Jamie Carragher thinks Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka made the mistake of riling the Anfield crowd up in their 2-2 draw against Liverpool on Sunday.
The Gunners looked comfortable in the first half as they raced into a 2-0 lead inside the first half an hour, thanks to goals from Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus.
But an incident towards the end of the first hald between Xhaka and Trent Alexander-Arnold ignited Anfield and saw Liverpool get a goal back before the break through Mo Salah.
Arsenal star Xhaka was frustrated at not getting a free-kick before facing up to Alexander-Arnold and butting heads with the Liverpool defender.
It proved to be the catalyst for a brilliant second-half performance from Liverpool with Jurgen Klopp’s side eventually scoring an equaliser through Roberto Firmino in the 87th minute.
When asked if the incident between Xhaka and Alexander-Arnold had an impact on the match, Carragher told Sky Sports: “Yeah I think it did. I mean, it sounds silly, I’m glad Xhaka did it… but I’m angry with Xhaka.
“I’m not an Arsenal fan, but if I was an Arsenal fan: what are you doing?! It’s absolutely daft. The game is in your hands and you get involved.
“Even the challenge, the arm, why do it? And now coming back, head-to-head with Trent, riles the crowd up. Absolutely idiotic from Xhaka to do that.
“And you know what, he’s been fantastic this season in a slightly different role, higher up the pitch, had a huge influence on this team. But that was going back to the old Xhaka.
“Honestly, who knows whether it led to the goal, we don’t know, but just for an experienced player to do something like that, in this ground, in the position they found themselves in…
“There was only one way Liverpool would get back into that game and that was with the help of the terraces.
“If that was just a football game, Liverpool right now can’t compete with Arsenal. But with the energy in the stadium they can. And [Arsenal] almost lost the game.”
Fellow Sky Sports pundit Roy Keane mostly agreed, he added: “There’s enough Liverpool fans in the team, they react to that, they’re an emotional team and it certainly helped them, absolutely. But Xhaka, these lads aren’t going to change their ways. He’ll probably do it again next week.
“But it changes the energy in the stadium, though Liverpool still have to produce bits of quality which they did. And that one mistake didn’t help Liverpool create six or seven great…
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