Dalglish hails his side's commitment as Wenger rues bad luck

LONDON // Arsene Wenger blamed bad luck after Arsenal dropped two costly points in the Premier League title race following a dramatic finale to their 1-1 draw against Liverpool.

The Gunners - now six point points behind leaders Manchester United having played the same number of games - had plenty of possession and hit the bar in the first half through Laurent Koscielny.

However, just like in the previous two home draws with Sunderland and Blackburn Rovers, they also lacked a cutting edge in attack.

Then, deep into eight minutes of added time, Robin van Persie netted a penalty which looked to have sealed victory.

Liverpool, though, snatched a point from the spot with the final kick of the match after Emmanuel Eboue pushed Lucas.

Wenger must now lift his battle-weary squad for Wednesday night's north-London derby at Tottenham Hotspur.

"We conceded a penalty after 11 minutes when the referee said there was eight minutes of injury time. I don't see where those three minutes came from, and it was no penalty," said Wenger, who confronted Andre Marriner, the referee, and his assistants as they left the pitch.

"We have been badly done [by] in the two games here," Wenger said. "Against Sunderland we scored a regular goal and were not given a penalty that was 100 per cent, then today we got caught back like that.

"It is a period where we have not the biggest luck. It was a difficult game against a Liverpool team who basically only defended.

"We are on a 15-game unbeaten run, but recently we have not taken enough points."

For Liverpool's manager, Kenny Dalglish, there was a sense of satisfaction after a battling display which built on the 3-0 home win over Manchester City.

"I don't think there's any team anywhere that's shown the same attitude and commitment that our team showed today," said the Scot.

"Losing Fabio Aurelio early on, putting a 17-year-old on at left-back, losing our captain, having a right-back at only 18 with his second game, we have lost our centre-forward, we've lost a goal and eight minutes into injury time they still didn't want to accept that we're going to get nothing from the game.

"You can't speak any higher about them than that."