ARSENAL and Liverpool played one of the most exciting matches of the English Premier League season so far Wednesday at Anfield. Arsenal came back from a goal down twice, taking the lead and holding it for most of the second half, until Joe Allen scored on a volley in the 90th minute to end the match in a 3-3 draw.

    The results of the 21st week of Premier League matches benefited no team more than Leicester City. With Arsenal and Manchester City drawing in their matches, a 1-0 win for the Foxes against Tottenham at White Hart Lane meant Leicester was the only top-four team to get a full three points. And now Leicester is toed with Arsenal at the top of the table with 43 points.

    Chelsea will be frustrated and think itself deserving of a win after James McClean struck in the 86th minute to claw West Brom back in a match at Stamford Bridge and escape with a 2-2 draw.

    “People will talk about this game,” Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp said.

    An end-to-end match that started in the rain and climaxed in the snow got a fitting conclusion when substitute Allen steered home a 90th-minute volley to salvage Liverpool a point that its strong finish probably deserved.

    Four goals were scored in 15 frantic minutes in the first half, with Roberto Firmino twice giving Liverpool the lead only for Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud to bring Arsenal level.

    When Giroud span his marker with a wonderful Cruyff turn and curled home a finish in the 55th minute, it looked as if Arsenal would be preserving its two-point lead at the top of the Premier League. Allen’s goal, however, wiped out the visitors’ advantage and left them tied for points with Leicester after 21 games.

    “Hopefully, we are not going to have to regret this goal at the end of the championship,” Giroud said.

    A tweet from Arsenal playmaker Mesut Ozil summed up one of the games of the season: “There was no time to blink during the match.”

    It was chaotic at times, especially Liverpool’s axis of goalkeeper Simon Mignolet and central defenders Kolo Toure and Mamadou Sakho that was all over the place in the first half. Mignolet might have been at fault for both of Arsenal’s first-half goals, and the Belgian received ironic cheers at one stage in the first half when he collected the weakest of shots.

    Liverpool started at a furious pace and took a 10th-minute lead when Arsenal goalkeeper Petr Cech parried Emre Can’s fierce, angled shot straight out to Firmino. The Brazil forward controlled and shot left-footed through the legs of Laurent Koscielny and past an unsighted Cech.

    (SD-Agencies)