By Matt Burrows
Liverpool hosted Arsenal in what proved to be one of the games of the season, as the teams shared six goals in their Premier League fixture at Anfield.
Both side looked sprightly early on, and it was Liverpool who went ahead when Emre Can's powerful drive was parried into the path of Roberto Firmino, who fired past Petr Cech in the Arsenal goal.
The lead only lasted four minutes though, with Welshman Aaron Ramsey latching on to a through-ball from Joel Campbell and slotting home from a tight angle.
However Liverpool were not pegged back for long – Brazilian Firmino doubling his tally with a sumptuous curling shot from 20 yards that left Cech with no chance.
Arsenal were under the pump at that stage, but turned the tables swiftly when Reds keeper Simon Mignolet let the ball through his legs from a corner after the deftest of headers from Olivier Giroud, who missed an open goal later in the half.
The Gunners looked the better of the two sides at the start of the second period, and it took them just ten minutes to carve out a real opening, a chance striker Giroud finished with aplomb.
After receiving the ball just inside the box with his back to goal, he swivelled quickly past Kolo Toure and shot beyond Mignolet into the far corner to put Arsenal 3-2 up.
The score remained the same until the final minute of the match, when a hopeful long ball found the head of Liverpool's Belgian striker Christian Benteke, who nodded into the path of Joe Allen to volley into the back of the net and rescue a point for the Reds.
The draw leaves Liverpool languishing in 9th, while Arsenal go level on points with Leicester City at the top of the Premier League table after they beat Tottenham at White Hart Lane.
The Foxes needed a win to keep their unlikely title hopes alive, and they got it when German centreback Robert Huth scored late on with a bullet header from a corner.
Elsewhere Manchester City and Everton played out an uninspiring 0-0 draw, while Chelsea and West Bromwich Albion also drew after Craig Gardner and James McClean cancelled out the home side's goals.
Meanwhile a Jermaine Defoe treble earned Sunderland a vital 4-2 victory over Swansea City at the Stadium of Light, leaving them on the cusp of escaping the relegation zone, as Southampton buried their recent run of poor form with a composed 2-0 win against Watford.
Stoke City also managed to notch three points with a 3-1 home triumph over Norwich – John Walters and Joselu getting on the scoresheet before a Bennett own-goal sealed the Canaries' fate.
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