A familiar kind of scoreline at Anfield, but at 1-0 at half-time, it wasn’t the end of the world by any means.
Unfortunately, this young Arsenal team’s inexperience showed in the second half, without sufficient guidance from the experienced players or from the sideline when Mikel Arteta didn’t do enough to stem the Liverpool tide.
After a 10 game unbeaten run, a loss was going to happen at some point – now we have to see how this side can respond to what was a disappointing night.
Read the Liverpool 4-0 Arsenal match report and see the goals here
Liverpool 4-0 Arsenal – Player Ratings
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Important to see a reaction now. The youngsters have first hand experience of the levels they are aiming for. Heads down and go again.
NO heads down?! we keep our head up and we go again! that was not a terrible performance like the score suggests. We had some good performance even though a lot didnt click and it was new experience for some of the young players. Lack of better players in midfield to control the midfield, lack of a good striker who can actually “play” (hold up, link up, fight and win duels on the ground and in the air who is aggressive) cost us. We didnt have that. Auba is useless with his back to goal or fighting and winning any… Read more »
Men against boys, SMH. Very sad to see how far we are from the top teams. The good news is we were Andora or Moldova against Liverpool and not San Marino. Not really looking forward to fking finish 8th again.
I also fking love Ramsdale. What a keeper. But the problem is that you don’t really want your goalkeeper to grab the headlines or be your best player ever fking match. We need the ball away from Ramsdale that should be the idea not have him peppered with shot every game.
Nice to see the quick revert to negativity after one result. For ***** sake what did you really expect? Arsenal are moving in the right direction but went up against a better team. Today we got a sight of where we want to be. As long as they learn from it a heavy defeat like this can push us to the next level. Perhaps Arteta will learn to not respond to antagonism from the opposite manager. Up until that happened we were comfortable. All that did was spur the crowd and opposition players on. The last thing the club needs… Read more »
Arteta is a fool. Klopp is living rent free in his head. The “game plan” was apparently to have less than 5 shots on goal, with Aubameyang gifting the ball to Liverpool with offsides and weak one on one shots. How can VVD beat him in a foot race? Why is he playing?
Arteta has a good record against klopp. One of the best out of any manager in the league.
No, this should not be about just one defeat…the writing has already been on the wall.
We have been playing poorly for about half of our good run.
You can’t expect a goalkeeper to bail you out every time.
It could have been 4 nil at half time and 8 nil at full time were it not for Ramsdale. if that’s ‘comfortable’ you must sleep on spikes.
Or… the first genuine test fully exposed our gaping weaknesses.
I think we’ve got the makings of a good team. Ramsdale white gabriel Tierney saka Smith rowe. You can add lokonga saliba martinelli and balogun, with the potential to be as good and it looks like the basis for a good squad to me. Think we’ll definitely finish top 6.
Nice to see the quick revert to negativity after one result.
Arsenal are moving in the right direction but went up against a better team. Today we got a sight of where we want to be.
As long as they learn from it a heavy defeat like this can push us to the next level.
Perhaps Arteta will learn to not respond to antagonism from the opposite manager. Up until that happened we were comfortable. All that did was spur the crowd and opposition players on.
The last thing the club needs is a toxic atmosphere after one defeat.
Loool learn from heavy defeat. Are you fking joking? Learn! We have been getting spanked by the big teams even the end of the Wenger days. How much more do you need to learn that City, Liverpool, Chelsea will spank us 9/10 times. Remember Bayern spanking? What did we learn. Stop making dumb excuses.
Oh shut up you miserable cunt
😂😂😂 watch the highlights then if you are so jolly and tell me what you enjoyed the most? Lmfao
Oh yes let’s all be positive and ignore the glaring issues. Positivity will get is through. The Arteta Cult.
I think you need to ‘learn’ the whole situation dude. We’re doing ok and indeed ‘learning’ like any 23’odd year olds would on a job and, also, grow physically
we’ve been ‘learning’ for 15+ years 😂
Arsenal are 135 years old. It is not about a random 23yo in 2021. I felt 135 ehen I saw the result today. But lets be realistic . I am in my quite late 50’s. So with a fair wind and if I take care of myself i have 15 years till mid 70’s 25 till my 80’s . I am a bit worried that our glory days ( as are mine ) are firmly in the past
Saddest thing is: 1st half really felt brave, mature and we saw the posture of a serious team. I felt genuinely proud, even at 1-0 down at HT. After we gifted them the second (in the most stupid way) we just crumbled and regressed to our old neurotic display.
Exactly my thoughts. Was impressed with the confidence we were showing. That 2nd goal just knocked the stuffing out of us. The players knew it was game over at that point.
It felt like Arteta losing it with Klopp shocked our lads as much as it’s galvanised the Scouse crowd. He should know better.
If the manager cannot keep his temper in check then good luck with dishing out disciplinary punishments to your players Mikel.
Loosing a battle is not loosing the war….the players saw the manager get out and battle for them (similar to what Kloop does) and that will be knowledge banked for future games
Personally I saw a team loose it’s composure early in the second half but then slowly regain it, if you don’t see that fair enough.
I am looking forward to the return.
COYG
Exactly, first half was very decent, felt like we had a chance to steal a draw. Second half was just miserable, they upped their high press and we couldn’t handle it.
Totally agree. As for the second goal, just seconds before I thought Tavares had a pretty good game against Salah and Arnold, I was actually quite impressed how he dispossesed Arnold by the touch line and drove forward, then the pass though… It was off-the-cliff stuff since that moment.
7.5 ramsdale?
U pullin de piss mate?
Ah for gods sake people…… he was waaaaaaaaaaaay better than 7.5
We would have been 3 nil down in first half if not for him. He deserves that 7.5
We looked good up till half time and Mane should have been sent off in the first half. Would have been a different game had that have happened.
We were mediocre at best up until half time and although Liverpool were little better, they did create several chances that only the heroics of Ramsdale prevented from turning into a real pasting.
It’s still the “plan” & tye rigidity of the way Arteta sets them up to play that bothers me ! Easy to pick a winning team but against Liverpool pick a team to do the job ?
One gripe: why do we have so much trouble finding a teammate after intercepting a pass? We never seem able to control and pass the ball properly. Usually we just rush it off, and the other side regains possession right away. Not only in this game, in which we were pressured by one of the best pressing team, but in other games too.
Spot on, mate! And it’s always SO annoying especially on days like this when we had little possession of the ball. Let’s hope for a better and winning performance from the next game.
I went solo-hiking today, that really is a stupid song.
Hopefully this would be one of those games that the players remember for a long time, collectively as a team. After a good streak, its a reality check to show how far we are from the best of the world. Thought we started fairly well, players looked up for it and were aggressive and alert. The 2nd goal swung the whole game to them, the mood immediately changed. Lokonga looked overawed in the 2nd half and i thought the manager made the right move quickly in swapping him out. Tavares isnt short in confidence, which i think comes from his… Read more »
agree on taking out Lokonga. I wish he had taken off Tavares after the 2nd as he started to fall apart. Maybe he shouldn’t have left Salah and let Ramsdale to deal with Mane shooting on the 3rd. Probably damned if you do and damned if you don’t so just a thought.
So close too on the Auba shot that allisson gets a toe on for the save. 2-1 would have been so different.
That was my thought too, he was ahead of salah but was never going to get to mane. It might be easy for us to see it and difficult to judge at the heat of the moment, but I guess that’s where experience would play a part.
100%
Might be controversial but I thought it wasn’t a good move to swap Sambi for AMN. Something needed to change but we needed more bodies through the middle, not a like-for-like change. AMN just ended up getting swarmed by Lpool like Sambi had been – for me the substitution didn’t set us up any differently. Trying to think of what might have been better but it’s tough. ESR wasn’t getting any time on the ball, but taking him off is a risk as he can create chances in a flash. Saka was doing his best on the right but was… Read more »
I’d have Ramsdale higher, and maybe White and Gabriel a little as well. Liverpool are a much better team than us when they play well, especially at Anfield.
We desperately need some better options on offense.
We really need an upgrade over Auba. If you’ll look closely, because of his blind runs and poor positioning, our midfielders were unable to move the ball forward in counter attacks. He has been really poor since a long time now. Except Auba, everyone else will get a good learning from this game especially the young Guns. We can still get Europe qualifications.
Auba is still class but needs service. Unfortunately his work rate has dropped a little since he got malaria
Malaria wrecked Kolo Tour as well. I do not think players ever really recover from that.
He is absolutely not class anymore. He is nowhere near his form of two years ago. First touch poor, passing poor, less pace and finds himself offside entirely too much. His time is up. If he works hard he might nab 10-15 tap ins if we are lucky.
Yup. Lost count how many times he’s flagged for offside. The “he lacks service” argument is way overplayed…
Yeah you’re right about him. He need to go
pool, chelsea and city (surprisingly to me, united do not belong) are playing in their own league. hoped we could steal a point, but look, this is where we are. are we really going to still lament not being a top4 force at this point?
i’m not. indeed i’d like to see a proper reaction. if we finish 5th or 6th, i’d take it. jury’s out on arteta, but today changes nothing. onwards and upwards
Yeah, we’ve lost to the top 3 teams and a random loss to Brentford, we’re still sitting 4th, 3pts behind Westham. If we can maintain our form we will be in 4th come Christmas (unless Westham maintain their form). No need to panic.
Aubameyang is awful and need to be benched. He cannot control a ball with pace on it nor make a pass nor dribble. Time to part ways. Liverpool is far superior but in a technical team Auba has no place in it. Arteta bended over to Klopp and couldn’t make the tough decision to substitute a has been like auba.
Harsh. It did not much matter who played up front because we could not deliver the ball to them enough. Our captain may have seen his best days, but he has goals in him. (Though please no more PKs!)
It is harsh, but just winning some headers and holding the ball even just a little can really make a difference when you’re under pressure. He really doesn’t do that and never has.
We’re good enough to beat the average sides but can’t even compete against the top ones. That’s a continuation of a decade long trend where over the course of a season we just aren’t good enough. We need to get top 4 but standards are low enough that simply being in Europe will be heralded. The sad reality is we’re years away still.
We’re three points behind fourth spot in fifth, five points behind your beloved Liverpool, with something like 25 games to play.
Standards aren’t low – no one is happy losing – we’re building up again. It takes times, and it takes disappointment. Have patience, or look away for a while. Commentators like you seemed to look away during the 10 game unbeaten streak, or at least kept quiet; can’t be that hard look away for another 10 more.
We’re years off of being competitive for anything other than fighting for 4th. The reality is we’ve just become another of the top 5- 10 who will sometimes make the CL but on average will just settle for the Europa League. There will be bright spots when we play easier fixtures as largely did the past 10 games mixed in with at least this year drubbings when we face good teams.
We are a few years away from challenging for the league, that’s for sure. But when this team matures, when this team and manager come of age, if you will, we will be challenging for the title year after year. I’m really, really looking forward to that; I hope you are, too.
We are a young team and we will still get beaten handily at times. But I can guarantee you that we’ll have a lot more for Chelsea, City, and Liverpool to handle in the second half of this season.
That trend started when we left Highbury. Had to spend less on players to make debt service.
I don’t think there’s any need to panic. We were poor second half but the first 30 mins were decent. I think it was Carragher that summed it up pretty well when he said Arsenal just aren’t quite ready for a Chelsea, Liverpool or City yet. You can never be happy when you lose 4-0 but we just need to make sure we bounce back by beating Newcastle convincingly. Time to bring Tierney back in. I’d also like to see Pepe have a go on the left with Smith Rowe centrally and Saka on the right. Anyway, shit that we… Read more »
Wings are lock’ed in imo, resetting the whole program because of a bad day at Anfield would be a rookie mistake I don’t expect Arteta to make, we shall learn how to play when under pressure with no way out.
I proper target man will help with that pressure.
if only Auba knew how to check his run or chip the ball…. lets just consider it a blip, hope we get back on track on the next game…
Think the rating of Gabby is rather harsh. He was good today regardless of scoreline.
That was a proper drubbing! I was hoping for a draw after the first half but that Tavares error leading to the second goal seamed to knock all confidence out of this young and inexperienced team. Aubameyang going missing in crucial games as a leader is becoming somewhat of a trend and what was Elneny doing exchanging jersies after that performance! Ramsdale, what a guy, future captain! We go again, Coyg!
Odegaard with a game changing performance as usual
lol nice try
Just gonna put this here…
W6
D2
L4
Apart from Brentford, we have lost to exactly who we are expected to lose to. We are 5th, no one can play Sunday and overtake us.
We played well for 40 mins. Better than a lot of performances at Anfield over the last 9 years.
It doesn’t matter now as a game. Just go again.
Either our standards have dropped so bad we are expected and okay with losing to Liverpool, Chelsea, Man city or they have increased their standards and we have gone backwards…I think all the above. But I can say this it’s not as bad as things used to be but it’s definitely still not good enough and we still have a lot of work to do. But we keep going and get it right for the next game.
Also, our two strilets need to be replaced. Thats the next job got Edu. They jusy aren’t up to this type of game.
Strikers **
Every time I read those before the game comments how good we are defensively etc i fear the worst.. One can take defeat if you play well, put the fight, guess that was lacking from some of the players. and maybe Arteta was trying to make up for that… Still it could’ve been worse… like 5 or 6. Ps I don’t know about you but I still don’t like Mane… and those false Jurgen teeth 😅
Mane is a fouling cheating git
By my count, he committed four fouls and had four dives in the first half. Not that any of it impacted the result in this instance, but I can’t fucking stand him as a player, good as he may be. Much easier to run an effective press when strikers can foul with impunity.
Mane plays with the aggression and ruthlessness that’s needed to be a champion, we are too nice. This is where we need to improve compare Mane to Auba. Mane goes full force aggressive against our defenders, Auba runs full force to press only to slow down once he gets close to them because he’s afraid to run through them or go into a 50/50 or get into a duel he pulls out of tackles hates to get into a physical battle. thats why he gets bullied as a striker…this is the level. Every top team have this type of striker,… Read more »
A good game for a young team to learn from. I dont think any of us ever really expected us to win against this liverpool side. 4-0 is a drubbing but if we can take the experience from the game going forward in the next few games/seasons its not so bad. I agree with the auba comments blogs, for me his legs and his sharpness is going but what do you expect for a striker in his 30’s. Still im very hopeful for the season!!
Messi, 34, Ronaldo, 36, Ibrahimovic, 40. Stop making excuses for Auba. He was supposed to leading those boys from the front. His age has nothing to do with this because there are older players than him still lighting up a football pitch. Our captain has been very poor.
He’s had malaria. Malaria is no joke.
I think players like messi, ronaldo, ibra are few and far between. Its unfair to compare them to auba, he isnt as good. Top player but not as good
I thought they played fairly well in the first half and the score line looked worse than it was. The last two goals were the result of pushing for goals at the other end and leaving the D exposed. As fun as young teams can be, this game was what sometimes happens when they go up against a talented and experienced team. They didn’t back down though, and they are definitely going in the right direction.
White was a joke. Why on earth did he get the same rating as Gabriel?
Why did you get downvoted?
Gabriel > White
Becuase, even though Gabby was better than him, he was NOT a joke.
Solo hiking is pretty ace
“Captain” continues to be absent this season. Ridiculous foul to concede the free kick for the first goal and rookie mistakes throughout. When is enough with him? Or do we have another Willian first name on the team sheet despite his clear drop in ability.
I thought he was pretty poor too. Unnecessary foul for the first goal, too many offsides, killing momentum and losing the ball etc. He’s lost his pace, he doesn’t have the guile or ability to hold up play and bring others into attack and doesn’t inspire confidence in youngsters. At this stage, I’d play Pepe on the left more frequently and Laca up front. If nothing, we can at least sell Pepe for 25-30M due to his age and ability. Auba had his best seasons for us when we were counter attacking, which we aren’t anymore and he doesn’t have… Read more »
I’ve been saying this for over a year, tbf though in the last little run he has seemed more up for the challenge, but up against VVD and Matip the challenge is, was and will always be beyond him, he doesn’t bully, he ghosts, which in itself can be good obviously, but not at Anfield. I’d start Laca uptop for a few games, he deserves it, but really we are seriously missing a proper target man and have been since Giroud left. In a way LAca and Auba have halted/disrupted/limited our style of football for seasons now, no matter which… Read more »
We just need a couple of good strikers to be honest. Laca & Aub are done
Lol lets blame one of the better players on the pitch, this fanbase just love to generalise and funny enough, it is one of our best players that get the abuse, nonsense, Lacazette was decent today
Auba is a spent force unfortunately but what I’m scared of is he will be automatically picked every game despite him clearly being past his prime.
That was a reality check. We’ll rise up from the ashes- just part of growing up.
Against Liverpool it’s not too bad but we really need to start taking at least a point from big teams
10/10 for solo hikers 😆
The announcers said we only have 6 goals from open play this season. We need a creative midfielder. Odegaard doesn’t seem to be good enough. Or play esr through the middle. Sure. We got clobbered but that happens when you give the ball away against a good team. Our press was terrible. Liverpool continually broke it with one pass. Partey. Maybe he was still injured a bit. But he has to be more of an influence. It was enjoyable watching Man United lose!
Odegaard is definitely good enough. He’s not been in the team since Laca’s revival, but believe me he will be brilliant for us. His intelligent pressing, his vision and work rate are top
Uhm, no.
A predictable beating. Sorry but it’s not good enough from the hierarchy (Kroenkes) of this great club to preside over a decade of decline. We as fans should never accept mediocrity. We are not the Denver Nuggets.
That’s lazy… I could make the opposite argument with another Kroenke team… everyone has facts to support their preferred narrative.
The same denver nuggets that haz one of the best team in the NBA right now with the MVP as leader.wish we were as average as the nuggets.they would have probably ar least play the final if not for injury last season
At which point…after not having an out ball for the vast majority of the first half do you ask questions of the manager. Especially when 3 turnovers in the first 5 minutes of the 2nd half are a direct result of Liverpool tweaking their pressure scheme to take advantage of that. Dragging Sambi off unceremoniously and hurting his confidence to then cede even more control of the midfield for Maitland-Niles…a player that is even less capable of dictating control of the midfield seems like a gigantic dick move from Arteta. This, of course, says nothing of the fucking 40 million… Read more »
Sambi was absolutely fkn shite today.
He was better than Partey in the 1st half from what I could see
Honestly, the score line was a bit of the fact we gave up toward the end. But the manger is not experienced enough to know how to defend or win these kinds of games. That’s not to say he won’t be, but he is growing like the team is. It’s a shame it was 4-0, 2-0 would have been something easy to get over but his inexperience could make this result be a longer hangover than it should be.
However the direction we are going is , is still good. Imagine where will be with a decent couple of strikers.
Cynical reckless scissor tackle by mane in the technical area – if that had been xhaka – would have been a straight red – Pepe likes to get stuck in and has some edge – move saka to the left take anonymous Emil off at Half time – ? a little more Sanchez-type playing in mane’s face and they would have been down to ten for sure – MA Needs to exploit the opportunities that arise as the game goes along ….. he will learn
How on Earth has he been given a 5 from blogs and a 5.5 from all of you?
Imagine if Mustafi played like Benjamin did tonight?
I didn’t think he was worth 50 million in the summer. Perhaps only 30 million, but even that looks too high.
The only saving grace is that he is still young and may end up a quality defender. But if we are willing to wait for a CB to blossom I would have rathered Saliba who was already on our books.
Being very kind to Auba and Tavares by the way, both of them, Tavares more so had absolute stinkers. Auba gave the fk away which lead to their goal and missed our best chance, He should not have the same rating as Laca who put a shift in and created our best chance. When it came to Tavares, I felt sorry for him, gave the ball away constantly, dribbling in his own half despite being surrounded by Liverpool shirts, bad passes, and it was his stray pass that cost us a goal, plain naïve really, hopefully he learns, he is… Read more »
We lost the game in midfield, its too early for sambi, Partey was 100%, Pluss we needed 3 bodies in midfield, plus Tierney should have started, and why play out from the back against Liverpool they are masters at pressing and it only leads to mistakes, what’s wrong with trying to find a player up field, team next time…
4-3-3
Ramsdale
Tomi white gab tierney
Amn. Partey. ESR
Saka lacca martinelle
No, but they weren’t, they were clearing the ball aimlessly, which gives possession to Liverpool leading to a barrage of attacks, it’s fine doing it when you’re truly under pressure but when you have options in front of you and you decide to clear the ball anyway without any composure it just leads to more incoming pressure and frustration for our attacking players. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, in my opinion I was happy with Tavares starting, he was playing well and Tierney has been having a bad season so far.
We need a midfield general -at any price
Morning, a good night’s sleep.after a hectic evening, a ten match unbeaten run, and then a jolt back to reality 4.0 about right for the experienced side. Speaking the truth, we hadn’t really played a good side since City, and that was a learning curve. What went wrong, well to start with, we need to understand, when to lead out from the back, and when to clear our lines. This is not the first time we have had our bums smacked, and playing like this, not the last. Somebody needs to explain, once you pass by 2 or 3 players,… Read more »
A bit of a reality check today. Let’s hope it was an off day. I had a feeling Tavares wouldn’t cope today and unfortunately that came to pass. The step up he’s making is huge. Liverpool at Anfield is always tough. It’s a shame because we’ve actually been good in the last couple of seasons against the big teams but so far this season we’re back to losing against them. Still, on we go. This is a young side and manager who are all learning on the job. Now it’s about showing the character to bounce back. Perhaps playing Pepe… Read more »
Arteta can not manage games. He can to certain extent manage squad but he can not manage games.
This match was i my acid test as to how we were progressing. Not very far! Scrappy wins over Burnley, Norwich etc etc Lucky at Leicester (thank the keeper) took us up the table but come Liverpool well perhaps we have not come as far as we thought. I said before the interlull that we were tighter at the back, but further forward very poor, no physicallty, no control, in fact no anything. There are players that im expecting to do better(Partey) but really quite average his partner (Lokogna)is a long term project but needs to learn quickly what the… Read more »
The ref would have had to stop a Klopp v Arteta boxing bout even with a free hit for the latter just to prevent Mikel finishing 3rd in that contest. Once again, we were over-reliant on Ramdsale, this time to avoid an absolute pasting rather than preserve a lead like against Leicester. For me, only he, Lacazette and Gabriel were worthy of the description ‘visitor mammals with a pulse’ today. I’m sure we all remember ‘Saddo Man’ has some previous in this fixture from 12 months ago where he clearly elbowed KT in the face and escaped with only a… Read more »
Is partly any good at all?
It’s time to go forward…Our next two matches are with two rich clubs with new managers and confused owners like ours
Not to be a downer, but at what point do we admit that Partey is who he is, and not the answer to our midfield issues? I’m an Atlético fan (lived in Madrid for 10 years), and watched him play a lot. He’s a very good player: versatile, hard working on and off the pitch, good character, with a good skill level, but he’s certainly not a metronomic midfielder, which is how Arteta seems set on playing him, and what we need to help our build up. He never played as a solitary holding midfielder at Atlético for a reason,… Read more »
Addendum to my previous comment:
If we go back and look at player ratings against big teams for the past couple of years, in games Partey has played in, it’s always a combination of “tidy on the ball, anonymous, but to be fair looked off the pace”.