Arsene Wenger delighted with Arsenal's ability to recover from ‘nightmare’ first-half against Liverpool

Arsenal went 2-0 down after 50 minutes, and it could have been far worse

Arsene Wenger was pleased with his side's fighting spirit (Getty)

Arsene Wenger could not hide his relief after his team recovered from what he described as “nightmare” first half to salvage a 3-3 draw with Liverpool at the Emirates.

Arsenal went 2-0 down after 50 minutes, and it could have been far worse, only to roar back into the game with three goals in five second-half minutes.

But Wenger admitted that, had details gone the other way, his team would have lost and lost badly. Even though they were briefly 3-2 up during the second half.

“That is the frustration of the night,” Wenger said. “On the other hand, to be completely honest, it could have been game over at half-time. We had a nightmare first half, not compact enough, not composed enough, and overall at half-time we could have been punished more.”

Wenger said that his team were fortunate to only be 1-0 down at half-time given that they were barely in the game in the first half. “The positive thing was that we were only 1-0 down,” he said.

“We played too deep, we were too far from each other, we needed to push high up, support the strikers more and play with the hand-brake off. We had too much trouble from long balls and not enough composure to get the ball down and play.”