned into their own defensive third again.
However, the net just would not bulge for a profligate Arsenal, as Alisson tipped a fierce Ben White drive over the top in the 38th minute before Havertz headed wide from the resulting corner.
Trent Alexander-Arnold nearly offered Arsenal a lesson in finishing in the 45th minute, but his ferocious strike from the right also cannoned off the bar and bounced away to safety, before Nunez had a crack at goal from a tight angle in the 54th minute but flashed his attempt a whisker wide.
Another chance, another miss for Arsenal in the 58th minute, as Odegaard's clever short free kick found the run of Havertz, who crossed for Saka in a promising position inside the box, but the England winger was slightly off balance and volleyed harmlessly over the top.
© Reuters
The Emirates atmosphere became all the more febrile as both sides engaged in an engrossing end-to-end scrap, and just two minutes after Saka's wasted chance, he sent another volley from a tight angle into the air after Alisson was forced to palm a deflected Havertz cross away from his goal.
Diaz was the next to try to punish Arsenal's ruthlessness in the 77th minute, but Ramsdale produced a stunning reaction save down to his right before the bar rattled for a third time from the resulting corner; Diogo Jota's header came back to Nunez, but the Uruguayan's curler also sailed wide of the goal.
However, Klopp's men would finally draw first blood just three minutes later, as Alexander-Arnold sent in a sumptuous inswinging free kick from the left flank, and while Ramsdale tried and failed to punch the ball clear, Kiwior inadvertently headed into his own net.
The hosts' attempt to keep their FA Cup dream alive in the dying embers were futile, and in the fourth minute of injury time, a quick Liverpool break saw Nunez and Jota combine to find Diaz on the right-hand side of the box, and the Colombian fired a powerful strike into the top corner at Ramsdale's near post to send the visiting end into raptures.
The Reds' two-goal success saw them end a three-game losing run against Arsenal in the FA Cup, while Arteta's side have now lost three successive games in all tournaments for the first time since April 2022.
Arsenal are now set to jet off to Dubai for a warm-weather training camp before hosting Crystal Palace in the Premier League on January 20, but there is no such respite for Liverpool, who welcome Fulham to Anfield in the first leg of their EFL Cup semi-final on Wednesday.
Ben Knapton
