Arsenal: Cech, Bellerin, Chambers, Holding, Monreal, Coquelin, Elneny, Ramsey, Iwobi, Walcott, Alexis
Subs: Ospina, Gibbs, Xhaka, Cazorla, Wilshere, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Akpom
—
Arsenal began the Premier League season in dreadful fashion, letting slip a 1-0 lead to end up losing 4-3 to Liverpool at the Emirates this afternoon.
With a central defensive injury crisis, Arsene Wenger put faith in new signing Rob Holding to play alongside Calum Chambers, while £35m Granit Xhaka had to be content with a place on the bench. Alexis Sanchez began up front with Theo Walcott on the right, while Petr Cech captained the side.
The Gunners began brightly enough, with nice work down the left from Iwobi and Monreal, with Coquelin and Elneny in front of the rookie central-defensive partnership.
Aaron Ramsey had the first attempt of the game, combining with Sanchez and flicking a first time shot but it was straight at Mignolet. Nathaniel Clyne had a go for Liverpool but found Cech equal to the task.
Ramsey had a go from distance after spotting the Liverpool keeper off his line, much to the annoyance of Theo Walcott who, unfortunately for him, was standing in an offside position at the time. Firmino flashed a shot across the box, before Adam Lallana picked up a booking for a scything challenge on Ramsey.
Arsenal were handed a brilliant chance to go ahead when Alberto Moreno took down Walcott in the box, referee Michael Oliver pointed the spot without hesitation. The England man stepped up to take it, but it was poor, and Mignolet palmed the ball away.
Before disappointment had time to really set in though, Walcott made amends by putting us ahead. Coquelin made a good challenge in midfield, Iwobi fed Walcott in the box with Moreno nowhere, and he drilled a shot into the bottom corner to make it 1-0.
Theo scores the opening goal a minute after missing a penalty pic.twitter.com/uwvEF67c04
— Terje (@GoonerTerje) August 14, 2016
The visitors tried to respond with a decent spell of possession but Firmino’s shot at the end of it flashed well wide. Coquelin was booked for a foul in midfield, and a mistake from Calum Chambers presented Liverpool with a great opportunity but Wijnaldum’s effort on goal was thankfully tame.
Lovren picked up a yellow card for a foul on Alexis, and the Chilean had a chance from a free kick but saw it deflected wide. From the resulting corner Chambers got a head to it, but it drifted harmlessly wide.
In first half injury time though, Liverpool were level. Holding was harshly penalised for a foul some yards outside the area, and Coutinho cracked in a brilliant free kick into the top corner. 1-1. A bad time to concede, and the whistle for the break went seconds later.
There were no changes for either side at half-time, but it began badly for Arsenal as Adam Lallana put Liverpool ahead just four minutes in. The ball had been worked down the left hand side, Coutinho played it to the former Southampton man and his control and finish was first class to make it 1-2.
It got worse just 8 minutes later when Coutinho finished a brilliant spell of possession, side-footing home from close range when Clyne’s cross from the right fizzed across the Arsenal box. 1-3.
It might have been even better for the Mugsmashers when Lallana squandered a chance to make it 4-1, failing to finish a rebound after Cech made a save from a Firmino shot.
A bad afternoon took another step into a pile of dog poo when Ramsey picked up a hamstring injury in the 60th minute and was replaced by Santi Cazorla. It got worse again when Saido Mane scored a brilliant goal to make it 4-1 and it was an Arsenal shambles of the highest order.
Oxlade-Chamberlain, on for the injured Iwobi, showed some of the potential that’s been so untapped by scoring a fine goal himself, cutting inside the defence and firing home at the near post to make it 4-2 just in the 64th minute.
Ox pulls one back pic.twitter.com/ttEa4BOEW3
— Terje (@GoonerTerje) August 14, 2016
Granit Xhaka was then sent on for his debut, replacing Elneny in the 66th minute, as Arsenal tried to respond. Cazorla shot over the bar from distance, but we struggled to make any headway against a well organised Liverpool side who were managing to cope with the handicap of having to play Alberto Moreno.
But then, in the 75th minute, a Cazorla free kick was flicked into the bottom corner by Calum Chambers and Arsenal were within touching distance. 4-3.
Chambers scores Arsenal's third pic.twitter.com/Z7afsad4ed
— Terje (@GoonerTerje) August 14, 2016
It left 15 minutes plus injury time to find an equaliser, but Liverpool came closer to putting the game out of reach when Firmino cracked a shot just wide. Xhaka picked up a yellow card for a cynical foul in midfield, while Liverpool looked to waste as much time as possible.
In the end though, the goal we needed didn’t come, and the season started in shambolic fashion once again. Lack of the players we need and a poor performance in the first part of that second half meant we begin by conceding four at home, and gaining no points.
Concede 4 at home, it’s almost as if we need a defence. We didn’t prepare well enough for the 1st game, this is 100% the result of that.
— arseblog (@arseblog) August 14, 2016
Not good enough.
Well that was… dire
On the bright side we’re above Leicester for the first time in 7 months.
I remember posting last season Wenger Out!! I remember telling anyone even remotely excited by Wenger’s drivel of being ‘busy’ in the summer, that Wenger was talking bull, and that there will be no real business. Wenger lost his touch long ago. There is never enough cover. Only the 1st layer. Punch a few holes in that, as injuries invariably do, thats the season done then and there. He never learns. The team starts YET ANOTHER season with just ONE striker, and ONLY 3 Defenders. Fking laughable. I know there may be a def signing yet, but the season has… Read more »
‘Close Season’. Unless you’re American?
Same Script + Same Cast = Same Result
Even the bloody injuries!
Not the cast’s fault, the “director” and the “producers” not doing their jobs………
I’ll get my coat
In a previous post when everyone said xhaka would start I said Wenger won’t start xhaka and I’d be surprised if Sanchez started because he’s not matchfit..but benching cazorla for an unfit Ramey was surprising to me. Why didn’t cazorla start? And why didn’t the ox start ? This is enters fault and I’m usually not on.that Wenger bashing agenda but I think the team selection was desperate with Sanchez and unbalanced in midfield with Ramsey and elneny being very similar as box to box players no out right no 10 and the only one we had that’s fit he… Read more »
Wenger said recently Santi’s not match fit, but I wish he’d have been started too. Agree we really did miss that creative possession presence until he came on. Unfortunately the way Ox keeps losing the ball and goes headless in his own half I’d have started Iwobi too. With Walcott on and no Giroud we needed more possession ability up front, not less. And Alexis was way off the pace, and everyone on the pitch should just put away the notion of sending it up to him in the air. Don’t think he won a single one. If we don’t… Read more »
On the plus side, we got that whole “invincibles” thing out of our system nice and early.
🙁
Don’t steal jokes from Twitter and use them as your own without giving credit.
…. Are you crazy.. if people had to come up with their own material the internet would be a quite, dull place.
@Stillmatic – I am sure I have seen similar remarks as yours so I guess you should also have given credit, no?
I don’t have a twitter account, nor do I read anybody else’s. Maybe I should accuse whoever posted it on twitter of stealing it from me. If I were the sort of person to type first and think later if at all.
Sometimes new is just new. And sometimes same old is same old. A summer of inaction followed by dropped points? We’ve seen this film before. Wenger is hopeless.
On the plus side, we have found our internal solution to our striker problem in Theo. No more signings needed. Yay?
Theo is Arsenal. Glimpses of pure quality, glimpses of poo and in between cosy, girly pillowfights.
TBH the match proved that Walcott is a goal scoring winger rather than a striker.
It also proved that he isn’t good enough for us and should be binned as soon as possible. But who am I kidding? We would rather play Walcott on the wing than buy a proper winger like Mahrez who apparently wants to join us.
Sometimes dumb is just dumb
Just leave Arsene. You’re not good at this anymore.
He has to, yes. And it pains most of us to say it, but he has to.
Having said that, nothings going to change when he leaves.
The thundercunts from twatbucket Gazidis to utter suckbag Kroenke are the real cancer.
Same old shit. Different year.
See you in 2017 fellas.
Arsenal’s season encapsulated in a single match
Fuck that was painfully bad. That really hurt. What would the fully time score been had we gone in 1-0 up at half time. Holding fouled and Cech got caught out with a great free kick. I think Cech should have got there. 2nd half we just collapsed. Felt like the Man U beating we got a few years back. Chamberlain did well with his goal. A great driving run. Well done to Chambers for keeping the scoreline respectful. Still you heard it here first. There’s a long way to go yet and other clubs will drop points along the… Read more »
Your optimism is refreshing, but here’s the deal.
He won’t buy and he has to go. We gave him all summer, ffs, we gave him YEARS to fix this. Yet he’s done nothing and made the same mistakes year after year, game after game, summer after summer.
Aren’t you tired ?
How do you maintain this optimism when all evidence points otherwise.
I feel your pain and frustration, but it is the first game of the season. We got Ozil, Giroud and Kosc coming back soon. Mustafi looks like just a matter of days. Fingers crossed he’ll make the Leicester game. The equaliser before half time knocked the stuffing out of us and we reacted badly. The negative thoughts came in and we folded. It was a very bad twenty minutes in the second half. We need that striker and Wenger knows it. If we fail this season I think he’ll go. I am tired, but I’m also an Arsenal fan. Keep… Read more »
My mind also went back to the 8-2 against Man U. in the early-season running awhile back, and then there’s bad away days from a couple of years ago, but the fact is at 1-4 we stopped the bleeding, AOC got us right back in it with a great goal, then Chambers found the target with a header in the box, and we had additional chances. It’s not as bad as all that even if shipping four goals at home on the opening day is not a great start. Firmino’s free kick was excellent–Holding guilty of holding, can’t do that… Read more »
Fuck this shit !!!
The crowd didn’t even care. It’s as if they saw this coming. Then again, who didn’t Oh. That’s right. Yawn. In a season with some of the best managers strengthening the best teams, I see no hope for us.
I don’t like losing. It’s not fun. You know what else is not fun? Listening to Wenger’s pre-match conference saying we are strong enough in [input position where we are weak here].
Such a farce. Farcenal
Shows how important the absence of Özil, Koscielny and even Giroud were. Really felt Ox and Xhaka should’ve started. Walcott played well, hopefully can pick up from there now. Surely Wenger has to get Mustafi now.
For fucks sake…..that’s all.
Fucking monotony. Been a fan since 2001. Today I’m officially Wenger out. I’d be interested to see how many touches Walcott had after the his goal. Well done Ox on a brilliant goal.
Ox is shit as well. Not good enough for us.
Doing same thing and expecting different results: Madness:Wenger
they dont expect different results. he has no pressure upon as long as he wins the best bank account trophy for the American board. business brand…
Unlucky boys got done by a couple of “worldys” but these two teams were the best I have seen so far this season! COYG!
When you calm down thumbdowners you may agree….?
I agree. We battered them in the first half, and our defenders did ok.
Coutinho basically beat us by himself.
New signings probably wouldn’t have made much difference, particularly at this stage of the season. Might just have tipped it in our favour.
Unfortunately everybody is so pissed off now it doesn’t take much to send them over the edge.
Thumb away 🙂
Well thumb me up mate!?
Throw me a bone…:-)
COYG!
Are you a needy man Paul?
I did … fraid we’re swimming against the tide here
The tide isn’t all it’s cracked up to be mate. 🙂
You could say the same for any number of matches in the past.The fact that it has happened so many times and continues to happen is why people are pissed off in the first place.I hope you understand that
No Greg
No Greg just having a giggle…remember what that is like??
Doubt it. Both teams defensively poor. That won’t make a successful team over the course of a season.
Get yourself a good book to read while u wait for them to calm down.
Then you might want to download a few box sets, could be some time…..
You talk as if this was the first time ever we find ourselves in such a situation, either at the beginning, middle of the season or by the end of it
Agree with you Paul. I was very impressed by the Cb partnership today. Nacho and cech were the ones at fault for two of the goals which cost us the game. I’m a bit disappointed the players dropped the tempo after a good first half.
Baffled by the decision to not start Ox. He’s been on fire and was as expected great when he came on.
Did I watch a different game? He switched off as soon as he scored the goal. His casual approach and brainless running with the ball when we were a goal down is a great performance now?
All there’s left to do is laugh… Hahahaha
Feel sorry for Alexis. Poor sod basically didn’t have a kick all game. Why would he want to extend his contract after that shitshow?
Just back from game. Delete recording. Sanchez wasted as striker and Ramsey square peg in round hole. Created nothing even when we were on top. Just put on Bayern Dortmund, both spent about £100 million. Our lack of investment is killing us.
This result is 100% the fault of the management. Bring on Leicester? No thanks.
Another season of mediocrity beckons.
( ͡☉ ͜ʖ ͡☉) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ( ͡◉ ͜ʖ ͡◉)
“We have Sanchez and Walcott.”
How predictable 🙂
Can’t wait for the rest of the season!
new is just new huh? guess we’ll be getting same old same old. Lacazette by the way…
But there’ll be the usual excuses from the usual Wenger cult apologists and we’ll stumble on. The difference this time is that the legendary, all important fourth place looks harder than ever. Still there’s a man in Colorado right now who doesn’t give a toss because he’s too busy checking the bank balance.
And that really is where we are – (it is) – at !
Cue the Wenger bashing begins. No can defend how ill prepared we were. AGAIN. Same old same old. Until Wenger realises he is not at the top of his game anymore and step down, Arsenal will fail. I think this season could be a worrying struggle.
Cazorla > Ramsey, and we do need a striker, Alexis just cant play there
In the first half we actually well drilled; after…
Its just the start but arghh this could be prevented weeks ago with some proper management.
Its darn frustrating.
This defeat is all down to Wenger. The same fucking problems year after year going on 10 years now. No leadership, and that starts with Wenger! No one takes control on or off the pitch. The same tactics that fails against high pressure teams time and time again. Said it before; put pressure on Arsenal and we crumble. Can´t understand why some teams sit back. No in game tactics. Nothing changes during the game. No urgency. The players are so fucking cosy they can´t be arsed. A mental mess as always. The halftime talk must be a fucking boorfest. Always… Read more »
Too late to sack him. No top manager available at the moment
You can buy anything with money.
You can’t buy me love…and I think you are talking bollocks by the way. 😉
That´s all right, it´s not love i´m after but if I had been… i´m pretty sure it could get bought.
Mancini is free after leaving Inter. I’d take him in a heartbeat.
I said we were bad at team defence and some folks here brought up statistics that we were second after this team in this, third after another in that…Reality check ?
Same shit, different season.
Who are we kidding? We knew this was coming. I swear I will support every match but I just don’t believe we will win anything this season. Even if you don’t buy arsene, at least get your damn tactics right. Really frustrated. Nice end to the weekend.
Hahahahaha.
I’ve run out of tears, sorry
why do i bother?
Fuck me. That has terrible, Chambers and holding weren’t even bad, it’s our shape and defensive organisation that costs us. Serious lack of preparation and we’re 3 points behind already. Sanchez did not look good up front. Ozil misse
Wenger. At least we didn’t spend money on too many new players because continuity is always important, as wenger preaches. Another season started without a full strength squad. If wenger has proven anything the past 12 years it’s that you don’t win anything with kids. He proved that again by starting two 20 year-olds at center back. But by only buying one senior player this summer wenger managed to maintain continuity because, we all know that new is just new. On the positive side, by only buying one senior player we saved enough money for kronke to buy a few… Read more »
What a surprise our young back four ship four goals. What a frustrating manager Wenger is. A Center Back and a Striker is needed otherwise it will be another pointless season of taking part and trying to get top 4. Fun times 😐
this poor result just might be the kick in the rear AW and board to sign up seriously needed reinforcements. But just don’t hold your breath though… 🙁
Easy to say we told you so. Well because did. But I thought holding looked good. Their goals were a bit special. But we let it happen to easy imo. My conclusions was as i thought before the season. We need another striker and Another experienced CB.
I tried so hard not to get angry and stressed watching it and instead ended up laughing. Because I’ve seen this before.
I just hope we get it sorted asap. And I hope Ramsey and Iwobi injuries are not too bad….although we are Arsenal, so expect 6weeks
There is so much wrong with Arsenal. Today’s performance was just a manifestation of a collection of those errors.
Lack of squad investment.
Lack of game plan.
Picked wronged players.
Subbed off wrong players.
This really isn’t a surprise. It’s just a sad inevitability. Whatever about what happens between now and end of window isn’t relevant. Already behind big clubs, another dent in confidence and yet again the team is a laughing stock.
All this falls on the manager who makes these same mistakes every season.
Until he goes, expect more of the same.
So you wouldn’t have subbed off two injured players? Fortune favors the bold.
Well that was a bag of old rancid shite!
Very disheartening.
But to be fair to the boys, Liverpool scored 4 goal of the months in 1 game. Coutinho’s free kick goes high or wide 99/100.
Yes, we weren’t great but… it;s not white flag waving time just yet. Win the next 3 on the spin and we’ll be ok.
As much as we ridicule Wenger for not signing a striker and defender, and rightly so, i think his persistence with players who are not good enough is also a head scratcher. Walcott may have scored, played well in first half. But back to same old Theo in the second. I’m kind of hoping we lose our next game, maybe that way Wenger will but the players we need. Our performance today wasn’t too bad. Players are still gelling especially in midfield. But a good defender and strong defending would have prevented atleast one goal and a good striker would… Read more »
Buy*
If you’re gonna pick on Theo, you’ve got to give Hector some stick too. Couldn’t find Walcott to save his life. Actually, no one could which was ridiculous because he had Moreno on skates all first half. Same thing happened at OT last year, Sanchez got their young full back booked early doors but never got the ball to run at him again. The team is just brain dead honestly, no one reacts to take advantage of these kinds of opportunities. We have no strategy in the final third apart from pass and hope. And we’re just far to slow… Read more »
Our defense was so shit that Firmino looked like Messi.
And Wenger shouldn’t waste Sanchez by playing him as a striker just because of his ego. He was absolutely ineffective today. He is a world class winger FFS.
better to dig a grave and lie in it until everything settles down… things could have been soooooo much better, really.
Spend.
Some.
F ing.
Money.
Anyone else notice how much better we looked after Santi came on for Rambo?
Anybody not think it should’ve been that way from the start?
Wisper on here. Some call him Rambo and Welsh Jesus. He played today and last week against city and created nothing I can remember. Doesn’t fit our system. Technically not good enough
Could not believe it when I saw the team sheet and Wenger chose his love child Ramsey over cazorla at number 10.
It’s just ridiculous !
I totally agree on the Cazorla > Ramsey comments (the latter having gotten a strange reprieve from criticism by supporters ever since he put in a few decent performances with Wales in the summer, against largely rotten competition, while he’s been incredibly disappointing for us for the better part of two seasons now), but AW did say a week or two back that Santi was going to be eased back into action and probably wouldn’t be ready to start the first game. Apparently he’s had some minor niggling injuries stemming from his recovery from major injury at the end of… Read more »
Not surprised sadly.
He is not going to resign or get the sack or get any much needed signings.
Oh well roll on the next match.
That’s it for me guys, I’ve seen this way too many times.. I’m an Arsenal fan and I’ll continue to support Arsenal when wenger leaves.
You lot are great fans, if I ever own a football club I wish to have fans like y’all!
Arsenal in shambles lol. Who would have thought? Arsene Wenger is a joke.
How hopeless must Wenger’s halftime talk be to suck all the guts & heart out of the team before the second half. Let’s try something new.
There are NO TOP TOP QUALITY PLAYERS in the market. No defenders, no wide players and no Strikers! I am Wenger, I have managed 1121 games for Arsenal. I know what I am doing. NEW IS JUST NEW. I will look in the lower leagues for players because Premier league prices are crazy. It is time to give chance to players from Championship but you all will have to pay TOP QUALITY and CRAZY ticket prices in this TOP TOP TOP stadium where we have lost 3 opening matches in last 4 years. The players showed GREAT MENTAL STRENGTH to… Read more »
I’ve been a Wenger Out for the past 4 seasons, but there are positives today, he managed to make changes before min 70!!! Come on, something is something right?