The Spanish midfielder finished off a neat move on 79 minutes to cancel out Steven Gerrard's first-half thunderbolt as both sides preserved their unbeaten start to the Premier League campaign.

For the majority of the game it had looked like Gerrard had marked his 400th appearance in a Reds shirt with the winning goal as Liverpool's defence kept Arsenal at bay with a disciplined performance.

They began the afternoon in determined fashion and pressed the ball well to unsettle Arsenal's rhythm in the early stages.

It was a tactic that paid dividends inside the first 10 minutes when Gerrard won the ball off Mathieu Flamini deep in Arsenal territory and began the move that led to the opening goal of the match.

Dirk Kuyt fed Steve Finnan on the right and when he turned inside he found Gerrard, who brought a smart save out of Manuel Almunia with a low effort.

The Reds kept the ball in play by the left touchline and as the Gunners struggled to clear their lines Cesc Fabragas brought down Xabi Alonso on the edge of the penalty area.

From the resulting free-kick Gerrard smashed home John Arne Riise's touch off in front of the Anfield Road end to give Liverpool the perfect start.

However, as the half wore on Arsene Wenger's side began to dominate possession and could have levelled on 17 minutes but Pepe Reina reacted well to deny Emmanuel Adebayor from eight yards out.

The Reds keeper was then grateful for the intervention of Sami Hyypia when the veteran defender cleared Tomas Rosicky's clipped shot off the line after Reina had failed to clear after racing to the edge of his area.

Liverpool were struggling to maintain possession but always looked dangerous from set-pieces and when John Arne Riise's corner was only half-cleared, it was Gerrard once again who brought a smart save out of Almunia on 30 minutes.

At half-time the Reds were forced to replace an out-of-sorts Fernando Torres with Peter Crouch and it was the England international who had the first chance of the second period when he stung the fingertips of Almunia with a 25-yard pildriver.

Arsenal then missed a glorious chance to level when another flowing move found Emmanuel Eboue in the box but when his low strike rebounded back of the near post Fabregas somehow managed to fire over from eight yards out with the goal gaping.

It set the pattern for the remainder of the match as the Gunners dominated the ball and eventually they snatched the reward they deserved.

Alexander Hleb cut in from the left and when his telling ball found Fabregas, the Spain international fired a snap shot inside Reina's near post to send the travelling support wild.

Both sides then had chances to win it but when the full-time whistle blew they were forced to settle for a point.