At the end of the season the points Arsenal have thrown away in games like this will come back to haunt them.

The best teams win when they are not playing well and this was a great chance for Arsenal to step up and do that, thus improving their league position and their confidence for the rest of the Christmas and New Year period.

Instead it's more of the same disappointment for Arsene Wenger and the players and the fans.

The first task for Arsenal was to make sure they kept it tight at the back rather than be the soft touch they were last year. They did manage that but having developed a winning position some sloppy defending by senior first team players cost them the additional 2 points (3 over Liverpool).

As far as the game was concerned I believe they were playing with the handbrake on due to fear left over from last year's game. No Arsenal player took the bull by the horns.

Positives did include Debuchy's equaliser and his play in central defense with so little experience. Giroud did well, too, for his goal Coquelin did well when he came on but not enough to stop them equalising, and Per Mertesacker and Nacho Monreal could have thrown themselves at Skrtel to quash the danger before he got his header in.

To not hold out for 3 more minutes with an extra man is very poor. It's time they stopped disappointing in these situations as they have done time and time again this season.

Liverpool played well but the same frailties existed in this game as all their other games this season ie. not enough goals in the team. This was predictable and gave Arsenal a chance despite having very few opportunities in the game.

I seriously believed the games against Anderlecht and Swansea and then Stoke would have taught them a lesson and prepared them for the last 5 minutes of this game but again they failed. The winning mentality of the top teams depends on seeing out games like this one and getting the 3 points when, otherwise, they were not deserved.

The current Arsenal side are good players but they don't have the win at all costs mentality of a truly great team. Hopefully that will come in the near future but far too often they have been disappointing when it comes to this aspect of the game.

If Arsenal are to prove Jose Mourinho wrong in his assessment, last season, that Arsene Wenger is an expert in failure.

I only hope that the future will see them become the winners that Arsene Wenger has managed at Arsenal in the past.