Liverpool, in the absence of its Egyptian top scorer Mohamed Salah, eliminated its host Arsenal from the third round of the FA Cup by defeating it with two clean goals, on Sunday, at the Emirates Stadium in north London.
Salah joined the ranks of his country's national team, which is preparing to participate in the African Cup of Nations, which begins in Côte d'Ivoire on the 13th of this month.
On the other hand, the crisis that the London team was going through continued, as it scored one point from its last three matches in the local league, including two losses to neighbors West Ham and Fulham, to decline from first place to fourth place recently.
Arsenal played the match in the absence of its Brazilian striker, Gabriel Jesus, who suffered a minor knee injury during training, and its Spanish coach, Mikel Arteta, decided to include the winger, Rais Nelson, instead of the Brazilian, Gabriel Martinelli.
The Gunners dominated the course of play in an exciting first half, but their players were characterized by their recklessness inside the area, especially Bukayo Saka, who missed more than one real opportunity to open the scoring.
In the second half, Liverpool's performance improved and relied on quick counterattacks, taking advantage of Arsenal's offensive pressure.
Liverpool's relief came late when they advanced with an own goal scored by Arsenal's Polish defender Jakub Kiwior when he tried to deflect a ball with his head from a corner kick and it continued its way past goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale (80).
Amid Arsenal's attacks to equalize and force a rematch at Anfield, Liverpool succeeded in settling matters once and for all in the last second of the match when the ball reached Colombian Luis Dias and he fired it powerfully into the roof of the net in the fifth minute of stoppage time.