Reiss Nelson grabbed the winning goal as Arsenal secured a morale-boosting victory against Premier League champions Liverpool at the Emirates.
The visitors went ahead early when Sadio Mane slotted home from close range but the Gunners took advantage of two defensive howlers to head into the break with a slender advantage courtesy of Lacazette’s equaliser and Nelson’s first Premier League goal.
After the game, the England under-21 international faced the Sky Sports cameras. Here’s what he had to say…
On beating Liverpool…
It’s a big achievement for us, you know. We’ve been working hard in training pitch this season under Arteta. Getting the win here against the leaders was a great result for us, we’ll take it into our next game.
On scoring his first Premier League goal…
It’s one of those things that you dream of as a little boy, to score. Luckily, I did that today against the big boys. I’m happy with the result and happy about my goal.
On keeping his emotions in check…
Just a bit, just a bit. When I get home, I’ll probably celebrate with my family. I’m really delighted.
On pressing Liverpool into mistakes…
Of course. When we came out in the second half, the boss said to us keep pressing and keep putting on the pressure. That’s something we wanted to do and I think we did that very well. It worked for our first goal so we were eager to keep pressing them.
On squad rotation…
I feel like there are opportunities for the manager to rotate the team. We’ve got a big game against City. Every player wants to show him that they can play. We’ve given the manager a big decision about whoever to put into the starting 11 [for Saturday’s FA Cup game with Manchester City].
On a goal helping his cause…
Hopefully, time will tell. Like I said, I’m delighted with the goal and the lads played excellent tonight, so I’m happy with that.
I thought he warranted better rating than you were willing to give. He was off side several times but constantly trying to make those runs to get behind them. As I mentioned many times, we tend to lack outlet particularly when under duress. Nelson signaled intent early on when Holding found him with a good ball over the top. His touch still needs work but nothing wrong with his composure and finish for the goal. Contrast Pepe who I barely saw touch the ball significantly, many times would pass backwards instead of taking on players or carrying it forward. Ball… Read more »
Should this be the FA Cup team? Not sure Nelson makes it even though I was surprised he was subbed today.
Martinez
Holding Luiz Tierney
Soares Xhaka Ceballos Saka
Pepe Laca Auba
Bellerin has not been himself lately. Poor Eddie, still suspended but Laca finding a groove as of late.
I’d love a Xhaka, Saka, Laca goal!
Cedric is cup tied I believe, either way bellerin has been playing well the last few games
Bellerin was the reason Kolasinac had the ball to make his mistake last game. As he entered the final 3rd, he turned and headed all the way back to the defence. Negativity has infected his playing.
Kolasinac was under no pressure and plays an assist for Son to score ?
You cannot seriously blame that on Bellerin.
I’m not singling our Bellerin, as most of the team head in the wrong direction. Also, it doesn’t excuse Kolasinac for such a poor pass.
However, check out the passage of play and see how it looks. When he should be considering a cross, or worrying the opposing defence, he turns around and heads all the way back to our goal with such a poor backline. It is a regular occurrence that became a habit.
That would be ridiculous. He played 15 mins of the 3rd rd for Saints. Still, if there one thing we know it is that the FA and their rules are ridiculous.
There is no scale of being cup-tied. You’re either cup-tied or you’re not. It’s pretty simple. The FA have their faults and those should be discussed, but that isn’t a ridiculous rule.
Bellerin was excellent against Leicester, 5pur2 and Liverpool. He may be rested, but he won’t be dropped.
Great to see Nelson get a goal, and a great performance today, but for me he still needs to be more busy and involved if he wants to break into the team. What I couldn’t figure out is why was Nelson taken off, and Pepe was allowed to play. We really didnt get anything from Pepe going forward or even with his defending. I know it takes time to settle in a new club, but he needs to atleast do the basics. Hope we dont start him in the fa cup.
Pépé is a bit lazy. I say the way it is, like the manager.
It’s true he’s not exactly a dynamo, but it’s a little harsh. I remember more than once again Liverpool he was tracking back and helping the team defend. He knows what Arteta wants and does seem to be putting in the work. Hopefully we can become more cohesive allowing him to get on the ball more and express himself.
Thinking about the 72 million we splashed on him. The guy’s play is too one dimensional. ???
Agree with you… How long are we going to make excuses for Pepe? I understand we neeed him to work out for us, but at moment he needs to be better. We often blame others to excuse Pepe… Bellerin isn’t giving him ball “in the right way”, Willock doesn’t help him, he can’t play good if he has to play with Nketiah/Laca, he plays in the same space as Auba, etc… Same time he isn’t youngster anymore, he is 25 in his prime, same age as Bellerin and 4 years older than our own youngsters Joe/Eddie/Reiss. I get so annoyed… Read more »
Pepe always has 2 players on him to take on sometimes 3 which is a testiment to his quality. This is why Arteta kept him on he’s an exceptionally dangerous player. What is it 12 goals 8 assists this season our 2nd or 3rs most productive player in his 1st season.
Nope… 8 goals from which 5 in the league. Given our lack of resourses and ageprofile of our squad, I don’t want to not rate Pepe. We need him to come good more than anything, but lets not pretend that 5 goals in the league, is what we thought we get from him. We thought we got the player whose influence can be compared to Alexis (16 goals in the league in 1st season). In reality Gervinho (4 goals), Podolski (11 goals), Arshavin (6 goals half a season), Walcott (at the age of 24 – 14 goals), Iwobi last year… Read more »
If you look very well you will see him given options to Nelson when he was about to score his goal last night
Podolski was more than good enough in his day.
I’m glad you’re not managing him then. Your opinions are mostly way off-base. You’re making it sound like he’s not a great player, when he’s excellent and playing and a drastically under-performing team with managerial changes in his first season in at a big club with huge pressure on him from all directions.
His non-celebration after scoring was fantastic. Absolutely loved it.
How come Arnold was not given a red for his studs challenge on Buka?I guarantee that if it were a gunner,it would be a rc. When will there be consistency?You never know .
Overall it was agood performance. However I am bothered that Pool had so many shots at goal.AgainsMC,it will be suicidal.
I think gunner fans can sleep well having beaten Pool. If the defnce stays strong and do the job to contain the MC attack,our attackers can finish them off.
I haven’t seen the replays but it looked red card at the time. Nobody seemed to bat an eyelid at the time or since sooooo…… ?
England’s golden boy would never get a red… last week they were all talking about the rules to the letter meant Eddie was off, and it cost us 2 precious points. Yesterday it was all about no intent and, once again, almost cost us points. The FA are a joke.
Get the referee to look at the videos and stop rotating the VAR official for consistency’s sake! They spent a year without VAR to prepare how to fuck it up.
Germany and other leagues are doing way better job. No wonder there is no English ref in international tournaments…
May sound funny, but while I don’t always “enjoy Arsenal” the way I used to, I do enjoy watching what Arteta does with this club now almost irrespective of results, or, at times, style of play. Emery definitely had a project, but was kind of a pain for me to watch at times. (And going back a bit further, we’re STILL paying for not bringing in a DM to complement adding Cech all those years ago…has AW ever told the full story behind that mystery?) At any rate, irrespective of results means it was nice to see us beat Liverpool… Read more »
Probably tempting fate ahead of City, but I do like that we no longer seem to be beaten before the game even starts when we play the big games.
And Emeryball was eye-bleedingly awful, even when we won
Oh and well done to Laca, seems to getting his mojo back
And Nelson too ? He looks like a guy who needs a confidence boost on the pitch, hopefully this helps him
Just wait for Arsene’s book in October for his story to come out
wenger lost the plot in the transfer market. buying ozil when we had no need for him and needed a striker. buying xhaka to be a dm when hes slow and cannot tackle. paying 35 million for everton reject mustafi when there were proven premier league defenders for that price. leaving all transfers to the last day then panic buying it just got behond the joke at times. we had enough talent to build a title challenging team between 2013 – 2016 but blew it.
On this display ,Arsenal dont have to fear MC.I know they have scored 40 gaoals more than Arsenal. Wolves and Norwich city have beaten them.
It aint going to be easy. But if you want to win you have to beat such teams.
Against Liverpool,Arsenal were slow in their attack. Maybe it was for tactical reasons.
Hopefully Arteta can devise a plan to stifle the MC strikers instead of saying they are unplayble.Even the great Messi was neutralised by Chelsea in the cl and if not for the blundering ref,the blues could have won.
Congrats, Nelson, on your first ever Premier league goal. Just keep banging them in.
hes not reading this
He made a brilliant saving tackle in the box second half