Arsenal’s 3-1 defeat to Liverpool was a repeat of last season’s Anfield scoreline, but it did feel a bit better … sort of.
Alexandre Lacazette put the Gunners ahead in the 25th minute, but Liverpool were quickly ahead thanks to goals from Sadio Mane and Andy Robertson. The Frenchman had a great chance to equalise in the second half, but fluffed his lines.
Diogo Jota added some well earned gloss on the scoreline for the home side, who were genuinely excellent all night. Tonight shows how much we have to do, and how big the gap remains.
Read the Liverpool 3-1 match report and see the goals here.
Liverpool 3-1 Arsenal – Player Ratings
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Their front three: Salah, Firmino, Mane. Ours: Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda.
Definetely agree with the arm on face. Mane was their most dangerous player. And fucking referre bottled it. At this level every little detail counts and this was a huge detail in so early in the game. But we gave ourselves a good account. You can’t win it all. Dissapointed yes but not fucking upset or depressed (like after those big thrashing where we would be down 3 -0 after 20 mins)
That was definitely a RED
I think a red card would have been harsh, if it was an Arsenal player that did that I would think it was a yellow.
The balance of the team has been off the last few games – it’s way too left-sided. One of the main reasons is Holding, who defends ok but cannot pick out a pass beyond 3 yards. Also the link up play between Bellerin and Willian/Pepe is non-existent.
If it was Mike Dean and an Arsenal player, we would definitely get a red and then he would probably give Arteta one as well. You could see Mane had no intention of using shoulder. Instead he raised his hands above his shoulder to prevent Tierny from getting there. Deliberate as hell. Then Alexander Arnold stamp on second half that was dangerous too. If Arsenal players got red cards for those challenges, you would hear the commentators saying how they were justified. Liverpool and Utd always get those benfit of doubts.
It was the brief wasn’t it. Be physical. They were up in our faces all night. Everyone of them was wired and drip fed anger. Things you didn’t mention: VVD screaming at the ref way more than usual. Fab wiping Willian out. Robertson muscling out Bellerin.
If me cock had fingers I could scratch me arse.
100%,that isn’t a red. Would I have loved it to be one, yes, but like you say if an arsenal player has of got a red there I would have turned off the tele.
Not red maybe but should have been second yellow after his first challenge. Pawson Poor
Should have had a yellow for absolutely flattening Bellerin from behind. If it was the 88th minute then it would have been a yellow, something I never understand about footie refs…
I think the truth is: 50% that’s a red. Some referees would have given it, some not; early in the match probably tipped it (whether justified or not) towards yellow. Not perfect, but I can live with it.
When was the last time you’ve seen that not given as a red card? If Mr VAR man with his usual twitchy fingers had kindly asked for the ref to go over and look again at the incident (which they seem to do at any possible moment) what outcome what it have been? We lost because they were way better but we’ve also seen plenty of games decided by far less deserving calls over the last 3 weeks for handballs that have nothing to do with anything regarding merit.
I thought we got smart with ARTETA anytime they’re pressing really high we went long with MARTINEZ but with LENO theres no variation we always play from the back.
Seriously. Leno made a blinding save off Mane early in first half but no presence or mojo like Martinez.
seriously, martinez should be our no 1.
You say ours and then put down the guy who has scored the most goals in the league since he joined us, beating Salah and Mane, with the service he gets from this team and while having played half is time under Emery!! What I can’t quite get is, when we know we are going to have limited chances in this game and have to counter attack. Their press is suffocating press and play with a high line. Why not play Auba through the middle, while putting Willian and Pepe on either side. We take away the hard work of… Read more »
You can’t have auba in the middle of a front three with no man in the hole to release him…Laca does’nt just defend he plays the wide players in and helps keep the ball in the last third with his holding up.
Hmm…in this game there was no (opportunity to) link up play for Laca and also Auba wasn’t a treat.
In terms of Auba playing through the middle, apart from the chance that fell to Laca, Luiz played an ariel ball to AMN, there would have been more such plays with Auba on the shoulder and a foot race.
Anyways, tactics aren’t my forte, so leaving it at that.
Just satisfied that we were in it till the end.
Now, looking forward to some positive news to improve our squad.
Pepe shouldn’t even be on the bench considering his recent performances. No one holds it up better than Laca at the moment.
If you want to get auba in on goal with a long ball then what benefit is playing down the center opposed to coming in from the left on to his favoured position. It’s the easiest angle of approach to score at. This issue is for me that he creates hardly anything and his movement towards play isn’t good at all. His involvement in the game is virtually zero offensively (fantastic defensive work for sure) besides getting on the end of the final ball. We point to ‘who else will score’ if he doesn’t play rather than think ‘how much… Read more »
If Laca was 6’1 he’d be perfect for this team.
Clinical finish. That’s what we missed. COYG
and better aggression we just let them make simple passes in midfield with no tackling no aggression no urgency and when we got the ball we played it sideways and backwards thanks to XHAKA and playing ti from the back when its obvious Liverpool where waiting.
Without Xhaka it’d have been 3-0 btw. He made the key pass that led to the break and goal.
We lost most of the 50/50 battles today, Liverpool definitely set out to make a point in terms of aggression.
Martinez would have scored that
Arteta 4/10 today on team selection
How? Team selection was fine, except for the lack of Ceballos, I thought
Gabriel instead of Luiz may be..
Luiz is gonna be a starter all season. When the dust settles, its gonna be Gabriel, Luiz, Holding back three. I believe Tierney will replace AMN on the LWB and Saka will replace both Willan and Pepe on the right wing. I’m not liking what I’m seeing from Willan thus far and I’m not even gonna start on Pepe. We were missing Ceballos and Saka badly in the team. The are currently our only bonafide playmakers along with Martinelli when fit who is capable of unleashing Aubameyang and Lakazette with a through pass. If we buy Aouer and Partey, then… Read more »
lol fr?amn had an incredible game, so much pressing, a couple of great tackles. Tierney doesn’t quite have that physicality yet. I do agree with you about Ceballos and Saka tho. if they’d both come on at 60 (Saka for Willian), we might have nicked it
Maitland-Niles, a player I would have been fine with selling two months ago, had a brilliant game in many ways. Very important defensively and very good, intelligent, runs on attack. But his attacking touch is well below top standards.
We needs players who can pass to whoever plays on the right. Urgently, we have a boatload of wasted talent over there. I’m afraid Saka would be wasted there too.
Saka 100% Rest is wishful thinking and Pepe is a waste of time.
Agree, there were doubts over Willian all over and I am sorry to say that three year deal should never have materialized. Transfer team has bottled it best would have been a loan deal. You would see Willian struggling for pace against top teams and chances are he might get dropped for Saka which I would love to see but Saka has no defending nous as of now which is a big downer. So, we will see more of AMN which is good but then balance of team will be lopsided and tilted towards left.
Gabriel instead of Tierney. Tierney could have been a better fit for left fullback. I agree on Ceballos, he should have started. We had zero creativity in midfield.
Team selection was terrible.. I would have preferred Gabby Luiz and Rob.. Tierney should be playing the wing back instead of AMN…. Didkt see the need for elneny in this game.. And pepe should have started over willian.. Ceballos should have started instead of elneny
I’d say Saka for Willian as he would have been instinctively more defensive and backed up Hector. For an away game at Anfield,against this Pool side, we had one or two offensive passengers.
I thought Willian seemed tired; didn’t help Bellerin (who was busy helping Holding) enough.
Maybe he does’nt trust him to cover defesively..or he may be looking to get a clear opinion on Elneny bofore the window closes
Gabriel at LCB and Tierney at LWB instead of AMN. AMN was a hand break for us going forward because he’s not left footed Saka or Tierney would have offered more especially going forward. Also because Saka and Tierney can dribble past their marker. AMN with his back to his marker because he’s right footed didnt attempt to try and beat his markers press and just usually passed the ball backwards so we had no progression to go forward.
You can only move forward if you are able to stop that Pool onslaught…I am sure Saka would have struggled like Auba because presently AMN is a better man market and covers much more ground defensively than Saka (who with more games will surely pick up that side too)…nd in this game we were structured to defend first
10/10 Klopp calling out Roy Keane for making stupid comments though and Roy turning into a beetroot because of it
What happened?
Klopp called out Roy Keane for making stupid comments and Roy turned into a beetroot because of it
Not really klopp was being a knob. So what if keane said they were sloppy at times he also praised them plently.
Disagree. Liverpool were right on their game and they needed to be. Roy Keane saying they were sloppy was nonsense and would piss off any manager.
It’s an insult to Arsenal to suggest Liverpool were anything but superb In beating us 3-1.
I guess Roy Keane’s hate for Liverpool must be a bit more than his hate for Arsenal.
The one time Liverpool were sloppy was our goal, otherwise they had 86% pass completion and 8 shots on target.
You know, they really looked like the champions. I don’t think Roy Keane likes to acknowledge that about Liverpool.
Exactly. His words were “Liverpool were sloppy against Leeds, good against Chelsea and then sloppy again here tonight, but they’ve shown that they manage to win whilst playing badly” which is ridiculous because in all honesty they played incredibly well against us. Then Klopp called him out on it and he tried to backtrack. Hes just a shit pundit trying to come out with cliches to try and make himself sound insightful
more on strategy
Says it all when our best player was a sub who only played 20 mins in the game
It’s also getting harder and harder to escape the conclusion that Pepe isn’t worth half of what we paid for him. If he can’t take a corner……….?
He was seriously good at corners when he first got here. I remember us talking about how he actually cleared the first man every time! What has changed?
It’s definitely strange the way arteta has sidelined Pepe since the start of the season, especially over William whose 2 assists vs Fulham were blown a bit out of proportion tbh. He declined against West Ham and was completely ineffective today. I’ll rather have Pepe who can spark up and be dangrous here and there.
Two bad corners doesn’t mean he’s bad at set pieces now. Chill.
Has Pepe even seriously considered that Willian is a challenge to his place? He looks like a more flippant version of Ozil on his bad days. He lacks confidence and ambition, both.
Maybe, but we are judging Lacazette for missing one chance. Should we chill over that too?
Yes.
Second corner was supposed to be nodded on…
Personally Pepe is forth choice behind Saka, Martinelli, Nelson, and maybe Willian. I keep saying it. The longer he plays, his value keeps dropping. When next summer comes around, teams will be offering 10 Million to buy him. I say we sell now and try and get 30 Million and just accept the loss. I’m not also liking what I’m seeing from Willian thus far. I think old age has really caught up to him but in his prime, he was a favorite of mine. The good thing is that he was a free signing.
We should swap Pepe for Partey, and without having to pay that 45 million release clause, buy Aouar.
Pass me some of dat good stuff matey
And apparently we have brought in a set play specialist. Who it appears has trained the ability to take a corner out of Pepe and cannot teach Bellerin how to take a throw in. I mean it’s not like putting a man in the moon for fucks sake. Two arms above your head. Feet on the ground. Release the ball while over your head, not when your arms are 45 degrees from the horizontal. If there’s a candidate for redundancy it must be this bloke.
So you think a set piece specialist was brought in to teach the first team players how to kick and throw a ball?
Today is clear Rob Holding should not be starting and Saliba needs to be drafted in quicker. Saliba would have not been worse and He has pace and strength and more importantly HE’s better on the ball than Holding so I don’t know why Arteta is keeping him when its obvious we need better players in defense isn’t that why we bought Saliba????
Sorry but from a defensive point of view Holding did really well today, probably our best defender in that respect, saw off a lot of dangerous liverpool attacks when they tried to get in behind. I think blogs’ rating is harsh. Yes he got caught on the ball a couple of times, liable to happen when you try and play out of the back against such a high press, but each time he made up for it and got the ball back. Dont think you can blame this on him at all
did you see all the simple passes he gave away?? in midfield that lead to a direct chance lol go watch the highlights simple passes to absolutely no one short 10yrad passes. and then when he goes long he over hits it EVERYTIME lol he’s not a ball playing defender he is good in the air and his positioning is not bad but he doesn’t have pace and his distribution is poor and WAS POOR TODAY lol so say what you like this is the truth its time for Saliba to PLAY
I 100%agree mate. Holding was poor today and tbf so was amn! I thought both had a poor game and at key times. Can’t believe people don’t see it.
you’re being hard on Holding, I agree with Frank…also, our midfield wasn’t showing for him in many instances…
Holding gave the ball away numerous times and was lucky to get away with it. If arsenal play from the back then that is part of what he needs to do from a defensive perspective. The problem with Holding is that he’s slow. Same problem with chambers. Neither are bad defenders. And they can have really good matches. But they are slow and aren’t good at passing out from the back.
Look at the clearances he made and how he more often than not did his job with Mane…Mane we are talking Mane here…and I don’t know what simple passes u r talking with that intensive Pool press!! I don’t think any pass was simple and in a game even if appears a simple pass (or a simple finish as with Laca) it ain’t that simple because what happened before it weighs on ur mind…and Liverpool dominated us to the point of intimidation!
Right on the money. We are just looking for a scapegoat. On the defensive end, he was very good. Liverpool’s press was fantastic and the midfielders perhaps didn’t really create an outlet for our defenders.
Yes excellent defensively today..best out of the back three…could not buy a pass but then who could with that Pool press!
Holding was awful. He works hard, he never gives up, I really like him. BUT he is too slow, he is poor at judging aerial balls and so lets attackers get past him on challenges over and over, he does not have the technical ability to inspire confidence in his teammates playing out from the back. If it were only Liverpool, I would be okay with it–he’s not the first centre-half that Sane has made to look bad. But it’s every match so far this season.
Holding was man of Match as far as i am concern.
This is a classic case of “player we have never seen play for the Arsenal must be world class and the answer to all of our problems”
Like others have said, Rob was class tonight against the toughest person in the world to play against, Mane. If this was Rob against the best, it’s looking good for his career.
Holding had some really good moments. He keeps it simple, for the most part.
Sure he had some problems, but what CB doesn’t with Mane breathing down his back, especially when a teammate provides a very slow pass to you.
The whole right side (Willian and Bellerin) of team struggled and Holds by bore the brunt of that.
I am sorry but all this Saliba this Saliba that is based on actually watching him play especially in this new league or new is new like a wise man once said? Holding wasn’t good but so was the whole team collectively tonight. Gave liverpool too much respect ( and missed that chance) but we need to work on trying to win the ball back and not just pressing to close spaces. Holding wasn’t so out of place in the general team performance. Pick any other individual and it will be easy to point out how they could have been… Read more »
All you guys that want Saliba in the team should chill out. The coach sees him in training everyday and if the coach is picking Holding, it means he’s better that Saliba currently. His time will come when he’s ready. The only change Arteta could have made in defence is maybe play Gabriel on the left of the back three and have Tierney playing AMN’s position. It would have solidified that left flank for us. If I were Arteta, I would stick with a Ceballos Elneny Midfield partnership going forward..nothing against Xhaka and also have Nketiah replace Laka , and… Read more »
Agree with everything you say but… Laca runs his nuts off every single game, his finishing will get better- it has to!
Holding was motd
Or even motm.
How are people so blind? Holding can’t pass. He has no place in our first team with the style we are trying to play.
if he isnt sold, shouldnt the manager play to player’s strength?
He’s the only one with balls to accept playing from the back against Liverpool is foolish.
Lack of talent does not equate to balls
Tierney was terrible against Salah, outmuscled by Salah for their equaliser. I don’t think Gabriel gets beaten there. We basically defended all match, showed zero ambition other than a few hopeful balls over the top. Leeds went there and gave them a real scare. Commentators patronised us by saying we’re harder to beat. We scraped past West Ham and were well beaten here. We may have 6 points from 9, but that doesn’t tell the full story. The midfield needs serious improvement otherwise forget trying to get top 4, worry about Everton and Leicester being ahead of us.
His is it patronising? We were in the game until the 89th minute and missed a glorious chance to equalise. We could easily have got something tonight.. when was the last time we said that about a league game at Anfield? I think everyone knows we are a work in progress and have a lot to do to get near the top places in the league, and yes of course teams like Leicester and Everton are up there.. who is saying they’re not?
“We were in the game until the 89th minute and missed a glorious chance to equalise” : they also had loads of chances to finish the game that they didnt
You could see the bloodlust in Mane. The zip in their midfield. We had no such hungry player. To pretend we could have drawn this is to accept that’s all we can do. Klopp has taken the FA cup loss personally and it was obvious.
They can have the bloodlust man…they are far far superior a team…if just being aggressive won matches than that simplifies a lot of things right?
We were never in the game. We got lucky with one goal. We were 43 points behind in every single thing. Trick is to move on from this and not lose the momentum.
We criticised Arsene for not being pragmatic. And now that a manager is being pragmatic, we moan about not attacking all game. A little more composure and it could’ve been a draw. It wasn’t the worst performance today. We won’t win every single game and so far we’ve managed to win the ones that we are expected to.
What part of the game plan was working last night? We aren’t Atletico Madrid or Big Sam’s Bolton. We didn’t defend well – we rode our luck. Our front three were woeful, our full backs second best and midfield overloaded. No disrespect to Arteta, but we got shown our place by the best team in the country.
What is your point? Everyone knows that Liverpool are better than us. So yes – no matter what your game plan is, you have to ride your luck and do what you can. Even a perfect game plan against a superior team guarantees you nothing. We still could have got something. And regarding Mane, sure he was pumped up but both teams were up for it – he could have got himself sent off in the second minute. Also I think you are looking at Big Fat Sam’s Bolton with rose tinted glasses if you believe that his teams went… Read more »
And one of the best..if not the best team in the Continent…so no shame in it!
agreed! yesterday showed why we need a partey
This was not Tierney’s best–but Salah is (I know this sounds funny) an underrated player. Genuinely one of the best attackers in the world. And, against this team, we never saw Tierney’s brilliance in transition and down the wing.
We worked hard but just aren’t there in terms of quality in almost every area of the pitch. It will be interesting to see how we do against Leicester and Manure.
Also, Lacazette just isn’t it. Really really don’t understand all the fans who think he’s good. He’s been flat out shit for over a year.
For over 2 years… He is pas his sell by date.
Lacazette is an example of how not to paper the cracks when the wall needs real fixing
We could benefit from a cf who dominates the area more. Who marks his territory.
Mark his territory? Not sure the ground staff would appreciate it very much
To be fair to Lacazette, he completely shat his pants with his big chance so he’s already marking his territory!
You mean like pee on it?
Honestly I wonder and we keep wasting Aubamayang on the wing… Imagine the runs and goals he would profit us through the wing
Wish we could sell him, get Zaha and move Aubamayang central
Lacazette has never been it, no runs, no pressing and never consistent as regards goals
to be fair he has 3 goals in 3 matches. He’s exhausted from pressing non stop.
I’d like to have a world class striker but we won’t pay what is needed and we have other pressing needs. Like a creative midfielder.
We have a world class striker. Unfortunately he’s stuck at LW while Giroud 2.0 is still at the club.
If him and Auba weren’t good friends. I guarantee Auba would have made playing centrally a requirement for his contract.
Almost 4 years now and he still hasn’t hit 15 league goals in a season.
Well hes off to a good start 3 goals in 3 games. shame he missed the chance it happens. More than likely they still would have won the game
I don’t know what you’re complaining about. We are not challenging for a league title. Lacazette is good enough to get us into top 4. There are other areas of the pitch that take priority for now. If and when we get to the level of a top 4 team, we can then think about getting in world class talent in every position. Also, if you score 100+ goals for a team, surely you can’t be that bad. So any comparison to Giroud is certainly not a bad thing. Auba has adapted to his role from the wide position and… Read more »
Guess what mate? Strikers are there and cost circa 20 M. Earling Arland cost 20, Minamino much less, let the scouts and analytics tell us they ain’t there then I fault the system. Liverpool didn’t pay over the top for their squad but built it.
But still do imagin all this years what would have been if Lacazette pulls he’s on weight by providing goals just at least averaging Auba tally the story would be different at the very least. His a proven goal scoring in shit Ligue Un.
It’s just an observation of his performance. The difference between Giroud and Lacazette is that the latter was signed to be a world class striker at £52 million in total. We signed Giroud for £10 million and his performances were very fitting for that fee. 73 league goals in 180 apps at a rate of 0.41 goals per league game. He wasn’t fantastic but decent and average. Lacazette for 5x the fee has 51 league goals in 130 apps. His average is 0.39 goals per game. Average stats but far from good enough for top 4. I’m surprised the club… Read more »
I am missing something–Giroud’s 0.41 goals per league game were good enough for top 4 (we know that because we were, in fact, top four) but Lacazette’s 0.39 aren’t? (The fee is completely irrelevant to this issue.)
Sorry, I’ll expand. Neither of the two averages are good enough for a starting striker in a top 4 side. That kind of output is more in line with strikers of the rest of the league’s, hence average.
A great 1st choice striker should have an output of 0.5 goals per game/ per 90 minutes.
Elite level strikers average >0.6 goals per game.
Auba cannot hold the ball…what’s the point playing him central…we can afford to do that if we have a creative 10 behind him to feed him in the box as a proper 9..as of now Laca plays the inverted V going deep in midfield to build up through wings (as with our goal too)..Nketiah can do that..not sure in this system Auba at CF would be a good choice
Good points made and I get why with our current tactics Auba would be limited at CF. My opinion is that as you said Arteta expects his CF to drop deeper to link up play BUT also lead the press. These requirements are very tiring and as you are aware the CF is usually the 1st to be subbed off in the 2nd half. With that set-up that would mean subbing off Auba if regularly if he played at CF which is risky unless the game is already won. Having watched Auba under Klopp & Tuchel, I can comfortably say… Read more »
I agree. He was running his ass off covering for a soft central midfield. This isn’t the first time we find him and Auba supporting a weak defence. They run more than the midfielders!
IF Gabriel LUIZ SALIBA started with Tierney at LWB and Bellerin at RWB we would’ve offered more both in defense and offense
Reading all your ranting here and in the match report, the only thing I’m finding to be of any interest is your random abuse of the upper case.
LOL im glad you’re having fun reading my comments
Yes, I’m enjoying your comments immensely, RANDY. I am, after all, invariably amused as to what, rhetorically, some people imagine makes them more credible in an argument. LOL.
lol
Luiz NO, how can a seasoned defender head the clear directly into the opposition and they scored their 3rd goal. Blogs, for me he should get 3 may be. Holding was better than Luiz
All this noise about a 19 year old defender who just moved into an intense league being asked to start his first match against the most intense team in the world just makes me laugh. Come on guys.
Exactly! He hasn’t played any games in the premiership and they want him to start his first game against Mane! Good Luck with that. smh
Holding for all his supposed shortcomings, held his own against Mane. This Holding bashing needs to stop. Also he deserved a higher rating today Arseblog.
They keep bashing him all because they want to see Saliba. Holding wasn’t perfect today but overall he had a good game. None of the goals were his fault. He’s a good defender and he has more experience playing in the Premiership than Saliba. Whenever Arteta feels Saliba is ready, he will play.
I thought Mane had him in his pocket. By the way, given all our injuries, I completely trust Arteta’s judgment in picking Holding over Saliba. Now I will provoke an annoyed reaction by saying–if he were fit, I would certainly have chosen Mustafi over both Holding and Luiz.
Bellarin was awful too
I agree totally here. The sooner we get our first choice back three playing together the better.
‘Our first choice back three? As in yours and Randy’s?
I should rephrase… Out future first choice back three. I would suggest that the central position is the one most up for grabs with Luiz not getting any younger.
Not getting on board with all this Arteta bashing. We go to Anfield and try to play attacking possession based football we get murdered 9/10 times. We play like we did today, we get something out of the game 1/3 times. It was our best chance of taking something from this fixture, Arteta played the odds and tonight it didn’t come off, that’s life. Liverpool look like they’re going to walk this league again, when the next best team in the Premiership is led by Brenton Todgers it says something about the standard. Liverpool are just at a completely different… Read more »
Who is bashing Arteta? This is how we’ve lined up for pretty much every big game under him since the restart as we don’t have the players to compete with the likes of Liverpool. Hopefully Gabriel/Saliba & a new midfield will move us closer to that but we’re nowhere near that now & most reasonable fans seem to understand that.
Fully agree.
I dont get the wrong selection comment. Whenever we lose the best ones are always the one who dont play. This is our squad. This our level.
The plan was to absorb the pressure and use fresh Ceballos Pepe and Nketiah.
And if Lacazette scored his chances maybe Arteta would have been the hero.
We made a brave performance with many individual errors that piled up.
We have to be nearly perfect and have quite a bit of luck to win set up like this. It’s our only shot at beating Liverpool and worked in the cup run, but you’re not going to win a lot of games against the top sides in Europe when you get outshot 6 to 1.
What does it say about the standard 3 games in? nothing. Rodgers is doing an excellent job at leicester. We played out from the back far too much tonight just inviting constant pressure Arteta accepted as much in his post match interview. We would have been better adding another man in midfield earlier on and making it a battle in there fighting for 2nd balls.instead of just conceeding ground and sitting back so much.
Arteta himself knows how poor our midfield is. Until we get a new one im not going to judge him. Thought Luiz, Bellerin and Xhaxa were very poor. Thought Willian, Elneny and Laca let him down when they got chosen ahead of others who might have started,.
I hope Saka gets more game time as the season goes on – such a bright spark but hasn’t really featured much.
4.5 for Willian is extremely generous
I remember he got back on defense once and made an important tackle. Can’t remember another time he contributed.
Won’t be surprised to know if that defensive tackle was his first touch!
Time to cut the BS Arteta NEEDS TO START PLAYING SALIBA
Chill out Randy , he’s not ready cause Arteta sees him everyday and I know Arteta wants the best for the team 🙂
I think this game has come to early in the season for us. When Arteta is confident in playing a back four, and yes WITH SALIBA, we’ll have more options in midfield and possibly better structure to mount attacks.
BUT don’t kid yourself, this isn’t football manager and real life isn’t based on stats, if Arteta doesn’t believe SALIBA is ready to start then he isn’t ready to start. Have faith! We’ll get there!
I am incredibly worried about Pepe now. £72m, really? He is not good enough for the team’s play to change entirely to suit his strengths. What a disastrous signing
Not his fault Arsenal paid that amount for him. Having said that, I see why you are worried: Pepe seemed tentative and often looked lost out there.
Lille laughing all the way to the bank and high-fiving Raul and Jorge Mendes on the way. I know there was lots of buzz around him the summer he signed but how you could watch him and think he was a £72m player? I was apprehensive at the time. Like all of us I hold out hope that he’ll develop. But is this going to be Theo-like situation where he’s shoved into the team because of some “potential” that might exist? I’d prefer to see Saka and Nelson given opportunities. To me he seems to be a good player in… Read more »
Theo scored 100 plus goals for arsenal and, what, 50 assists??? He was a class player and person. If only pepe could provide what theo did.
Theo was a waste of space more often than not. He should have been shipped out long before he was. The indulgence of spoiled little pussies like Theo embodies what went wrong at Arsenal. Never good enough
At least Theo was 17 when he came. Pepe is 7 years older and playing schoolboy football. The issue with Theo was injuries and that he had reached his ceiling. I don’t think Theo was half as bad as Pepe has been. I don’t know how Pepe isn’t showing signs of panic. Manager isn’t starting him & He’s competing for RW with a 32 and 19 year old. They aren’t his deputies, he is ACTUALLY competing with them. I hope Arsenal learn you don’t need to break your transfer record to just to keep fans happy. We could have signed… Read more »
The French Ligue un has ALOT of pretenders than the real stuff on the average compared to the rest top 5 leagues and basically we shop from this markets 50percent or even more. If we have to move off this mediocre stage in the life of the arsenal we must now look for the right crop else where like say the bundlesliga for its very technical savvy products or even home grown talents
Why is everyone having a go at Holding, or any of our players really tonight? We played the best team in the league away – and they’re on fire – yes that’s right, Liverpool are better than us! And we were well in that game for 89 minutes, and possibly could have got a result. It’s such a tough game, likely our toughest of the season, and I thought Holding for example defended really well on many occasions tonight.
I agree, I thought he was one of our better players on the day.
Pepe on corner practice for the rest of the week, couldn’t cross a ball to save his life ? and we’ve got to do it all again Thursday ?
ALSO XHAKA was poor
no that’s his actual quality
Its hard to win when the opposition: win almost all the loose balls, control almost all the second balls, and we could not control the ball when we won tackles. We just never settled. We were also really timid on offense. On the few occasions when Liverpool committed live ball turnovers if our shape wasn’t just so the ball went straight to the back and we lost all impetus. I appreciate that in past years we’d stampede forward without a care in the world and get trounced, but this was a tough game to watch.
Lets be honest, we weren’t nearly as switched on compared to our previous two encounters against Liverpool. Can’t afford to slip up against their quality.
If luiz hits an opponent like mane did, it’s a red card and a penalty, no matter where it happens on the pitch. If we are going to play out from the back we need rob holding on the bench. Willian looked good against fulham but since then not so much. Pepe has no game other than to cut in on his left. I’d rather see Saka playing. Left side or right. I really wanted to see how Gabriel looked against a good team. Shame we didn’t. Liverpool is not one of our competitors this season. Probably not next session,… Read more »
The entire right flank needs a personnel change. Pepe is an inside forward not an actual winger like Saka
It pretty obvious selling Pepe would be a fool’s errand, like trying a melting ice sculpture. If he’s still the same At the end of this campaign best to swap him for David Neres
I understand that we played against arguably the best team in England, but I feel that our current squad would really struggle for top 4 this season, and I don’t think a single addition in midfield will solve our problems. We are lacking quality and depth.
Also, I honestly believe that there are quite a few players in our current (I guess) starting 11 that seem to be pretty overrated by the majority of our fanbase.
Who is overrated?
I am mainly thinking about Bellerin and AMN. The former never convinced me that he is a good defender and he is pretty bad going forward. Way too predictable and often looks like he lacks confidence on the ball. The latter is somehow seen as a guy for any position, but i personally think he is master of none. I don’t think he is that great defensively and his first touch and decision making is very frustrating to watch most of the time. He looks to me like the latest player for Arsenal with so much potential that we will… Read more »
Worried by how accurate this comment is.
Our best player today was AMN. Worked his socks off. Luiz worst amongst our defenders. Lets not play him anymore. If we cant sign any midfielders, may be Luiz and Elnany play the defensive mid, with Dani further up the field. Just throwing it out there. We should’ve just played Gabriel instead of Luz today. He did good in the last couple of games.
We were watching a different game/sport. Luis is quality and Holding is not……
Also, AMN has been poor the last two games. Energy does not equal productivity, especially in tight games
AMN is good defensively one on one. And I thought he worked hard, like you said. But he is very limited going forward. Some of his choices and attempted passes when he got into good positions were surprisingly weak.
A bit harsh on Holding. He was best of the bad bunch in that defense. Held his ground against Mane
agreed! and he is being forced to play from the back which isnt his strength
Held his ground” sounds corny tho
Leno’s shot parry into the path Mane…
Handling error right?
He should’ve punched it away. It was a weak effort..
A team can play well and still lose. Liverpool had the edge on us all the game but the Arsenal player ratings are way too low…..and this happens every time we lose. Most of our team played well against the the best team in England (world?). yet Holding gets a 5, Luis similar Mait Land Niles etc. Let’s get some perspective in this!
Agreed with most of the rating but just feel Holding’s rating to be a bit low. The truth is we didn’t look comfortable playing from the back with the Liverpool players up against our arses ready to pounce. But apart from that I thought he was generally solid and did a tidy job most of the time
I don’t understand some of the negativity after the result. No defeat is a good one but was an improvement from previous seasons and Liverpool are far stronger than us at this point.
P.S I was a massive Martinez fan and sad to see him go but I beg stop the criticism of Leno for every little detail. He’s barely put a foot wrong since he’s been here and is our number 1 so lets get behind him and the team!
Liverpool are the standard and they were at their best tonight and at home. They have such quality all over the pitch. Their press is unbelievable. So much relentless pressure. Everyone struggled. But we never fell apart. And we were brave and kept on playing out of the back notwithstanding with much more confidence that a year ago. I think it was a solid enough performance with positives. This team is not the Invincibles (yet) so why do we expect them to win every game. Dani Ceballos showed his quality when he came on. Xhaka sadly not good enough under… Read more »
Good to show us where we are at, i see weakness in holding, xhaka, niles and lacazette. Everyone else composed and quality. Didnt disgrace ourselves against best team in league. Onwards and signings please
Liverpool a devastating combination of top talent, top tactics and top discipline. Klopp is truly a cut above, getting that kind of 90+ minute effort out of his players, after winning the CL and the EPL, with not a one slacking off. Arteta hugely promising, but today Auba and Willian did a fair amount of slow jogging whereas Mane, Salah and co. fight for every inch. I didn’t see anyone remark on it — and it’s been edited out of the highlights — but Salah makes that 3rd goal by absolutely exploding with speed to keep the ball in play… Read more »
Spot on
Not really bothered about this performance or the result. More bothered about the West Ham performance. The way we are setup, we can’t really control the game and have to play on counter. Hope we get someone in midfield and transition to a back four against smaller teams.
Lots of bias in the ratings. Leno doesn’t have good distribution but made some decent saves. Holding contained Mane pretty well i thought 1v1. If you’re going to give him the ball in a tight area from where he doesn’t have much of an out ball, he will make a mistake. Although he did give the ball away once without pressure. David Luiz was responsible for the last goal if anything. Laca did get a goal and some of the link up play wasn’t bad? 3 in 3 from the man who we said doesn’t get an away goal. They… Read more »
I know that Niles made some good tackles and all that, but For god’s sake his touch is horrendous… how can he want to be a midfielder?
Haha. Laca’s goal a bit lucky. Firmly planted offside, no attempt to get back on and a gift falls to him. And he almost missed it. He works really hard, but something is off.
This game made me realise Arteta is working miracles with the midfield he has available to him. Individually they are all so average. It gets more complicated because the style of football we wont to play requires Even Ceballos who is clearly technically the best of the bunch is limited in comparison with the other top 6 and even teams live Wolves and Leicester have better cms. Infact i think you can name at least 1 cm from every club. To further reinforce this Liverpool had both Henderson and Thiago out. and still call on Keita.
Front three largely went missing tonight. We definitely need help in the midfield but we won’t win much if these guys are going to disappear in big away games.
Willian was awful today, looked like a lost sheep wasn’t in the game at all, and auba as captain should of organised and commanded more from his troops when their heads were down, similar season to the last one coming up!!
We did OK. Trust the process. I felt the difference was Fabinho. He’s a monster. It does look like only one of Partey and Aouar will be within our reach this window, and Partey has to be who we look at surely, we had nobody of the power or athleticism to even get close to Fabinho tonight. I feel Ceballos could be used as a 10, he made some excellent passes when he came on. Plus some good driving runs, just from too deep. Further up the pitch those assets become very dangerous. Context is everything, they are the best… Read more »
I’m just gonna say it, If Willian is the answer what exactly was the question? I’d rather Reiss was given the game time along with Pepe
Also, this may be unpopular, but I’m worried we kept the wrong keeper. Presumably Arteta knows best, but I think Emi gets that cross even if it means taking out Luiz in process. Time will tell.
On what planet does Auba get rated higher than Laca?
At least he had some chances, even if he did fluff his lines for the one on one. And let’s not forget that Allison played it perfectly.
@arseblog your constant disparaging of Lacazette is border hilarious. The guy scores, creates the only two other chances we had with good runs, but fails in front of EPL’s best GK. Yet, you still manage to rate him the lowest in the entire fucking team. I’m glad James brings a bit of balance on this Lacazette whim on your weekly podcast.
It’s actually fake news to rate Auba higher than Laca for this game.
Auba looked like a poor man’s Walcott yesterday.
I know Laca has 3 prem goals in 3 games, but Auba neeeeeds to be up top! Willian/pepe/saka etc behind and around him… Still – tonight showed we’re still a long way behind Pool. They just dont stop running/pressing. So impressed!
ceballos made 2 thru balls in 20 min. about the same xhaka has done since the beginning of this season.
what’s the point of playing from the keeper if it didnt work for the 1st 5 times and eventually kicking it to the opposition at the halfway line?? arteta is good, but stubborn even when things arent working.
If we want to succeed with that style of play we must continue to play it. Non-negotiable.
Not surprised Laca has again cost our attacking game. He has time and again destroyed our offense but people give him a pass because of “sauce” or whatever.
@ Blogs – I’m now officially concerned at your obviously increasing consumption of the dark stuff… Holding rated lower than Tierney?? Tierney was bossed for most of the game by Salah, looked like a deer in the headlights for long periods, made very little impact up his flank – a far cry from the solid defence and terrier-like forward runs we’ve become used to. Holding was under massive pressure from their strangle-press – which is probably the best in world football atm, and whilst he looked swamped on a few occassions, he also muscled them off it numerous times, rose… Read more »
Holding can’t pass
Still concerned over Leno – couple of great saves but the reticence to dominate his immediate area remains.
I feel like there is a bit of overreaction regarding Leno. We were unfortunately in an awkward position regarding our GKs, where Leno was arguably our best player last season behind Auba, and Emi showed great promise when asked to step up. I would have also preferred to keep Emi around, but that’s not the biggest issue here. We did not underperform last year because of the GK we had, nor will our GK for this season help us move forward. All other areas on the pitch need improvement and so far we haven’t seen any significant changes.
Got a bad feeling we sold the wrong keeper.
How can you give luiz a 6? third one is for him, you learn since you are 7 years old, don’t head a ball in front of the goal, wich he did most of the game. The defence building up simply doesnt work againt a team like liverpool it was miserable to see us lose countless times the ball less dan 30meters from our goal.
At least we know our place now…
Arteta should have them in training on how to use an elbow at the cost of just one yellow.
I’m still smarting from Xhaka getting that red v Swansea for pulling someone down on the halfway line!
Don’t know why blogs got stingy on the ratings. Leno made some very good saves and overall our defense did well considering this is Liverpool. Holding did pretty well against Mane
Laca was our best player. His hold up play is second to none, yes he he didn’t score the one on one but it’s not like it was a £80m goalkeeper in front! Our talisman PEA was nowhere to be seen! Nketiah????? Pepe???? Tierney got turned like a schoolboy for the second goal. Our midfield couldn’t control shit. Night to forget. Laca is our only world class player.
How has AMN got 5, he is useless going forward, he has zero creativity and the number of times he was sent down the wing and just smashed the ball at the Liverpool defenders legs was ridiculous. He is a great bench player but against the top 4…. he is miles away from the level of quality we need.