Henderson: We've shown how strong our mentality is

The Reds ground out a 1-0 victory over Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium under difficult circumstances in the first leg of the Capital One Cup semi-final earlier this month on a night when three players sustained injuries.

That was followed up by a 2-2 draw in the FA Cup third-round tie at Exeter City when a youthful Anfield outfit fought back on two occasions in front of the television cameras to clinch a replay.

Then, most recently, Liverpool bagged a 90th-minute equaliser to claim a deserved share of the spoils in a lively six-goal thriller with Arsenal at Anfield on Wednesday night.

Henderson feels such resilience owes much to the togetherness within the camp, and told Liverpoolfc.com: “We were disappointed going away to West Ham and losing in the way we did, but I thought we reacted well at Stoke – it was a great performance.

“We’ve got a great bunch of players and people who have come in for the lads who are injured have done really well. We’ve just got to stay that way, stay positive and keep trying to win games.

“It’s important, especially when players aren’t playing and they want to start. It can be difficult, but you saw against Arsenal when Christian and Joe came on and both contributed to the equalising goal to get us a point. It was important and it was great to see.

“Against Arsenal we kept going right until the end and we managed to get the equaliser, but we’ve got to do that every game. We’ve got to make sure we do that every game. On Sunday, we’ve got to make sure we start the same way – start well. We’re looking forward to it.”

Liverpool’s 3-3 draw with the Gunners was described as ‘spectacular’ by Jürgen Klopp in the aftermath of the contest.

The Reds twice led via Roberto Firmino, but goals from Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud drew Arsenal level before the latter fired them in front early in the second half.

But, with the game ticking towards a conclusion, Joe Allen swept home a volley from Christian Benteke’s header to clinch a point.

“It was an interesting game – obviously for the neutrals it would have been a good one to watch,” Henderson reflected. “For us, I think we started really well in the first half, scored some good goals and we just needed to hold onto that lead for a little bit longer each time. Overall, I think we’ve got to be positive with the point and move on to the next game.

“There was a little bit of disappointment afterwards when everything settled down that we hadn’t won the game given the positions we were in, especially first half.

“But that’s the way football goes sometimes, you’ve got to learn from your mistakes and there were still a lot of positives to take from the game. Hopefully we can take them into the game on Sunday.

“There was a lot of good play going forward. We scored some good goals, but we need to defend better as a team and work on one or two things on the training field. If we put them right, I’m positive we can get a good result at the weekend.”

On a personal note, Henderson was able to complete the 90 minutes versus Arsenal in his first appearance of 2016 due to a reoccurrence of the heel issue that had previously kept him out of action.

He said: “It was good to get back, play, play 90 minutes and get through it okay. Hopefully I can just keep playing and get as many games as I can because I’ve missed too many this season.

“It’s getting better. I felt okay against Arsenal. As I said, hopefully with the run of games I can keep going and keep improving.”