Gary Neville tells Granit Xhaka he 'broke Anfield rule by winding the crowd up'

Gary Neville has said Granit Xhaka broke one of Anfield's cardinal rules for visiting teams after he engaged with Trent Alexander-Arnold and appeared to rile the crowd up.

Arsenal led 2-0 inside 28 minutes at Anfield on Sunday, with Mikel Arteta's side quicker to every ball and more incisive with their passing and pressing, not allowing Liverpool a moment's peace.

However, with half-time fast approaching Xhaka was brought down near the touchline on the far side and reacted angrily to not being awarded a free-kick by referee Paul Tierney.

Chasing after Alexander-Arnold, Xhaka appeared to catch the right-back before the two engaged in some choice words and butted heads briefly.

Both were booked, but pundits and fans alike have said the ramifications for Arsenal were far more stark, with Xhaka accused of needlessly allowing Liverpool back into the game. Mohamed Salah halved the deficit shortly after.

‘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,' Neville said on Sky Sports.

‘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.’

Jamie Carragher, commentating alongside Neville, had been first to criticise Xhaka.

'I mean what is he thinking though, Xhaka?' he said. 'Two nil up away at Anfield, throws his arm or something into Trent. Just ridiculous. Trent reacts and then the crowd gets up, the ball’s already gone. It’s two nil, moments before half-time.'

Roberto Firmino eventually equalised late on for the hosts, and Liverpool will probably feel that they could have won the game in added time, but for some remarkable goalkeeping from Aaron Ramsdale.

Speaking after the game, Arteta appeared to suggest that it was in fact Salah's goal on the stroke of half-time, rather than the incident preceding that, that the got the crowd up.

‘Wow – very intense game,’ Arteta said. ‘The game was under control but after that we concede a really sloppy goal and the game shifted momentum.

‘We started well in the first few minutes [of the second half] but then lost control. It became a very transitional game, very chaotic.

‘Liverpool could score three or four. It is true we could have scored two or three so maybe at the end the score is fair.

‘I haven’t seen anyone do it [dominate] in this ground this season. They beat every big team here, they played Real Madrid and could have been four up after 20 minutes.

‘They are going to have moments. You need to deal with them and we did. Our goalkeeper had a big part in that.

‘We could taken three points. We should do that [play like the first half] for another 15 minutes and then the game would have taken a very different trajectory. We didn’t. We have to take the point.’