Arsenal given footballing lesson at Anfield… as usual

Liverpool 4 Arsenal 0 
Premier League 
Saturday 20th November 2021  5.30pm   

Shortly before Arsenal entered the Anfield pitch to take on Liverpool, in the rugby union, England pulled off a notable victory against world champions South Africa at Twickenham. It felt like a surprise given the dominance of the Springboks during the game, but one thing that was not lacking was tenacity and commitment. 

Fast forward to full time at Anfield and it was time for a reality check. In terms of tenacity and commitment, Liverpool showed Arsenal how to play the pressing game effectively. It was a salient lesson and a timely reminder that the road back to former glories is going to be a long one. Arsenal had played eight Premier League matches at this stadium since their last win here, losing six of those games – often heavily. This as Liverpool went through a process of sorting their act out, as the Gunners must now, going on to win the Champions League and the domestic title and establish themselves as one of the world’s best teams.

So, realistically this result is something to learn from for Mikel Arteta and his players. If we forget the aberration at Brentford on the opening weekend of the season – for which there were certainly mitigating circumstances – they have lost a further three times in the league – all to the three genuine title contenders. Arsenal have demonstrated they can compete with everyone else, the undefeated run has established this, and they must target fourth place to progress along the comeback road the club needs to undergo. 

Yesterday evening, they competed manfully in the first half, although had Aaron Ramsdale – outstanding again – not pulled off a couple of excellent saves, things might have looked a lot worse by the half-time whistle. As it was, they were 1-0 down, although Mikel Arteta’s spat with Jurgen Klopp didn’t help the visitors’ cause, as it seemed to raise the tempo of the home crowd, which transmitted to the field. The pundits identified Arsenal’s high line at the free kick as the reason for the goal, and in theory, the reason to do this is to allow the keeper comes out to claim the cross. As it was, Alexander-Arnold’s was a peach to give Sadio Mane had a free header, and Ramsdale was finally beaten, in spite of getting a hand to it.

The second half was far worse, as Arsenal collapsed. In the opening 45, they mixed up the playing out from the back with a mix of long goal kicks and short passes between defenders. Granted the long balls didn’t develop into anything, but at least relieved pressure. It seemed that maybe, at the break, Arteta told them to stop the variety, and everything started from the final third. It gave Liverpool encouragement to press further up the field and take advantage of mistakes – such as Tavares presenting the ball to Jota to score the second goal. One assumes Kieran Tierney is not fully fit, in spite of playing twice for Scotland during the international break, and indeed was carrying an injury when his form declined before the club declared him injured a few weeks back. In a game of this nature, in which defensive grit is a pre-requisite, you’d have thought you’d start the Scotsman without a second thought. He was on the bench. Tavares’ howler was certainly very costly, although with Alexander-Arnold and Salah on his flank, he was always likely to have a difficult match.

There was a glimmer of hope at 2-0 with Aubameyang having a reasonable chance to pull one back, but other than that, it felt like he spent much of the game getting caught offside, which with his experience was disappointing. After his shot was saved, it felt like a bit of a procession, and you wondered how many Salah and company might chalk up. In the end, four was not an unfamiliar total for this fixture, we’ve been here before, more than once. 

A text from Doktor Schneide summed it up, nicely -
Fight and passion in the frightening teeth of adversity. But enough of Arteta v Klopp - where were our players tonight?

So the gap to the top teams remains, but Arsenal’s focus is on taking points from the teams around and below them. Three of the Champions League places are beyond doubt. Will Manchester United sort their act out once Ole is officially relieved of his misery? With no European distraction, Arteta has the chance to work on getting results from winnable games, and it has to be accepted that last night wasn’t one of those. Before 2021 is over his team face Newcastle, Manchester United, Everton, Southampton, West Ham, Leeds, Norwich and Wolves. It’s fair to say these matches will shape the rest of the season. Arsenal must bounce back and try and take at least 15 points from these matches, or they will drift back to mid-table and the optimism of the run that ended at Anfield will quickly evaporate.

So a bad day at the office, but let’s be honest, anything but defeat would have been a bonus. Liverpool have a settled system, better players, a winners’ mentality and a far more experienced manager. Arsenal are still developing on all fronts. One defeat shouldn’t mean that progress has to stop, the lessons the game had offered need to be learned - the main one being that the obsession with playing the ball out from the back needs to be used more selectively, as predictability just invites pressure.

Newcastle at the Emirates should be a very different match next weekend. Might still see a good few be a few goals though, going by the Toon’s opening match under Eddie Howe.

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