Mikel Arteta first turned to Myles Lewis-Skelly. Then he went to a double bill of Gabriels, with both Jesus and Martinelli. Next came Noni Madueke and Eberechi Eze.
There were five substitutions before Liverpool’s first. Even that was enforced. Injury time proved a sadly accurate term as Conor Bradley was stretchered off and Joe Gomez came on.
Arsenal 0-0 Liverpool finished 5-1 in one respect: changes. “I think there are other things to talk about where both teams are at the moment than talking about the bench,” countered Arne Slot. The league table shows a 14-point gap and Slot cited a 20-goal difference in their respective set-piece balances, to borrow his term.
But champions and their probable successors have pursued different policies in their attempts to win the title. Liverpool were famously the biggest spenders, but Arsenal had the largest net spend. Slot got the flashiest signings. Arteta did not. Indeed, the last pair he brought on, Madueke and Eze, were summer arrivals but do not seem to figure in his first-choice side.
He filled out his squad, filled in every gap. It was the Polyfilla approach to winning the title, ensuring there were no cracks left in the group.
There was a case, reduced by their autumnal struggles and stumbles, to say that Liverpool had the strongest starting 11. It remains utterly uncontroversial to say that Arsenal have the best squad. No one else has quality in such depth. Arsenal, Slot had said the day before the stalemate at the Emirates, were a team with no obvious weaknesses. “The complete package,” he called them. Liverpool remain an incomplete package.
“We showed that in the big games we are able to compete with any other team,” Slot argued; but Arsenal have competed with every team. Liverpool had their £450m refit but ended with a smaller squad than Arsenal and with at least three players, in Federico Chiesa, Rio Ngumoha and Wataru Endo, who Slot is reluctant to start in the Premier League.
Slot fielded no striker at Arsenal, with Chiesa left unused. He has been down to two centre-backs for parts of the campaign, with Giovanni Leoni’s campaign curtailed and Gomez unfit at times. There have been times when he was without a specialist right-back. Recently, he had no out-and-out winger, Chiesa and Ngumoha apart. Liverpool did not follow Arteta’s model of two players for every position; sometimes they have not even had one.
They have been left with an overworked core. Apart from the Carabao Cup, Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate have started every game this season. Apart from a one-game ban, Dominik Szoboszlai has only missed seven minutes. It has been just as well; even with them, Liverpool have felt short of players.
Meanwhile, the sense that Arteta is prepared for every eventuality is underlined by the versatility of his players. None of Slot’s full-backs is particularly equipped to stand in as a centre-back. Three of Arteta’s, in Riccardo Calafiori, Jurrien Timber and Ben White, have spent part of their careers there. He has a midfielder, in Mikel Merino, who has flourished as a stand-in striker. The Spaniard scored home and away against Liverpool last season. He did not even make it off the bench on Thursday.
Those options can justify Arteta’s policy of splitting his budget more ways, of signing four players each for £50m rather than bringing in two £100m men; one of Liverpool’s, in Alexander Isak, is injured and has been ineffective anyway.
It is no secret Arteta admired the Swede. He instead bought the cheaper, and distinctly limited Viktor Gyokeres. The theory was that he would be the final piece in the jigsaw; instead of winning the league because of the Swede, they may do so in spite of him. There are reasons to wonder if Gyokeres will soon be Arsenal’s fourth-choice centre-forward, even if, on form this season, Isak should be Liverpool’s second option, behind Hugo Ekitike, when each is fit.
In trying to build a title-winning side, Liverpool may have aimed for the highest ceiling, but Arsenal had the platform of the highest floor. Liverpool’s vision of a glorious attacking force, with Florian Wirtz as the creator in chief and Isak the scorer extraordinaire, may one day be realised; but even if so, it will not bring them Premier League glory this season.
Arsenal may have a more prosaic brand, a style that – with apologies to artists such as Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka – is based on efficiency. It has not brought much of a reward in two games against Liverpool; over 21 in a campaign, however, it has given them a six-point lead, and 14 ahead of Liverpool.
And over a season, Arteta’s decision to prioritise strength in depth is justified by other markers. They top the second-half table, with most goals. They have 10 goal involvements from substitutes. They are alone among England’s Champions League representatives in going unbeaten in the Premier League games immediately after a European midweek.
Liverpool could hold them over 90 minutes. Yet a glimpse at the benches, a sight of Freddie Woodman, Calvin Ramsay, Trey Nyoni and Ngumoha and the nine pedigree players Arteta had in reserve told a tale of where the title could be decided.
