Arsene Wenger says Rob Holding’s performance against Liverpool was one of the few positives on a chastening day for the Gunners.
The summer signing from Bolton had a solid first half until his foul on Philippe Coutinho afforded the Brazilian an opportunity to fire home an unstoppable free-kick in the 47th minute.
While the 20-year-old’s distribution was consistently good throughout, he could do little as Jurgen Klopp’s men overran the midfield to score three further goals within 18 minutes of the restart.
Speaking after the game about Holding’s first competitive start in the red and white, Wenger said: “I think he did very well overall. He was one of the positives of our game today.
“He has shown intelligence and quality in defending and quality in passing forward and overall I think it’s a very positive game [for him].”
Petr Cech was also impressed with the maturity shown by both Holding and centre-back partner Calum Chambers, despite the flood of goals conceded.
“I thought they did really well,” he told Arsenal Player. “When you concede four goals then obviously you cannot be happy as a team because you should not concede four goals at home, but I thought it was a really good experience for them.”
It remains to be seen whether Holding retains his place for next weekend’s trip to champions Leicester City. Arsenal are expected to complete the signing of Shkodran Mustafi from Valencia in the coming days and will also be stepping up Laurent Koscielny’s training regime.
It was a bullshit foul call that lead to the Liverpool free kick too.
Agreed it was so f*cking soft. I think Oliver is one of the best refs already in the league especially considering his age.. but i guess he is still learning his trade.
It was very soft, but I think almost every referee would give it most of the time–especially that far out. It was an awfully good free kick; won’t see many better all year.
Kid looked good and strong in the air..
Both he and Chambers were thrown to the wolves really, but for most of the game they performed well.
The boys at CB did great. Especially in the first half. In the 2nd half the whole team was pants and couldn’t cope with Liverpools good but not great attackers.
Don’t forget we have been terrible with our strongest 11. So to see the guys who we thought were our weakest, being one of our highlights is the best kind of Arsenal irony.
It was just unfortunate to see us capitulate again. But we have done this before with a stronger 11.
I think this is Wenger (and Cech) trying to make sure that the young players’ confidence is not destroyed. I don’t believe they played well at all in the second half. Yes, they won headers, but they passed the ball sideways to each other or to Monreal, most of the time–take a look at “By the Numbers.” And that allowed Liverpool to press in the first 20 minutes of the half, with the result we saw.
I thought he was better than Chambers, but then again, it seemed like Chambers was constantly being run at by the likes of Mane, Firmino, etc. – performance had a bit of the Montero about it. Hope he bounces back, and they’ve both learnt a lot from it.
@Le Jim Chambers did well. He scored a goal didn’t he? He’s yet to learn he needs to take one for the team sometimes. I admit he should’ve brought down Mane before the goal but where were Monreal and Iwobi?
He did well to score the goal, but he seems to struggle against tricky, direct opposition – as Mane, Firmino, and Montero of Swansea have demonstrated – and Holding just wasn’t challenged as much in that regard. That said, he should’ve been afforded much more protection by either Monreal or our midfielders.
Chambers doesn’t deal with pace very well and that is why he had problems at right back. Klopp probably instructed his faster players to attack on his side. Glad to see he got a goal, as that’ll help take the mental pressure off.
But then again, does the BFG really deal with pace very well?
We’re doomed with bad luck
“Arsenal are expected to complete the signing of Shkodran Mustafi from Valencia in the coming days” … still waiting, and getting anxious. This could’ve been rammed through weeks ago by laying down a few mill more.
To be honest, had we signed him last week, he wouldn’t have been ready for yesterday’s game.
He should have been signed when Per got injured (Even before of that, if you ask me – but that’s another discussion), Gabriel isn’t (and probably) won’t be good enough to start for us.
Better we sign him this week so he’s also not ready for the Leicester game, eh?
Not even bitter, but that’s the bitter truth.
He was needed ages ago. But I can’t help thinking with the type of goals we comceded that with Mustafi the result would have been the same.
The issue is not the players, all our targets are willing to come, it’s their clubs, that’s the problem.
And after scoring a hatrick at the weekend, Lacazette announces that if the offer is right he is open to moving, what the fuck are we waiting for??
Maybe Henry is right, maybe we are not the ‘right offer’ anymore. it’s an actual serious point to consider, we are by no means a Liverpool of the last ten years who can’t attract big names but if you are a player looking at the clubs ambition and the fact that Wenger will most probably go end of season then it looks like a slightly risky move.
But to get big name players we need a big name manager. When Wenger goes and we don’t get a big name then players won’t join. Let’s face it. Ozil and Sanchez joined thanks to wenger then Arsenal. Not the other way around. Unless we win titles on a regular basis then we will likely struggle to get top player with a manager who is not one of the current status quo. What an odd paradox we are in. With Wenger we can’t sogn players but thise we do sign perhaps sign becuase of him. If our new manager isn’t… Read more »
I agree with you that we are not an attraction for the top players anymore, or at least that is my genuine belief, however with regards to lacazette, we have not at this point made an acceptable offer to Lyon and so lacazette therefore has no decision to consider at this point. The fact is whatever business we do between now and the end of the window, it cannot hide the fact that this is another transfer window that has been a shambles. No planning, no intent and dare I say it no ambition shown again. This has been the… Read more »
The usual – next transfer window, not necessarily with hope
I’ve gotten so apathetic to everything arsenal related lately. – because I know that ultimately nothing changes.
I thought Holding is doing a better job than Chambers. Apart from his goal, his passing is quite bad. Though I have to give him credit for his heading. He won most of his headers despite not being the tallest. And Mane is really a handful.
Good in the air. Full stop.
In defense of Chambers, I thought Liverpool was overloading the right side (our left) as much as possible. Frankly, I was surprised that they didn’t press Holding more often. Chambers scored a nice header and looked great in the air. However, I would say that he was too far forward several times and struggled to get back in position. I’m not sure why Liverpool picked apart our defense so easily. I want to go back and watch the goals again. I have a lot of respect for Monreal, but he didn’t seem to get much help from Iwobi tracking back.… Read more »
Ergo we don’t need a Cb right? F*ck off
Wenger needs to go along with sky sports and the ludicrous money being thrown around by men with small willies compensating this by buying their clubs trophies!!!
And what? Aw is some big swinging dick who does it his way? Get a grip man
Well If it’s not his way he can’t very well be blamed, can he?
I’ll leave the phallic obsession to others.
So Arsene are you trying to tell us you are not going to sign a defender and you are going to stick with Holding, is it?Because I really don’t understand? Rookie mistakes from both our young defenders cost us the game.. Not that I am blaming them both. It was the manager who has got to be questioned. Had we signed a defender, the game could have been different, who knows? I am getting tired of your stubborness old man. Sorry to say it. But I really do think he has just gotten a bit too old for the mordern… Read more »
Ruined my entire week..
I am sorry. Ruined my life is a big word to use. Typed it by mistake. My bad.
The question is, where the heck were our fullbacks? Hello Bellerin and Monreal, vacation is finished!
Monreal was too blame for two of the goals and potentially bellerin for another. Our full backs seem to think running backwards while looking at a player is a good way to stop a cross. We hardly stopped any crosses all game. Total bollocks defending. Arsenal are a just joke these days. No “top 4” team would have their full backs just backing off all the time way ng for a mistake, its primary school stuff tbh. You have got to stop the crosses. Especially with clynes crossing ability, its so hard to stop a pacey whipped cross once its… Read more »
We gave away 4 goals…just stop wasting time and buy another defender to use in next game. Use Holding/Chambers in cup games and let them gain experience so they can become starters in couple of years…he says they were ready a week ago and now that they werent ready…stop making excuses…all of this on the manager…bloody shame…
Chambers and Holding did better than expected, but were let down I felt by Monreal and also Bellerin at times. Chambers did have that one awful turnover that almost led to a goal early in the match. I think the biggest issue for both yesterday was that they were paired together. Pair either of them with a veteran like Koscielny and I think they both would have done well. I do think Holding is the stronger of the two, but Chamber obviously has much more PL experience.
WENGER OUT. MANCINI IN. Monday morning flight of fancy. Sometimes change for change’s sake is a good thing. It’s gone more than a bit stale at Arsenal.
Does anyone think Barcelona has a better team than Liverpool? Surely they have one of the best teams in the world. They got a spanking from the mugsmashers and they had a full strength team – including Messi and cunty mcbitey who is a fine goal scorer – a world class striker as it were. But they did fuck all. We managed a more respectable scoreline than the Catalan machines. Granted a win would be much more appreciated As for players not being match fit yet. Liverpool had a better preseason, I mean compare playing teams like Barca and PSG… Read more »
They did well which is paradoxal. Wenger is criminal to have thrown them against a Jurgen Klopp side on an opening day. We don’t have to be experts to know Klopp’s side at some key moments on games have one the most high intense pressing tactic. So they got exposed and the fullbacks are still on holiday. Bellerin being on holiday even before end of last season to be honest. Some time on the bench will do him good.
I am done with Arsene. Already waiting for next season!!!
Season is done, Arsenal will collapse, other teams will continue to score on us, we will miss goals and our players will get injured. None of this shitte happens to anybody else. While all of this happens that loser Wenger will talk about what we did well, how we can improve, why he refuses to buy players for millions that he considers either equal or less quality than players he has trained for years while he was telling them their hard work would earn them a chance…to seize it when it comes. I say enough encouragement, enough Wenger, Enough of… Read more »
Arteta Fan – I had to say I felt sad when I saw him sitting next to Pep. What a shame. Class act.
Holding was very good, and I liked the performance from Chambers too. it just seemed that we fell asleep when trying to play defensively and in the second half and never figured out how to get our mojo going until we made our subs.
Honestly I didn’t think either Calum or Holding were particularly poor. But experience would have helped calm things down and organise better. Koscielny IMO should have been ready to go and at very least he could have come in for second half to stabilise the ship, particularly when we leaked the second. But the real issue was in midfield. The high pressing gherkinpresser game was never going to be easy to sustain throughout 90 minutes. Elneny and Coquelin did reasonably well first half but dropped energy levels in the second. Surely either or both of Granit and Santi should have… Read more »
Arteta fan you need to calm down… “The season is over, the worlds going to end, blah blah blah”… I imagine you said the same thing last year yet at the end of the season which goalkeeper won the golden glove, Petr Cech. We finished 2nd, which i’ll admit was disappointing considering how poorly other top clubs did, but it was still a 2nd place finish. We aren’t going to just collapse and everyone should start getting behind the team we all apparently love rather berating them all of the time. COYG
Foul my arse. Be hard pressed to see a softer free kick this season unless it’s on cuntinho