Declan Rice calls tune for Arsenal but he will need help at some point

Critics of Declan Rice, sceptics, nonbelievers – because this is football and there must always, always be critics – have accused him in the past of cruising through matches. Well, not here.

Rice must have hated this game at times. Or at least, must have felt like he could barely breathe in those periods where he seemed to be playing three or four positions simultaneously, always harried, always pressed, trying to fill the roles of defensive shield, romping ball-carrier, auxiliary left-back, rondo-leader between the centre‑halves.

Related: Salah’s stunning strike earns Liverpool draw but Arsenal stay top of table

It hardly helped that he was doing it all in a match played out like an extended version of one of those playground games of murder-ball, where everyone runs outside high on Skittles and desperate for air and just barrels into each other until the bell sounds again.

But it made for some fine entertainment. Arsenal were resilient at Anfield. Liverpool played at an impressive pitch of sustained fury. A 1-1 draw is a good result for everyone involved at the top of the table, right down to the best team in the world, currently lurking in fifth.

At the end there was talk of Mo Salah’s wonderful goal and Arsenal’s central defenders. But Rice was the key player on the pitch, out there playing rhythm, lead, elbow-drums, mouth organ, clashing the cymbals between his knees, utterly vital to Arsenal’s ability to withstand the Anfield storm front.

They would have lost this game with a less adaptable, less high‑grade central midfielder in that role. And quite clearly Rice is now also key to Arsenal’s ability to sustain the drive that has put them top at Christmas, from where 10 of the past 14 titles have been won. But there was also a note of warning here, the sight of a footballer in a state of hyperextension. Is it sustainable?

There was a pivotal, and also very funny moment on 71 minutes. Arsenal lost the ball at a corner. From there Liverpool broke with maniacal speed, five red shirts sprinting abreast, like the final of the 60 metres at the world indoor championships. The lone yellow shirt back to plug the breach was of course Rice. Faced with this he did pretty much everything all at once, back-pedalling, running forward, feinting sideways, arms whirling, a kind of one-man defensive solstice dance.

The ball was swept to Trent Alexander‑Arnold, who smacked it on to the crossbar. But these moments will nag at Mikel Arteta, who craves control, not lone heroics, not this footballing version of the battle of Thermopylae.

Rice didn’t win the official man-of-the-match award, but for Arsenal he was the match at times. His numbers tell part of the story. Five clearances. Four tackles. Ninety touches, miles more than any other midfielder, with almost all of Rice’s touches under pressure as Liverpool pressed brilliantly after the opening 20 minutes, forcing Arsenal to fight just to get the ball out of their own half.

Often pass-completion stats mean very little, but here Rice’s 88% was evidence of supreme composure in the face of that fury. At the end Jürgen Klopp came across and hugged him, caressed his neck, drawled in his ear. Klopp does this to everyone of course, and would probably do it to the corner flags if his assistants didn’t steer him away. But he knew how well Rice had played, and knew Liverpool would probably have won without him there.

It is a rare gift to cover an entire deep midfield. But for all Martin Ødegaard’s adaptability, and Kai Havertz getting better at doing Kai Havertz things, Arsenal have missed being able to put Thomas Partey alongside Rice for games such as this. That pairing will surely be required as the season narrows.

Related: Mikel Arteta hails Arsenal’s ‘courage and belief’ after Liverpool draw

Here Arteta picked the same starting XI for the third league game in a row. Klopp replaced the lord of chaos, Darwin Núñez, with the more orderly Cody Gakpo. And Arsenal started like a four-litre saloon thrumming up through the gears, pressing with real fire and scoring after four minutes from yet another set piece. Gabriel Magalhães’s header was a meaty, powerful neck‑thrusting thing, the jump timed so that Alisson could only flail at empty air.

Liverpool pressed back. Anfield began to seethe and roar and send those familiar waves of noise barrelling around the stands. The equaliser was made by a sensational pass from Alexander-Arnold, sending the ball howling in a low, flat arc thought the night sky and into Salah’s path. He walked through Oleksandr Zinchenko like he was a pile of wet leaves, then pressed the hammer, smashing the ball past David Raya.

Liverpool began to get hold of the midfield. For a while Zinchenko looked like he was playing in a pair of Heelys every time Salah went near him. But by the end this felt like a good point, and for Arsenal a good moment to be top of the table. The zippy midfield interplay was encouraging. The centre-backs really are excellent. And Rice was always there, always stretched, always just about in control of those central spaces. All of this will take them close. Is it enough?

Arsenal were also top of the league at Christmas last year, and five points clear of City, who took a 10-point swing the other way by the end of May. A few things have changed since then. City have yet to hit the same pitch of form. Arsenal have beaten them this season. Most important of all, they have Rice; albeit the lesson of Anfield was he might just need a little help in there.