Arsenal went through to the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup with a penalty shoot-out win over Liverpool at Anfield.
Bernd Leno was the hero in the 90 minutes, and he made two penalty saves as Alexandre Lacazette, Cedric Soares, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Nicolas Pepe and Joe Willock slotted their spot kicks after misses by Divock Origi and some lad called Wilson.
It’s our lowest priority this season, but a win is a win, and our reward is a home quarter-final against Man City.
Read the Liverpool 0-0 (4-5 pens) match report and see the goals here.
Liverpool 0-0 Arsenal (4-5 on penalties) – Player Ratings
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No Nelson… can see him leaving on loan if he can’t even get chances in the league cup
ye, surely. If it’s true Brighton are interested I think that would be pretty good for all parteys.
Even Thomas?
You mean Michael Thomas? Is it “up for grabs now”??
I don’t know…I may draw some flak but I feel the guy does equally good (if not better) up the right side when compared to Pepe and Willian…
Leno was MOTM but I know one mistake and some fans will start bashing him again
whomst’dve has been bashing leno?
Tony Adams
Yeah, but Tone is a little bitter…..
Leno one bash him
If the opposition goalkeeper is coming all the way to Arseblog to back Leno, then who am I to question his talents!
Very clever.??
You hv a great name but I suggest an edit because, you know, no one’s stopping me. ?♂️
I suggest ‘Salibaba and the 40 Clean sheets’.
The prophecy will come true, believe me.
You got six dislikes from those fans.
Massively happy for the young lads that all did us proud tonight. Great night on an evening when margins were tight. Buuuuuuuut, here’s my beef. When we put out a midfield of two first team players and a lad with more experience than Grujic, Jones and Wilson put together and you don’t boss it, questions have to be asked. If you think about goals scored, they always come from the wings. There’s just so little happening in the centre of the park and once again tonight we failed to control the midfield. We really need two CM’s and I do… Read more »
nothing new is it xhaka and elneny are quite average and ceballos is very over rated oh for the days of wilshire ramsey rosicky and cazorla
I agree I’ve been saying this I still don’t know what WILLCOK is exceptional at. HE’s not great and attacking as a CAM and he’s not great at winning balls back as a CDM so I reckon his best position is CM but at CM he’s not exceptional either he’s very replaceable I hope he makes it at arsenal but the way I see him he’s either going to just be a manageable squad player for much of his career or he’ll have to leave Arsenal permanently to start at a mid table or championship level club I don’t see… Read more »
He is too young….give him some time!
He’s really good at being a young currently average amorphous midfielder.
I hope the reason for this is because we are going to see ceballos and elneny given a chance on Sunday. We need something different against these middle of the rung teams. Xhaka struggles in those games.
Unlikely…I know we all yearn for the midfield dominance and creativity and Xhaka struggles in those aspects but the reason he starts I believe is because of the much improved defensive positioning he mans…’off the ball’ job as they say…however yes ‘on the ball’ we are struggling a lot at times…
Yes that is true, but it is ONLY true when we aren’t the team dominating possession. If we are the possession dominant team and the other team plays on the counter – Xhaka’s positioning strength goes out the window. He’s flat out terrible against counter attacks. Hence why we struggle still against mid-to-lower table teams. Xhaka is well suited to these bigger games because of the positioning you mention. We’re never going to be great with him in there, but he gives us structure when we defend deep. But when we play possession high up the pitch he’s exposed.
Yeah this was very apparent during the Wenger days, when we would play open expansive football against all sides. Xhaka was often tasked with sweeping up counters, which he simply isn’t suited for. It was the whole reason we bought Torreira in the first place, and to his credit he was (and still is) very good at that, but then Emery’s play style and his big brain saw him try to play Torreira out of position and have no structure in the team. Now with Arteta, we tend to play the low block against the top teams and hit them… Read more »
Agreed – significant last time out when Dani replaced Xhaka. I respect Granit for his stoic head-down fightback into the team, but Mo’Nenny is every bit as solid as he is, considerably quicker and also more 2-footed. He’s also started to lay off some righteous long balls so can’t really see a place for Granit whilst he and Ceballos are fit.
Still think we should taken Rambo back when he was cut loose in Italy
Every single penalty I’ve seen Ainsley take is so cool and impressive…..
Harder and harder to make excuses for Pepe when he looks like such a one trick pony. He was easily dealt with by Liverpool’s defense all night.
people are only making excuses for him due to his price tag. if we had signed him for 10 million most would agree hes not up to the standard
Not sure i agree. He gave us an out ball and helped ensure their high line was way less certain than on Monday.Not a great performance but not as bad as some people might say.
People really need to play football before they understand all the different contributions possible. Getting shut down by liverpools defence is pretty normal, they have the best defence in england (maybe europe).
I believe he’s got insane talent (dribbling, passing, crossing), but I’m unsure of if he can translate that into effective goal contributions.
I don’t think people that write him off really understand how much needs to go right before a player is consistently reaking havoc on defenses.
Ball control….null, dribble….void, shots….naught,….positioning…zero
If getting tripped and Liverpool players happy to take a yellow card , from what I saw. I would like him to get ball closer to the other teams goal , so then he could smash the free kick in . Rather than pick up ball before half way. Slight repositioning possible, closer to how he played in France
Think arteta has been brilliant since he’s come in however today some things left me dumbfounded – why play pepe on the left when he’s clearly more comfortable on the right – why play willock out wide when we have nelson on the bench, willock literally provided nothing (not his fault as he’s out of position) – why take so long to make changes, it took till the 80th minute to make a sub when we were clearly struggling especially in the middle of the park. As I said before arteta is brilliant and has been since he’s arrival but… Read more »
Nelson has lot of loan rumours going about him…and Pepe…maybe he wanted to see if that works…left footed players (LCB, LWG, LF) down that side..but then again I m just contemplating
Should bench lacazette in pl games not a natural goal scorer
Yes he is, but since we do not have a Cam at the moment he has to work both as Link-up player and a striker. But still he has scored in every PL game this season, so give him some credit.
Apart from scoring 3 in 3, you’re almost talking sense.
He is right. Lacazette is not a natural but a semisynthetic goalmachine.
Upvote just for “semisynthetic”
At some point this year, I would have laugh at any one that says Xhaka will captain an Arsenal team again.
At the time I would not have been laughing.
But now, its like Yeah, Why not? Whatever
I only came by to ensure that AMN got the bonus rating; he did, so I shall now happily retire to bed.
AMN is amazingly cool at pens for such a young player. Should definitely take over the England duties from Kane.
Laborious tonight. BUT great feeling to edge out Liverpool with a squirming less than convincing penalty by Willock. 1) Leno – We have him to thank for it and clearly a justifiable decision to keep him. Excellent today. Excellent.Could have transition us quicker off saves though is my only criticism which is where Martinez had the edge (distribution decision) 2) Cedric – Ring rust at the start, lace problem with ball between legs, scuffed shot and mis controls but got into the game thereafter and found some decent long balls across to Pepe. 3) Holding – Decent enough. Still don’t… Read more »
My second motm was willock. Did everything a midfielder should do today. A good all round performance. Nketiah should try to turn and take on defenders once in a while or turn and thread a pass. What’s the point of absorbing all that pressure and beating a high press then pass it back to xhaka or Dani back to the CBs. Something that Arteta has to definitely work in is once we beat the first and second press what should our players do next as we keep loosing balls time and again without mustering meaningful attacks. We miss mobility, drive… Read more »
I was thinking this! When he held up the ball he had players start to make runs but he always just played the pass backwards
We started with 5 of our regular starters…Leno,Holding,Gabriel,Xhaka,and Ceballos..maybe 7 if we count Saka and Pepe. Liverpool started with only 2 regulars…Van Dyke and Salah and we couldn’t score a goal in regulation? When is our 72 Million Pound Pepe gonna shine brightly for us and make us happy about his performance if he can’t do so against Liverpool’s junior team? Kudos to our defense and especially Leno for the clean sheet. Happy to get the Win but the performance is not that impressive considering we were playing virtually Liverpool’s junior team.
We played 3 of the players that started on Monday and they played 2.Some people are always looking for negativity, this team is progressing very quickly and if we get the 2 players we want it will get faster but realistically where still couple of years behind liverpool. We are so lucky to have Mikel Arteta.
I’m not looking to be negative. I’m calmly happy we won but I’m not getting too excited considering we played their second team and we, having about half of our first team players only have Leno to thank for the clean sheet and victory. I love Arteta and I know he’s still trying to figure out the team. I so much have faith in him that I can boldly declare that we will win the Premiership Title this year maybe up to two more trophies. That’s how confident I am. So I’m very calm and excited about this campaign. My… Read more »
Ugh!
Oh, do leave off mate.
Go home Carragher, we know it’s you
AMN is the stone-cold coolest motherfucker in the entire galaxy.
And there was I thinking Samuel L Jackson didn’t play football.
Kolasinic kept Salah in his pocket who destroyed Tierney the other day. And I’m not even Kola’s biggest fan. Poor rating I think.
I did think the ratings were a little low. It was a victory and a clean sheet. Many had played a full game and had to turn around and do it again. Great tenacity!
Salah did not destroy Tierney the other night, Salah was probably Liverpools worst player Monday.
Sat him on his Arse once and had him looking like a deer in the headlights a few times, too.
He did ok, but Tierney was part of a back 3 with minimal help at times from AMN. Kolasinac left back in a back 4 with Gabriel to his right and Saka in front. Can’t compare really
Cool as a cucumber! Tension, what tension? I got this … and I’m gonna have fun doing it.
Good performance from Gunners goalkeeper .
The match line-up data showed we played in a 4-3-3 not our usual 3-4-3. Thankfully Kolasinac didn’t have to play the Hybrid LCB role.
Hopefully this is a sign Arteta wants to move away from that formation/system. Maybe because of incoming personally?!!!!?
Definitely wasn’t 4-3-3. Kolasinac was playing the hybrid LCB role. Closer to a lopsided 5-4-1 today without the ball
I want Maitland-Niles to take all our penalties from now on. His slow-motion penalty is unstoppable!
So many complaints in the comments today, after we’ve just beaten Liverpool for the 3rd time in 4 tries.
I get complaining after we lose, or even draw. I do it myself! But after a win? At Anfield?
I guess some people are just never going to be happy and never going to stop complaining. Look where we were when Arteta took over, and look who we have beaten in the few months since.
Nice one Obama.
Yep. Some people just can’t be happy for a moment and appreciate the simpler things, like winning at Annfield on penalties.
Didn’t we play 5:5 once and lost on penalties?
We did. I had thoroughly enjoyed that match.
We only come to see… AMN!!!
Nketiah and Willock still Championship level. Buzzing around but when it comes to finishing they return to their norm. Poor touches, lack of composure, waste chances
Surprised by the low rating for Kolasinac. I’m no fan of his, but he played to what must be his ceiling.
Welcome back Bernd!
Wasn’t Saka pretty impressive tonight? Wasn’t this Kolasinac’s best game in a long time? Pepe was dangerous, worked hard and showed how he’s so focused on the defensive side, like he needs to be. I just can’t agree with those ratings in particular..but overall I think we were a little better than that