Arsenal: Szczesny, Debuchy, Mertesacker, Chambers, Gibbs, Flamini, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Cazorla, Alexis, Giroud, Welbeck
Subs: Martinez, Monreal, Coquelin, Maitland-Niles, Campbell, Walcott, Podolski
Martin Skrtel’s late header earned Liverpool a 2-2 against Arsenal just as Arsene Wenger’s men looked to have engineered an archetypal smash and grab victory.
Mathieu Debuchy cancelled out Philippe Coutinho’s opener at the end of the first half before the Gunners took the lead against the run of play through Olivier Giroud’s 64th minute strike. The hosts finally found the leveller their toil deserved as Slovakian Skrtel netted deep into nine minutes of stoppage time that was the result of treatment to a head injury he himself had sustained.
Pre-game
Calum Chambers returned to the starting line-up following his one-match ban for the sending off at Stoke. Interestingly Arsene Wenger opted to use him at right-back, partnering Mathieu Debuchy in the middle with Per Mertesacker. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain passed a late fitness test to take a place in midfield alongside Santi Cazorla and Mathieu Flamini while Olivier Giroud was flanked by Alexis Sanchez and Danny Welbeck up front. Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Joel Campbell and Francis Coquelin made for an eclectic set of subs.
First half
Liverpool started by far the brighter of the two sides with the pace and trickery of Sterling, Coutinho and Lallana causing the Arsenal defence all sorts of trouble. It set the tone of things to come.
Just three minutes were on the clock when Mertesacker took out Coutinho on the edge of the box; Gerrard firing over from the set piece. Bookings for Lucas and Flamini sandwiched a Lallana effort from a tight angle and the former Saints man came close again with a second shot on 18 minutes that was deflected for a corner. Arsenal really weren’t at the races. We had 13% possession between minutes 9-18, looked sluggish all over the field and crowded out in the centre of the park by the Reds’ 3-5-2 formation. Arsene Wenger looked anxious on the touchline. In contrast Brendan Rodgers spent most of his time applauding his side’s work rate.
Eventually Sanchez was dropped into midfield as we gave up on 4-3-3, but it didn’t stop the hosts’ dominance. Szczesny denied Markovic with his feet at close range and the Serb squandered a second chance by wildly curling over the bar when the Gunners defence was stretched on the break. If anything summed up how poor our half was it was the manner in which we twice set up Liverpool counterattacks with awful corners that didn’t clear the first man.
On 43 minutes Flamini did his best to get sent off with a clumsy challenge on Lallana that left the England international clutching his head. He probably should have had a second yellow, which given the way he was playing could have been a blessing in disguise.
Just as it looked like we might make it to half-time without conceding, Giroud and Welbeck contrived to give the ball away on the edge of our box and Coutinho jinked to the penalty spot before cutting a shot across Szczesny that went in off the post. It was a thoroughly deserved goal. And not a single Gooner could argue otherwise. (1-0)
Just as it looked like we’d be down at the break we scored a leveller out of nothing. In stoppage time Alexis was tripped and when he climbed off the turf he whipped in a free-kick to the back post where Mertesacker kept the ball alive with his head. Flamini showed real bite to win a second header that looped to the back post and there was Debuchy to nod in from close range with the aid of a slight Skrtel deflection. (1-1) It was a positive end to a nightmare 45 minutes. Could it be that we were playing even worse than last year’s four goal first half demolition in the same fixture?
Second half
Coutinho and Cazorla exchanged efforts at the start of the second period, Debuchy picked up a booking for a foul on Sterling before Giroud accidently trampled on Skrtel’s drawing a significant amount of blood from the Slovakian’s head. He was down for six minutes as the Liverpool physios taped him up. The travelling support entertained the Kop with a rousing rendition of ‘Kolo is a Gooner’ for the entirety.
Another Sanchez corner hit the first man and saw the home side belt up the field in the build-up to a Lucas shot. Then Gerrard headed over the bar after Sterling used his hand to nick the ball past an onrushing Szczesny.
Liverpool were made to pay for their profligacy. For the first time in the match we put together a move of merit and Giroud was the key man. A crisp Gibbs pass found the Frenchman in a central position on the edge of the box and his first time pass freed Cazorla behind the home side’s defence. The Spaniard returned the favour with a great cut back and Giroud smashed home inside the six-yard box through the legs of Brad Jones. (2-1) It was a fine goal .
Liverpool hit back with a series of shots and crosses that Szczesny dealt with tidily, Lucas flashed just wide from the edge of the box, Coutinho scuffed another from a similar position. Arsenal’s response as the game entered the final 15 minutes was to slow the tempo at every opportunity.
Fabio Borini and Rickie Lambert were sent on for Markovic and Toure as Rodgers chased an equaliser. In response Wenger sent on Francis Coquelin for Giroud and Campbell for the clearly unfit Oxlade-Chamberlain.
Szczesny tipped over a Borini header on 86 minutes and then fondled the ball past the post as the striker hit a low drive to the near post a minute later. The Italian’s frustration clearly got the better of him as he picked up a yellow for dissent and then a second for a studs up challenge on Cazorla’s chest. It actually ripped a hole in the Spaniard’s shirt!
Sterling and Gerrard kept shooting from all angles as the siege as the siege of the Gunners goal continued deep into nine minutes of stoppage time. Despite having only ten men Liverpool still found an equaliser. In the 97th minute Skrtel crashed home a header from a corner as the Arsenal defence stood watching. (2-2)
Amazingly there was still time for us to nearly snatch a winner, but after a long range shot by Cazorla was parried by Jones, Monreal couldn’t find a way through on the follow up.
In the end we had to settle for a point. It feels frustrating given the circumstance but in the grand scheme of things it’s tough to suggest we deserved anything more.
Mixed feelings. But…Chambers was awful…
Yup him and chamberlain were ridiculous. Why didn’t we play him at center half again? Debuchy looks like he’s been playing there his whole life. Kinda poor to concede like that. But somehow we got a point, a decent point too.
Hindsight is 20/20, but Bellerin should have played. At least he would have had the pace to keep up with Sterling. Debuchy at CB would have brought needed experience in the middle. Chambers hasn’t even looked decent at CB in some time.
Also, we didn’t really play a midfield today, did we? Flamini just looks so out of his depth.
I agree, I would have preferred Bellerin to Chambers as well. I don’t think Chambers will ever be good enough for Arsenal (too slow)…but Bellerin was not even on the bench. Is he injured as well?
wenger was asked before game about bellerin, he surprised everyone by saying he was injured. Arsenal player Injured….fuck off!!!! someone’s having a bubble
Debuchy’s performance was one of today’s few silver linings.
So god to see him back…..
So good to have him back…..
So good too! Have hymn? Back……
100% agree. The right hand side was targeted by L’pool. Chambers is not a right back. He gets done by little trickery and pace. I thought we were really bad in the mid-field because the OX was terrible. He didn’t look fit. Hope he hasn’t done his groin today. Fair result in the end. Could have been better though…
I’m confused how yet again I saw a player struggling and signalling that he needed to come off, and Wenger left him on for another 5 minutes before making the sub..
When Kos is back I think Debuchy should be tried together with him in the centre of our defence. – They both are rock solid!
Yes, is he any better than Jenkinson? I think not.
If you had said that two months ago you’d be slaughtered. I think on the ball he’s very good, unlike Jenkinson. Off the ball Jenkinson is much more solid and better positionally. Chambers, like Jenkinson, is still learning. Its hard to decide if he’s a center back or right back. If he’s a center half, why didn’t he play there instead of debuchy. Strange, maybe Wenger doesn’t see him there anymore. We were over run in midfield today because the Ox struggled. And so did Sanchez when he dropped deep.
too slow to be a RB in our system. he is often exposed and easily beaten for pace.
I said this two months ago about Chambers, needless to say I was lynched. My stance has since eased somewhat because he’s genereally been good at home when we’re dominatin games. Some poor performances are too be expected. I’ve been much more disappointed with Mertesacker this season. Not been much of a leader, both in terms authority and performance this season.
Agreed, the picture of Skertel rising to score and Per, Monreal and Debuchy all in view but none attacking the ball is very poor, given it was probably one of Liverpool’s very last chances. And Chambers wasn’t in a great position either.
Liverpool played well for them, I’d have loved to have sneaked a not really deserved win.
I think Debuchy played at CB so as to provide pace against Sterling.
Chambers & Per are too slow and they would have been beaten for pace far too many times.
Last time he played centre half we were 3-0 down at half time to stoke. Although the entire backline is not being helped by the colossal fuck up that is Mertesacker this season.
Chambers deserves a go at DM
Today it’s probably not the right time to say he deserves any starting spot, to be fair.
Nothing to be positive about at all. It is just unbelievable. And how you can concede a goal with 1 man more on the pitch is just unbelievable. This is a draw, but at the end of the day we fucked up in usual wenger manner. So it feels like a fucking loss
“And how you can concede a goal with 1 man more on the pitch is just unbelievable.” .. the only thing that statement qualifies you for is fucking off and not coming back.. Such a stupid knee-jerk response to a draw(!). It’s fans like you that hold this club back. Know nothing about football yet feel you’ve a valid point enough to comment on a public webpage… Christ alive, no wonder the fans hold know sway with the manager or the board.
Knee-jerk? I bet you can’t believe Arsenals got an ‘L’ in its name.
We were terrible today, simple shocking. What do people like you see in this team???
I would say it’s relentlessly shit and disjointed performances in most big matches that are holding this club back.
Are you stupid? You have 11 man on the pitch which should be sufficient to mark the opponents in the penalty area. Yet Skrtl is left unmarked by some distance. That is what’s fucking unbelievable.
Wenger fanboys are the ones who doesn’t know a shit about football, what you saw there at that last goal is a school boy error. A player cannot be left unmarked like that at a set piece, it is disgraceful. You have quite a bit of time to get your defence in place and mark the players. That’s the display of a sunday pub team defence.
No, a Sunday pub team will man mark all their opponents and then allow 2 or 3 of them to get a yard ahead. That’s man marking, attacker decides where he wants to run. The defender is always reactionary. Goals will always be scored from set pieces regardless of man marking or zonal.
What a load of tosh. Yeah I agree Skrtel is the last guy you want being free, but we don’t man mark, as everyone knows, so why would there be a man on him? The fact that he beat us to the ball is a different matter entirely. We gave away too many corners, didn’t keep the ball, invited pressure and it cost us. Don’t get why half of you are moaning either. We played shit, should’ve lost, could’ve won but still got a point. Some of you making it out like we got smashed for 5 again. Get a… Read more »
If you look at the reply it seems as if Mertesacker actually cringes and ducks when Skrtel goes for the header – if that’s the attitude of the captain, then what chance has the rest of the defence got?
*replay
We don’t mark players from corners and haven’t for years. Are you suggesting we switch to man-marking for one corner in the 97th minute because we have more players? Probably why you aren’t a footballer… I’m still trying to get over your “how you can concede a goal with 1 man more on the pitch..” comment. Clueless.
Well you don’t fucking leave their best heading player alone in the box.’
Actually, one thing I found positive was an unusually tactical display from our manager. First half, we couldn’t cope with the Liverpool system. Second half, we allowed lallana and coutinho much less time on the ball which made their attacking play less effective. As soon as they took off a centre-back when they lost a man, we took Giroud off and moved the Ox to the wing in order to try and expose them on the break as they were obviously going to throw the kitchen sink at it. We sat deep, ceded possession, and played on the counter –… Read more »
Also, how podolski does not get the opportunity after the two goals he scored against Galatasaray is beyond me..’ Some of our players look fucking exhausted out there, he needs to rotate the squad more..
Not to mention: where the fuck is Rosicky? Is he still at the club?!
Are you serious? The last thing we needed today was Poldi not tracking back. In case you didn’t notice we defended more than we controlled, not Poldi territory. Not at all.
He did a good job against Galatasaray and deserved a new chance from start. He is a match winner.’ What should he have to do in your eyes to get an actual fair chance?!
Be consistent, not slow up build-up and counter play, when called on to defend don’t simply foul every time in dangerous positions, close down higher up the pitch, and be consistent. I know I wrote it twice. I like Poldi, I really do. But for me he has a best application right now. Sub for goals. And I do think he should get a shot at more starts, but not at Anfield against Liverpool with an 8 man midfield when we’re weak in Midfield and Defense. Prove his work rate against a couple of QPR’s and the like. I have… Read more »
No plan A or B, no fight either.
They went down to 10 and still dominated possession through sheer desire.
We are so much less than the sum of all our parts, it’s embarrassing.
Please go before Jan Arsene, give a new manager the war chest.
How about Welbeck? Truly off the pace today. Should’ve been subbed.
But the ducking and cowering from Mertesacker for that late goal was totally unacceptable.
unacceptable? game after game he plays like a pussy in set pieces instead of the brave leader he should be and nothing is changing. apparently it’s acceptable for Wenger.
If I was a manager and any one of my players did that they would be dropped. But the problem is here – we don’t have any other options but to play him as we are so short on defenders. Disgraceful behaviour from a CB let alone a captain!
Mertesacker’s attitude on the pitch this season has been cowardly. When he knows he’s beaten for pace he’ll just accept it and watch. He could at least run back if the keeper makes a save, he can get in for a rebound or something. hes too willing to allow someone else to take the responsibility. Even with headers, which is a joke because he’s the tallest guy on the pitch in most games. Just feel like he’s not willing to give us his best anymore.
‘Not willing to give his best?’ The bloke quit international football to focus on Arsenal and has genuine love for the club. Right now he’s got shocking form and confidence, so how bout getting behind him and the team rather than circling like a pack of sharks? We’re sounding like Chel$ki supporters
Yep the Novelty of Chambers has worn off, sometime around the Swansea game.. Not his fault though.
You don’t win anything with kids…
An all time classic shit performance.
Genuinely the performance in last season’s 5-1 loss was better than this. This is the most undeserved point I can remember us gaining in recent times.
Yep.
The only difference was that last year Liverpool weren’t a heap of garbage too.
Come on. We hung in there for 40 minutes till we conceded and eventually we came away with a point, nearly / should have won too. You would prefer that we just fold again like we have done so many times in the past? I think I’m not alone in saying that there is something to be said about how we stayed in the game early on and defended well. Liverpool were good today and we could have easily gone 3-0 down in 20 minutes again. We didn’t and thank god for that.
That’s because Liverpool are awful this year compared to last year not because we hung in there.
Umm.. we were up a goal with an extra man on the pitch and conceded in typical fashion. What part of that is not folding?
We were away from home at one of the toughest venues in the world to play at, and we conceeded a late goal. shit happens. But we could have lost the game in the first 10 minutes. I’m not happy we conceeded, but our attitude wasn’t bad today and I am happy about that.
Exactly. We “hung in there” for 40 minutes against one of the worst Liverpool teams in modern times.
And seriously, “staying in the game” is a positive for you? What are we, fucking Bolton playing against title contenders? How low have we fallen…
When we play shit and get a result it’s unacceptable. When teams like Chelsea or United do then it’s what champions do? Our own fans are as fickle as the pundits, then we moan if anyone else cusses the team.
As for playing shit and getting a result, maybe you forgot about Anderlecht away? End of the day, we got a point from an extremely tough game. Would you rather we played spectacularly and lost? Seriously don’t get some people.
I was going to say, at about 92 minutes, that if we saw the game out it would be the most undeserving win I’ve seen us grab. We were utter dogshite and got made to look second class. Literally, I don’t think we put 2 passes together for the first 10 minutes.
Can’t say we deserved three points, probably a fair result. Szczesny/Santi Man of the Match. Bring on busy schedule and points, points, points please.
Szcz in no man’s land for the second goal, and Gibbs should’ve been on the post, and not farting about just outside it. Look at Flamini. he knows.
Thank you. I was really really curious as to what drew Gibbs away from the post at all. The ball was clearly not coming near for him to attack so why move off the post before the danger is cleared?
But I’ll take the undeserved point after a hapless performance if it means the team learns to show a bit of resilience even when up against it.
Arsene played the first 60 mins of that game perfectly, but I felt that taking off giroud for coq was the start of our downfall.
We invited that pressure and had no one to hold up the ball.
Probably a fair result in the end
Don’t agree. I thought the substitutions were spot on. Giroud, goal aside, was quite ineffective today (and gave the ball away for Liverpool’s first). Thought he would be substituted earlier tbh, with Welbeck moving to centre forward to play the counter or at least provide more movement. Ox was clearly tired by the time he went off, so the like for like with Campbell seemed logical. I thought we would be able to see the game out, but good powerful header where Gibbs might (should?) have been standing on the line.
I was hoping this was a classic rope-a-dope from Arsenal, but we shot our wad just as I thought Liverpool had after the first 20 minutes. At 2-1 we were on the up and it looked like expert game management. But we started taking it to the corner at 78 minutes, at which time the players had to have known there were still at least 20 minutes left to play. Didn’t they? Hell of a match but we should have sewn this one up after leading. We rely on the individual quality of our players coming through in the end,… Read more »
Imagine if Wengr had brought on poldi instead of Campbell. The chance in the end would have fallen to him instead of Monreal. he’d age absolutely lathered it into the roof off the net. Still, it’s hardly the managers fault.
I’m pretty sure that had different substitutions been made, the remainder of the match would not have played out exactly the same down to the inch.
I think you’re being unfair on Coq, who did no worse than anyone else today.
You mean that first 60 minutes was to plan? What plan is that? Play like a bunch or rabbits in the headlights, give the ball away as much as you possibly can, be overun in midfield, give them all the space in the world and be generally be thankful that you are not 4 nil down?
Play conservatively, don’t over-commit and let their lightening-quick forward line get a proper run at our defense. Rely on the fact that they’re leaky at the back to get you a goal. And as a plan, it almost worked. The payers didn’t execute it particularly well but tactically, that was a massive improvement on “just keep running at them and let them dick you on the break”, which seemed to be the plan last year.
Absolute shit performance, didn’t even deserve a point.
Can’t argue as to the utter shite on display but I’d say we earned a point. The game showcased why both teams are where they are this season.
Can I just vent for a moment or two on how fucking terrible football can be to watch? How is it that we wait 5+ minutes for a guy with a cut on his head to clear off the pitch? This is alongside the soft fucking fouls all over the pitch and people screaming over nothing. Genuinely felt embarrassed when Danny went down screaming holding his head, lying there for a couple of minutes, and then carries on business as usual. It’s all so fucking embarrassing. Don’t even get me started on Lallana’s bullshit “checking for blood” gesture we see… Read more »
Brilliant. It seems like Chambers is in a Christmas mood. Seems to be giving Liverpool a Gift!
Wow, Chambers left chasing after Skrtel, but what was Mertesacker doing in the middle. Who was he marking? He didn’t even jump because he didn’t even know who was behind him. It was his fault … our so called captain.
“Mertesacker needs Koscielny”
Then I guess we better buy a defender that doesn’t need his soul mate to make him a good player.
*Thinks back wistfully to the days when we played centre backs at centre back*
Mertersacker doesn’t know how to jump, as a child he was so much taller than the other kids that he never developed the urge to jump. he is the only 6ft 7″ man in the world who could be out-jumped by all of the seven dwarfs
Man we’ve started to suck so bad. So bad
Started to?
There was absolutely no urgency, certainly not in the first half, second half we just took it for granted. Spineless performance. The points dropped are hard to take. Yet a draw today considering the way we played, seems about right.
Happy holidays everyone!
Not sure if that was a pt gained or 2 pts dropped. Shouldn’t have let them score from a corner with 10 men. But we were lucky to be 2 goals up anyway. Bring on the transfer window already we are absolutely missing quality in centre mid and defence.
After that first 45 minutes I would definitely not complain about the point.
One gained rather than two dropped even allowing for the timing of their equaliser.
This is why there are so few young Arsenal fans out there. No child in their right mind would bother supporting this lifeless, pathetic team. I dare you to find something good about the club at the moment. Good players, terrible management.
All Brendan had to do is bring more numbers in midfield and voila. Wenger’s line-ups are always the same. It was really sad how we tried to establish our usual routine passes against an obviously different opposition game plan. This is where his tactical ineptitude gets called out and revealed for all the world to see.
So are the good players a good thing or not? I’m confused…
It doesn’t matter if that doesn’t materialize in a good team performance. It’s just unfulfilled potential.
Well that comment just confuses things more…
How does that confuse your little brain? It doesn’t matter if they’re skilled or smart, if you don’t utilize them correctly.
But that has nothing to do with your original comment. You said, and I quote, ‘I dare you to find something good about the club at the moment. Good players, terrible management’, so either the players are a good something or not. That drivel about potential is a completely different topic hence the confusion.
This is actually just nonsense
Gargoyle by name and by nature. Support the team. Ffs. Everyone sounds like they want to kill themselves. A point away at Liverpool isn’t bad. Especially considering we weren’t at it today. We just move on to some more favourable games. Win some, lose some and surprise surprise draw some. I sound so positive i surprise myself……..
Since when is voicing your opinion ‘not supporting the team’. And I wouldn’t be bothered like this if this was a rare occurrence, or something that I know will pass. This is happening for years now and fairly often. Maybe I’m just sick of maintaining the status quo for so long, especially when there is fairly little progress on the pitch. We repeat the same errors, we don’t try new things and I fail to see in Wenger the same passion on the pitch he showed a decade ago. He has spend a fair amount of money in the last… Read more »
“We might not even finish in the top four this season”
-Who, pray tell, has spoilt you so?
“No child in their right mind would bother supporting this lifeless, pathetic team”
-If you only support a team because it wins, you don’t support; you are weak and plastic and just follow the herd.
Absolutely dire.
“I dare you to find something good about the club at the moment. Good players, terrible management.”
Umm mate…You just did yourself
Skrtel is a robot
Terrible performance from some players today. Really cannot defend properly and I wish some one in the coaching team would pipe up and get rid of fucking zonal marking shit. Couldn’t even hold on against 10 men. We were shite today, 35% possession and about 5 shots. We were totally dominated and lucky to get anything. Disagree with this comment and you don’t understand football. I’m so possession off right now.
Meant pissed off.
I want to say I disagree but then I wouldn’t understand football and I thought I had it down after all these years. Having your own opinion is hard….
We all know you don’t understand football o greatest of goblin kings.
I knew enough last time we played you… HEY-OH!!
“Possession off”
Probably the 2 words Wenger told the team before the game.
Not even Bayern fucking Munich dominated us so much.
Probably. Too angry to type!
As much as I dislike Zonal marking, this specific goal wasn’t caused by that.
There were 4 players (Chambers, Mertesacker, Debuchy and Monreal) all in one zone, and the tallest one ducked. There was no one at the goal post where we usually do have a player like Flamini or Gibbs.
I honestly simply can’t believe that’s what was assigned to the players.
If that is so then Wenger should be honest and say that in his post match interview. Instead of generalising and talking about character and other hyperbole. Actually say “I tell them to this or that, but they don’t”. He cannot protect them all the time.
“Disagree if you don’t understand football”
Grow up.
Can we please just point out that playing against 10 men is completely irrelevant when defending set pieces. We defend zonally (not sure that’s a word) which has actually resulted in us conceding fewer goals from corners compared to 3 years ago when it was pretty much guaranteed that if the opposition won a corner they were going to score. The real question mark about the goal has got to be why Kieran Gibbs moved off the front post. I actually think Wenger got his tactics spot on and that some players need a rocket up their arse before games… Read more »
Wenger needs to go in May. He are uncapable of delivering the right results. It is the same bollocks every season. We cannot fucking defend and people expect us to have a run in the CL? No way, if we defend like this we won’t even get past Monaco test. #WengerOut in May!
Come on @striker……jesus christ. Are you the guy who asked for Alan pardew instead on five live ffs
Alan Pardew? No way. I don’t even know where you got that from. So you heard one fan say it and suddenly expects everyone who wants wenger out to be “Pardew In”?! That is ridiculous.
We should get a manager in that prioritize a strong defence above anything else. Diego Simeone would be perfect for the role because in his team the players work for each other and they work as a TEAM. We’ve seen again and again that our defending just isn’t acceptable..
Id rather watch a game of football where we try to win the game by attacking well, rather than parking the bus. Although i agree the defending this season has been suspect at times. But the injury situation isn’t helping. Not being able to build chemistry that playing together brings. Hopefully an addition there would obv. help too. Until then il support the team no matter what. I think liverpool at the end of the day just played very well today. You have to accept you cant always win, and play excellent all the time. It helps when u lose.
Yeah, but I am not talking about parking the bus here. I am talking about defensive awareness. We play a style of football atm that appears to be score more goals than you concede. It is a joke really.
Also, we seem to have all of our ‘bad’ performances against good teams. Are u guys sure it is just co-incidence?!
I think that shows how shite both teams are now, and with Chelsea/City’s rise neither of these teams will ever have the sustained success they used to have. I don’t want Wenger in charge next season, he always lets you down and frankly he’s a very average manager these days who can’t adapt to the times we’re in. Movement with passing is average, off the ball is horrible and we just kinda hope the players out there figure shit out for themselves, which is handy cause Wenger can’t figure it out. His training methods are boring and repetitive, Parlour has… Read more »
i’m really fed up with Mertesacker. like always he ducks instead of being the brave captain and leader he’s supposed to be. we need Kos back.
For all the things that the referee got wrong, thank god he got the sending off right. Abhorrent behavior – miss a chance and throw a tantrum. Spike the ball and rip another man’s shirt (and skin) nearly in half. Great attitude.
What did he get wrong? We were shite, nothing to do with the ref.
How about Sterling’s handball which he clearly did not spot and which almost resulted in a goalt?!
Not saying that we didn’t deserve to get a poor result at all, but there were several early calls that didn’t seem to go our way. Of course it was our very sloppy passing in the first half that did us the most harm, and poor defending (for the 2nd goal especially).
Pretty sure the ref made more passes than we did today.
Ref did us a huge favour by not giving Flamini a 2nd yellow in the first half. Flamini was extremely lucky on that, & don’t know what he was thinking at the time…Although, in all fairness, I do believe even he realised he was lucky & stopped the reckless behaviour from that point onwards.
Completely separate note – FFS can we get someone, ANYONE, to take a decent corner this season?!?
Shocking performance.
Possibly the worst performance from an Arsenal team including last seasons batterings..
Defensively embarassing against the juggernaut that is Liverpool..
Fucking awful
Not worse than Anderlecht at home, just typical same old shaite at the back, can no longer hold a lead against any descent team.
I remember Walcott speeding off to feed Adebayo 4 pr 5 yrs ago for us to take the lead with like 5 minutes to go yet, same old same old, today against 10 men, 2 minutes to go, and some think this team can win anything? Joke really!
We need a plumber at the back not just a defender. Never convinced of 3 points
Well I feel disappointed. Sure we played like sh*t but so did Manchester United when they faced us on our grounds. Undeserved points have as much value as deserved points, so I don’t give a f*ck how we get them.
Man Utd were also lucky v Stoke not to draw and Southampton were better than them, but we should have buried the demons … they are tinny cunts. Liverpool 4 Arsenal 2 would have been fair. Next season must be AW’s last chance
We were shite. There I said it.
Merry Chrimbo all, though.
This is why we can’t beat the big teams – we play one way and have no answer for any of the tactical changes they make.
No offence but we did not play the same way and were far more cautious.
No.. We were not cautious, we made loads of fucking errors. Make errors like that against a top team like Man City or Chelsea and you will get absolutely humiliated. So many naive passes that lead to dangerous counter-attacks. Our defending is shite, and we are in desperate need of a DM + new CB.
Liverpool isn’t even a big team this season. They are just a shadow of the team they were last season. They got outplayed by the Manchester clubs and Chelsea. And they pretty much dominate large parts of the game against us. Says a LOT about the manager.
Statistically our worst performance since they began collecting stats…WOW
We looked like a lower table championship side playing an FA cup match against them… and “them” is a mid table team. If it wasn’t for that one moment…
Shite performance. Got to give credit to Debuchy though, looking to be a fantastic buy.
Liverpool have become a team of whining, arrogant thugs. How they only had one player sent off is beyond me!? We were absolutely shocking, though.
We seem to invite pressure in the last 10 mins. Incapable of defending a lead sometimes. Why?
Uhmm…was it an instruction to seat deep, try to soak up the pressure? or were we our frail self as we are against ‘top’ side? #WengerKnows…. and one more thing… Sanchez needs rest!!
Arsenal is ruining so many of my weekends.
Positive: Love that Giroud dance!
WENGER OU….IN !
Arsene – “Are they booing me Bouldy?”
Bould – “No Sir, they’re saying ‘Wenger Ouin! Ouin!”
Like the Man U game, we drop points against a side we should beat. Our sum is far less than our parts, and that’s down to the manager. I love Wenger, but his inability to instill ruthlessness in this side such that we can see out a half is driving me nuts. Both goals were conceded at the end of the half. No excuse for that, especially when the second is in stoppage with the other side down to ten men.
Incredibly frustrating.
Our ‘parts’ on defense are a RB playing CB and a 19-20 yo on right back, and center mids down to loan recall. So I don’t think that statement holds water. And if the players don’t do their known job, it’s on them.
Not having the right parts is, however, a fair criticism.
We’re the team you want to play when you’re struggling for form. We seem to have in uncanny knack of letting the sides around us who have been struggling play exactly the way they want to.
Given that, my Christmas wish is to see us play ourselves for the next five premier league fixtures. It could be the making of this team. It could also be fucking excruciating to watch.
I am really pissed now. Something has to be done about the poor defending. We gave pool two goals today and really tried to give them more. It might be a good point in the fourth place trophy race but I can’t see it as anything other than a defeat. And what’s the point of us getting corners? “Hit it at the first bloke and hope he fucks it up as we do” must be the plan. There’s simply no other explanation.
Was their first poor defending? I think it was shit play from our strikers…
We nearly nicked it!
More to come from us….keep the faith!
COYG!
For some reason I highly doubt it
Why is that everyone gives us problems with high pressure, but we can not seem to do the same to them? If we Arsene wants to play attacking football all year long, surely high pressure is part of the plan. I’m not sure why he can’t get his players to apply it.
Dear Santa,
thank you for Santi.
That’s about it.
I dont know why he subbed Giroud, don’t think we would concede another if he was there
yes we would because of the zonal marking, and player coming from outside the box and scoring from a free header unmarked we conceded the same type of goal several times last year, giroud would not made the difference he would defend in front of scz inside the 5 meters zonal like every one else.
Giroud frequently heads out on set pieces from the spot or farther out. He knows how to actually attack a ball in the air. So yes, I do think he would have made a difference.
I was confused at his removal too, because Danny is inept compared to Giroud at winning the ball in the air. The entire team is inept compared to Giroud and Debuchy (when Kos is out) in that regard.
As soon as we got the free kick, I hoped we would score. As soon as they got a corner, I knew we’d concede.
At least we got a draw, away from home is always difficult and also putting into consideration our poor display augured by the many injuries in the squad. It can only get better, get behind the team through thick and thin, that’s what real fans do.
Amen
Fair result. Not sure how the second half would’ve ended if the boys didn’t grab the equaliser going into the half.
… The play in the middle of the park today was wasteful and irresponsible.
It seems to be engrained into the players that they are not good enough to win against the “big” teams, so they find more ridiculous ways to blow it every game.
Considering Skrtel put 2 past us last time at Anfield, surely someone should have bothered marking him at the corner with just 5 mins to go
You’d think our 8 mil a yr. manager will drum that into his players would he not?
I bet there is no way possible that the players on the field just plain fucked up.
Just like they did twice last year. And at home versus City earlier this year. And even when we do mark up, sometimes we just seem to do it blindly, it’s the only explanation I can think of as to why Alexis was marking Hangeland on the opening day when we went conceded to Crystal Palace. And then there’s the FA Cup final… these are all off the top of my head, it wouldn’t be too hard to dig up more. So if the players on the field did just plain fuck up, then they’ve been doing it for a… Read more »
I really hope that whatever reinforcement we get at CB Bould will be given the opportunity to say something like ‘at least give me a player that attacks the fucking ball in the air’. Or something to that effect.
Kos, Giroud, and Debuchy do, but only one of them was on and he was not near enough to make a play.
Says a lot about how poor Liverpool’s finishing is that they couldn’t seal the deal against a bunch of headless chickens.
I’m done watching Arsenal games for the foreseeable future. It is always the same, nothing ever changes. This team lacks a backbone and fighting spirit. But what this team lacks most of all is balls. All our players have become pussies. Everybody in the league knows this. None of the players want to step up and take matters into their own hands. We just gifted them miles of space in midfield and didn’t even try to pressure them. Due to Szszesny’s good saves and Liverpool’s woeful finishing we were somehow up 2-1 with 6 minutes to go. Like every time,… Read more »
To be fair to Wenger he sometimes wraps those sentences in to nicer words for variety. Other than that 10/10, agree with everything. We are the most predictable team ever.
Enjoy not supporting.
Goodbye and good riddance.
Ok, we didn’t deserved anything from this game, but we were leading with two minutes to go and concede a free header with liverpool down to 10 men. unacceptable to concede from a corner with free header and with a player plus, same mistakes over and over again, how many time we conceded exactly the same goal last year and this year, a goal from a corner with that zonal marking and a opposing player coming in the box unmarked and scoring from a free header. and with a players plus on the pitch why was no one standing guarding… Read more »
bit poor today but when we took the lead went defensive and got bit on the bum hole. Fair ruined now but hey it’s a point at Anfield so half happy.
In all honesty, Liverpool handed our arse our arse to us again at Anfield.
The shots we conceded are the highest we have had against us in many, many years.
And only getting 34% of possession…
Would of been all the sweeter the victory though 😉