Darwin Nunez didn’t muster a single shot in the space of 97 minutes against Arsenal — and it was the same in his 67 minutes against Chelsea last week.
The Liverpool striker had 28 touches in total during the 2-2 draw at the Emirates, two fewer than substitute Kostas Tsimikas, who only came off the bench inside the final half-hour. Starved of service and isolated, Nunez won five out of 15 duels, including just one of the four he contested in the air.
Those numbers are bleak.
Yet there he was after the final whistle receiving the acclaim of his manager, team-mates and an appreciative travelling Kop.
As the minutes ticked away and it started to look like Liverpool’s much-improved second-half performance would go unrewarded, Nunez delivered. Latching onto Trent Alexander-Arnold’s perfectly weighted pass, the Uruguayan raced away down the right channel and squared for Mohamed Salah to salvage a point for Arne Slot’s side.
It was testament to the power of perseverance. It was also vindication of Slot’s decision to leave Nunez on the field when he introduced fresh legs after the break.
“When someone keeps going like Darwin, I see you are fit enough to keep competing,” Slot said. “Darwin hasn’t played that much yet. To play three games in a row with the difficult fixtures we had, including an away game in Europe, and to be so fit at the end of the game…
“He’s the only available striker at the moment, so to see how hard he worked for us was really pleasing.”
Few players divide opinion quite like Nunez. Whether you staunchly defend him at every turn or have long since regarded the summer 2022 signing as an £85million ($110m at the current exchange rate) misfit, there’s no shortage of evidence to support your stance. This is a player capable of thrilling and infuriating in equal measure.
Rough edges remain but what nobody can deny is that, over the course of an energy-sapping week, he has made a highly significant contribution to keeping Liverpool’s early-season momentum intact.
At Anfield against Chelsea a week earlier, when he replaced the injured Diogo Jota on 30 minutes, Nunez led the line brilliantly as he occupied defenders and repeatedly closed down opponents. It was a similar story away to Germany’s RB Leipzig in the Champions League in midweek, when he poked home the night’s only goal from close range.
Sunday’s trip to north London was only his second start among Liverpool’s nine Premier League matches this season — a reminder that new head coach Slot has favoured control over chaos in that central striking role. But again, so much of Nunez’s best work was done out of possession.
There were times in the first half, when Liverpool were under pressure, that he was dropping so deep to help out defensively he appeared to be playing as an auxiliary centre-back. “That had not so much to do with the game plan but with the quality of Arsenal in the first half as they dominated us without creating that many chances,” explained Slot.
Nunez only had five touches inside Arsenal’s penalty area but one of them was that crucial assist for Salah. Operating on the same wavelength as his team-mates has been an ongoing challenge for the former Benfica attacker in his two and a bit years in England, but there’s no doubting the understanding between him and Salah.
It was a blistering counter-attack after the outstanding Ibrahima Konate and Alexander-Arnold had combined to halt Gabriel Martinelli. Salah was initially operating outside Nunez as the move gathered pace, but sprinted into the middle and didn’t even need to break stride as he dispatched his cross past David Raya.
Nunez has now contributed 19 assists in all competitions for Liverpool and 11 of them have been for the Egyptian, whose goal took him level with Robbie Fowler in joint-eighth place in the Premier League’s all-time list on 163. Slot said: “Top players are always available and show up in the big games. Mo showed up. You need these quality players who can make a difference. We also have to give credit to Darwin and Trent for the goal.”
For all the talk about Arsenal’s injuries, it shouldn’t be forgotten that this was Liverpool without Alisson, Jota, Federico Chiesa, Harvey Elliott and Conor Bradley.
Throw into the mix having a day less to prepare following that Champions League trip to Leipzig (Arsenal had played at home against Shakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday), and it was hardly a surprise that Slot was so upbeat post-match. This was a valuable point at a venue where Liverpool were beaten 3-1 on their previous visit back in February.
Having conceded more than once for the first time in their 13 matches this season, his team showed great resilience to secure a share of the spoils as he became the first Liverpool manager to remain unbeaten in his first seven away matches in charge since William Connell in 1923.
“We could prepare them (the Liverpool players) a bit better for the second half with what we had seen in the first half,” Slot added. “We took some more risk but the main thing was we put more energy into it. We pressed them more aggressively. I saw also we could keep going where they had to take a few of their quality players off. Going two times behind against a very strong Arsenal team, to get a point is pleasing to see. We came back so strong in the second half.”
Slot’s triple substitution on 63 minutes certainly helped with the introductions of Dominik Szoboszlai, Cody Gakpo and Tsimikas. He could have taken off Nunez and played Gakpo through the centre but opted to withdraw Luis Diaz instead.
This was the first time Nunez has played a full Premier League game since April. No goals, no shots. He wasn’t even caught offside. But what Slot did get was plenty of hard graft, an intelligent run and a classy assist for Salah late on.
When Liverpool were in desperate need of inspiration, Nunez came up trumps to keep the Slot bandwagon rolling.
(Top photo: Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
