Gary Neville claims Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka broke the golden “rule” of playing at Anfield in their 2-2 draw against Liverpool on Sunday.
The Gunners threw away a two-goal lead at Anfield after Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus had put Mikel Arteta’s side into a comfortable position inside the first 30 minutes.
Many supporters and pundits saw the turning point come towards the end of the first half when Granit Xhaka got into an altercation with Trent Alexander-Arnold with the pair coming forehead to forehead.
Xhaka was frustrated that he didn’t get a free-kick with the incident getting the Anfield crowd riled up, leading to a Mo Salah goal before half-time.
Liverpool took that momentum into the second half and finally equalised three minutes from time with Roberto Firmino nodding in at the far post.
And Neville reckons Xhaka broke an Anfield “rule” as an opposition player by whipping the crowd into a frenzy.
“Arsenal played brilliantly in the first 40 minutes and then they just got the crowd up,” Neville said on his Sky Sports podcast.
“I’m not pointing directly at the Xhaka incident where he got involved but there is a rule when you play here and it didn’t help.
“There are some rules here: get through the first 25 minutes, play the ball forward and don’t let them press you early on, if the crowd are sleepy, leave it that way.
“Don’t wind the crowd up or give a stupid free-kick away. Don’t get involved in a fight because they want the fire here.
“One team needs fire and that’s Liverpool and one team needs ice and that’s Arsenal. Arsenal got involved in fire before half-time and obviously they conceded.”
Oleksandr Zinchenko was nutmegged by Alexander-Arnold in the lead up to Liverpool’s second goal and has called on the Arsenal defender to “be more aggressive”.
“We’ve raved about Zinchenko this season and he was brilliant today until Liverpool got the equaliser,” Carragher told Sky Sports.
“He’s brilliant on the ball but lets them down defensively at the last minute. If Arsenal go back to being a team fighting for the top four, that will be exposed a lot more.
“It happened in the first game of the season at Crystal Palace where Mikel Arteta brought Tierney on for Zinchenko and it happened again today because he’s not trusted 100 per cent defensively.”
Carragher added: “I can’t get Zinchenko out of my head. You need to be more aggressive – the league title is on the…
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