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 main rules for visiting teams after getting engaged to Trent Alexander-Arnold and appearing to rile up the crowd.

Arsenal were 2-0 up at Anfield within 28 minutes on Sunday, with Mikel Arteta’s side quicker on every ball and sharper with their passing and pressure, leaving Liverpool without a moment’s rest.

However, with halftime fast approaching, Xhaka was brought down at the far side’s touchline and reacted angrily to not getting a free kick from referee Paul Tierney.

Xhaka chased down Alexander-Arnold and looked to get a hold of the right-back before the two used some choice words and briefly butted heads.

Both were booked, but pundits and fans alike have said the fallout for Arsenal was far greater, with Xhaka accused of unnecessarily allowing Liverpool back into the game. Mohamed Salah halved the deficit shortly afterwards.

The midfielder thought he should have been given a free kick and reacted angrily to the lack of a decision

Neville said crucial to success at Anfield is to make sure you don’t incite the crowd

“I’m not pointing directly at the Xhaka incident he got involved in, but there’s a rule when you play here and it didn’t help,” Neville said on Sky Sports.

“There are some rules here: play through the first 25 minutes, play the ball forward and don’t get pressured early on, if the crowd is sleepy then leave it that way.

“Don’t pick up the crowd or give away a stupid free kick. 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 they conceded clearly.’

Jamie Carragher, commentating alongside Neville, was the first to criticize Xhaka.

“I mean, what’s he thinking, Xhaka?” he said. “Two nils at Anfield, throws his arm or something in Trent. Just ridiculous. Trent reacts and then the audience stands up, the ball is already gone. It’s two zeros, just before halftime.’

Roberto Firmino finally equalized late for the hosts, and Liverpool will probably feel they could have won the game in extra time, had it not been for some remarkable goalkeeping from Aaron Ramsdale.

Speaking after the game, Arteta seemed to imply that it was in fact Salah’s half-time goal, rather than the incident before, that got the crowd going.

“Wow, very intense game,” Arteta said. “The game was under control, but then we conceded a very sloppy goal and the game accelerated.

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

The two players were booked and Mohamed Salah made it 2-1 shortly after the incident

Salah made it 2-1 on the stroke of half time and Liverpool then spent much of the second half in Arsenal’s half.

Liverpool can score three or four. It is true that we could have scored two or three, so maybe the score is right in the end.

‘I haven’t seen anyone do it [dominate] in this soil this season. They beat every major team here, played against Real Madrid and could have been down to four after 20 minutes.

“They’re going to have moments. You have to deal with it and we did. Our goalkeeper played a big part in that.

“We could have taken three points. We should [play like the first half] another 15 minutes and the game would have taken a completely different trajectory. We didn’t. We have to take the point.’