Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has admitted that his decision to start Alexis Sanchez on the bench during this afternoon's Premier League clash with Liverpool backfired.

The Chilean was left out of the starting lineup at Anfield despite being the Premier League's joint top-scorer this season, and a toothless Arsenal subsequently found themselves two goals down at the break.

Sanchez was introduced in place of Francis Coquelin at half time and duly set up Danny Welbeck's goal as Arsenal hauled themselves back into the match, but Liverpool went on to record a 3-1 victory that sees the Gunners drop out of the top four.

"Yes [it did backfire], but I felt that in the first half that the strikers suffered because we didn't dominate in the midfield and in the second half you could see that it was easier because Danny Welbeck and Olivier Giroud were much better. So it's always debatable," Wenger told BT Sport.

"It took us a while to get into the game. We were not completely at the races in the first half and we conceded cheap goals and direct goals from their goalkeeper.

"We had opportunities to come back in the second half and responded well but it's true, we didn't perform to our level [in the first half]."

Arsenal have now lost four of their last six matches across all competitions and three of their last four in the Premier League.