Michael Owen reveals mistake Arsenal made for Dominik Szoboszlai’s Liverpool winner

Michael Owen believes Arsenal made an error when defending Dominik Szoboszlai’s thunderous free-kick winner for Liverpool.

In a game largely devoid of attacking quality, it was Szoboszlai who stole the headlines with a glorious strike into the top-left corner from more than 30 yards out.

The Hungarian had already delivered a superb display up to that point, keeping Gabriel Martinelli quiet as he played out of position at right-back.

But he added the icing on the cake in the 83rd minute, producing a superb set-piece effort from distance to secure a 1-0 victory and all three points for Arne Slot’s side.

The Gunners have proved one of the league’s best defences under Mikel Arteta, and so it was hardly surprising that a moment of sheer quality was required to beat David Raya in goal.

But former Liverpool striker Owen believes that Arsenal’s decision to assemble a wall for Szoboszlai’s free-kick may well have been a rare defensive misstep from the Gunners.

‘I think the wall in that situation is a hindrance,’ Owen told Premier League Productions at full-time.

‘When the ball is that far out and if the goalkeeper stands in the middle and there is no wall, I bet he doesn’t even have to dive. He can just shuffle and catch it.

‘The wall in that situation is a hindrance. The keeper doesn’t get to see it, it gives the taker a target to hit it over and the goalkeeper has to shuffle to one side of the goal.

‘If he just stands in the middle and there is nothing in front of him, what would happen is the opponents would make their own wall and that just shows you that they want a wall because it gives them a point of reference.’

Owen continued: ‘Don’t get me wrong, from 20 yards out you need a wall but over 32 yards out, I think the wall is a hindrance to a goalkeeper.

‘Because of the wall, he doesn’t get to see the flight of the ball until it’s soaring over the wall, so straight away it’s like a ball flying in from 22 yards.

‘If he had that extra ten yards to see the ball, he would have shuffled across more and definitely saved it.’

Speaking after the game, Szoboszlai admitted that the striker had to be his very best to get past Raya in the Arsenal goal.

‘Luckily we could practice some free-kicks,’ he told Sky Sports. ‘I felt this was a bit further. I was like ‘I’ll take the risk’. I was confident in myself, I tried it… finally [I’ve scored from a free-kick].

‘This shot I didn’t practice in the past few weeks because we were shooting closer. I had to take a risk and shoot a little bit harder because I knew Raya likes to jump behind the ball. It’s an unbelievable goalkeeper. If it goes a bit more inside he saves it.’

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