I agree you weren't at your scintillating best to beat us, and you're right that we did gift you the ball in dangerous areas all too many times. But a Klopp Liverpool side putting in a 6/10 is still vastly superior to this Arsenal side putting in an 8/10 performance (not saying that we did put in an 8/10 performance yesterday). You have infinitely more quality and better technicians than us. You have a squad predominately comprised of PL and CL winners. We are absolutely miles below you. I do think we will get a European spot this season, but there are still levels to this game. And the harsh reality is, we are still a long, long way away from you, City and Chelsea. It's a humbling experience for these players and I hope they learn from it.
I'd love partey, saka and smith Rowe. You have some very good players and some up and coming and fra kly some egos you need to bin. Start with arteta. Absolutely shocking yesterday. Came with no plan and changed nothing as it imploded in if him while going nuts about a non elbow.
Every time we play you we really go for the high press and no matter who your players are they seem powerless to play through it. Tavares was the obvious culprit yesterday, but quite honestly it's happened time and time again in recent years. You end up back on the goal-line almost then either lose it there or have to hoof it aimlessly up-field. You'd be better off getting bodies forward and letting Ramsdale kick a more measured clearance, imo - as long as it goes nowhere near Virgil, that would be pointless too. Having said all that, few teams are up to the level of pressing that we do, and you have enough talented players to do well against the majority of "lesser" sides. I don't think Captain Black is doing a bad job, but I agree that you're still some way off the top 3.
I may have been a bit harsh in arsenal pre game where said they’d played no one in that unbeaten run, but fair play to them to do that and win the games with a few draws. They clearly aren’t up to the quality of the top 3 who look above most teams in the league at the moment, but if arsenal continue to beat the teams in the bottom half of the table then no reason can’t challenge for that 4th spot as looks like a battle between them West Ham and United really.
I think some Arsenal fans were getting a little carried away after our recent good form. A lot of club’s fans are culpable of this, but Arsenal fans in particular have a reputation for it and, looking at social media, it’s not hard to see why. Arteta is doing OK, but I’m still not sold on him. A good mini-run isn’t sufficient for me to gloss over how dire we were for most of last season and the way we got bantered out of the Europa League by our ex-manager in the semi-finals. The underlying metrics for our performances really do need to improve. We need to construct better attacks through clear patterns of play, rely less on individual brilliance and set pieces, manage games better and learn to control matches for 90 minutes. Perhaps I’m being harsh, as we have a lot of new arrivals to the Premier League and the youngest squad in the division, but he’s been in the job for nearly two full years and I’m still not convinced he’s the man to get us competing back at a decent level. I think top-4 is a huge ask this season, but I would take top-6 and a domestic cup. That would be a clear sign of progress. If he can do that, I will start to gain more belief in him. For now, I’m still on the fence.
Keeper: ramsdale, clown. Thinks he is a hero with the ball bouncing off him down to our lads, celebrating g a Hollywood tip over. Joke. The right full, reasonable. I think he is still learning so it's a good start. The left full, oh my god. Tavares, He did keep trying though but he was absolutely awful White: bullet dodged by us. Don't think we were actually interested but not up to this. Gabriel, not up to this level. Partey, I like him but he was outgunned today totally. Smith Rowe: out of position Samba: decent kid but big ask going in v 3 players Saka too deep and isolated by arsenal. Wasted Lacazette, useless. Not a 10. Smith Rowe is a bloody 10. Aubameyang, not arsed offside constantly. If I had been arsenal I'd have cone saka on left and tried to exploit trent as per but they actually mostly lumped it at vvd
Just looking at tavares brain fart again. He's done alright in the corner. Trent allows himself to be bullied on the line and flicks it so tavares has it. From there there's a camera angle on sky goal highlights that shows from the kop the view of the pitch. Absolute no left wing option and aubameyang never reacts at all and is stood behind matip. Probably offside as per. Now tavares looked for a little run and any ball and no arsenal player showed. He had no out, that doesn't excuse that blind casual pass but it shows where the real arsenal problems were.
That was another routine win vs Arsenal - Trent with more assists - VVD looking classy -Kostas pretty much nailing the LB position - Fabinho and Thiago bossing the midfield yet again - Ox providing that much needed energy on the right side - The front 3 all got goals / assists but wasn't their best performance. But that shows how good they are ...
Thought Ox was really good, was versus Atletico too. Fingers crossed he can start to put those performances in consistantly as the rust wears off. Very handy player when in form.
Indeed. Our youngest player today was 23 (TAA) and you fielded 5 players (i think) younger than that. Arteta is building a team for next season and beyond.
we shut the lanes off and funnel players into trouble but there are shots there where a better side does us. theres one where that gobshite keeper like sit to gabriel who refuses to play it waide to his won lb who is in space as trent can't get there but he plays it past rasmdale. Now refusing to pass to tavares is fine but the ball to Gabriel pulls Trent on for the press. A quick ball back to ramsdale and a hoof over trents head and theres your space. Aubameyang was utterly disinterested. smith row never got out there. most of the time arsenals passing was weak or not to feet as well so we had time to really pressurize. this is a classic example of lambs to the slaughter imo than a brilliant showing for us. Its fine, tis normal but its not at our top level. arsenal played right into it. sloppy wweak passes wide, no direction, no out ball plan, no help form the wide players or forward and laczaette was utter pointless. Tactically it was everything wrong v everything right and why klopp's team is just plain better. theres no excuse for the lack of will from arsenals front men to put a leg in and work for the side.
Ramsdale laughing and smiling because he saved a few shots which were straight at him annoyed me. So glad we put 4 past him.
Top of the table is hugely competitive this year. Top 6 this year is almost as much an achievement as top 4 most years. I think your club has time on its side. A lot of your players are young and will only get better. If your club played as good in the second half as before the first goal in the first half, who knows what would have happened. The team just collapsed second half.
no cos i refuse to look at anything that drip from a horse's arse says. I mean its fairly obvious that arteta went mad demanding a red card for a non elbow his player faked and klopp put him in his place and the jump up little bouncy twat lost the rag. Honestly he is the luckiest man alive he met lampard and not a real manager in that FA cup final as he's have long since been given the push otherwise.
Well you have now. How you've described the incident is how I saw it at the time, but I did notice that the MotD commentator also seemed to suggest that Klopp instigated it. I think both he and Crooks only saw JK's reaction, not Arteta's shenanigans that prompted it.
