Liverpool vs Arsenal: Dry as sticks James Milner picks out silver linings

Dry as sticks James Milner has picked out the silver linings as Liverpool drew 1-1 with Arsenal in north London on Saturday afternoon.

Milner scored the Reds’ only goal of the afternoon before French striker Alexandre Lacazette equalized after 82 minutes.

If Jurgen Klopp’s team had been able to hang on for the win it would have been a major step towards putting serious pressure on Manchester City in the title race, but the result still represents an excellent start to the season.

And during a post-game interview, Milner was asked what taking five points from games against City, Chelsea, the Gunners and Tottenham says about the progress made under Klopp – and his reply was a characteristically Yorkshireman one.

The dry as sticks midfielder didn’t offer much in the way of in-depth analysis with his answer, but it illuminated a few silver linings nevertheless.

While Liverpool only took one point from fixtures against those big four teams, they now have five. And those four extra points do more than just help with the Premier League table, they install belief among the playing squad and send a message to the rest of the competition.

Liverpool are now 11 games into the league season and are yet to lose. City and Chelsea are in the same boat, and this latest result keeps the pressure on those two challengers.

It’s always disappointing to concede later in a big game, and that’s something Milner touched on in the brief video, but the positives should also be focused on and there are plenty of those.

But Klopp refused to get upset about the result, and claimed that he didn’t consider it to be that bad. “We got a point, we deserved a point and we could have had more. I don’t feel like we dropped two points,” the BBC reported that the German mused.

Liverpool don’t have long to recover before taking on Red Star Belgrade in the Champions League on Tuesday night, and will need to brush aside any lingering disappointment over Saturday.