Leno made some great reflex saves tonight but the truth is he doesn't command his box and his footwork is atrocious, he continually puts players into trouble with little short passes.

We were better second half and I thought Holding did better second half too. Was strong in several one-v-ones. Probably not top four standard but did ok tonight.

Ceballos made a huge difference when he came on, much more mobile and confident in possession and threaded several defence splitting passes.

Dude you gotta be *%^@*** kidding right

If the other 10 players can’t get the further ball up the pitch what can we expect from poor Leno

Not kidding mate, Arteta tells his players to deliberately wait until they are closed down before passing so as to create space and break the press but Leno is too slow with his passing and too often plays a ball out that puts the defender into trouble.

Martinez made a ballsup today as well but luckily for him the goal was disallowed so this is no Leno hating.

Absolutely- numerous instances of him passing to players who are being closed down or about to be. Pépé 72 mil and he can’t take a decent corner. Why Arteta continually refuses to pick or bring on Saka is of more concern. He can make a difference. We were totally outplayed and as was previously mentioned - Leeds gave them a game - we didn’t.

Odd that we didn't bring on Saka after his midweek performance.

I think Arteta has made some dubious selection and substitution calls but has largely got away with them. Tonight he didn't.

Leno isn’t responsible for the tactics, he didn’t put a foot wrong in that game. People also suggesting he should have come for the second goal and took it off both Bellerin and holdings head.

Cancel culture in effect.

Sorry mate, he's nervy with the ball at his feet and that transmits itself to the other defenders.

Leno should probably have done better with the first goal as well.

That Liverpool performance was streets ahead of how they played against Leeds. They were really sloppy against Leeds. Listen to Klopp's interview. He was buzzing. He thought they were brilliant tonight and he was right.

We need more dribblers and ball carriers and a more progressive midfield.

What salah inside the area on his left foot. That’s searching

I’ve been thinking the same for a while socrates. Lacazette is only 29 so shouldn’t be noticeably slower, but I have to agree that he is looking slower. I suppose he was never that quick anyway, so maybe it’s my imagination rather than him actually being slower.

His miss when the Ceballos through ball gave him a one on one was very disappointing.

Liverpool look streets ahead of everyone else in the league. It's no disgrace to lose up there and we need to dust ourselves off and not get downhearted about it.

It looked like he just parried it up in the air. I could be wrong but it looked a little soft to me.

Like Aouar!

He had 3 golden chances tonight, one he took but it was more of a miskick than a composed finish, the 2nd he tried a dink but the execution was poor (notwithstanding that it was offside) and the 3rd just lacked composure.

Basic keeping - don’t parry - put the ball out of play.

I agree. Liverpool away is on paper our hardest game of the season. We lost but after being completely outplayed in the first half, we at least gave them a game in the second half.

We also need power and pace

Most of not all teams will lose to Liverpool with the way they played tonight, particularly first half. The biggest disappointment for me was how we couldn’t or didn’t utilise the one big thing that Liverpool were weak with, that ball over the top. Liverpool press so high to keep pressure and keep attacking, the deeper run and ball over the top we’re the only times we looked dangerous and it was a ball we should have played far far more. The difficulty was getting the time on the ball to pick the pass.

In hindsight Ceballos should have started. There were 3-4 occasions in the time he was on the pitch where he was just so calm under the press, realising that Liverpool were cutting off passing channels rather than coming for him directly, so turn, head up, awareness and dribble 10-15 yards out of trouble, commit the man and make the pass. Xhaka and Elneny will never be able to do that.

I posted recently about the left sided CB being overly weighted as our best and was worried at the time that we’d need to have balance over Picking the best 3 players. Gabriel is better than Holding but I can understand why Holding was picked. I think we need to see Saliba v Liverpool in the cup on Thursday

A moan about var. why no slow mo critical review of the Mané elbow and the jota handball? I hate the handball rule but that ball for Jota’s goal was so close to brushing his arm, or did brush his arm. No problem if it was reviewed and the goal given but to not even give it the scrutiny other handballs have been is not good.
Watch the Mané yellow card in the 3rd minute, excessive force and endangering the safety of an opponent? I’d say so, he clearly looks for Tierney, has his forearm out and follows it through like a punch to Tierneys face. I’m not surprised it wasn’t a red given the status of the team and that it was the 3rd minute but again it didn’t even get a var review where the ref was asked if he might want to look at it again.

Finally the Lacazette chance, so frustrating, ultimately it would have probably spurred Liverpool on to score again, I think they would have won at least 3-2 but those are massive chances in big games. Can’t miss them simple as that.

Like Partey!

I believe in the first half Willian had 8 touches and VAn Dyke had about 80. Why Saka cannot get in this team is without explanation. I bet he is regretting signing the extension to the contract. There is a real danger he will be lost at our club.

Willian Was bought in for these games and he has played well once against a team who are going to be relegated.

And energy. Against West Ham we looked like a disabled team as far as getting round the pitch was concerned.

If Liverpool don’t walk the league this year it will be a massive upset, as big as when Man U were in their pomp.
They are the only settled, injury free top team with no weak areas and have only deepened and strengthens their squad. Thiago, Jota and the back up left back. A couple of youngsters who are coming through, they are stronger than last year.
Everyone else has a big area of weakness, too small a squad, bedding in new players, or a Manager who can’t influence matches.

Liverpool by 20 points again.

Willian has only had 3 games. And he hardly had much service today

Saka suffers from the current formation and his own versatility.
I think Saka would be best on the left of a 4-3-3, it is a formation I’d like to see us play at home when teams sit back against us. Saka at left wing back needs to be played more, he offers more drifting in to central midfield

If they lost van Dijk it would, but they just don’t get long injuries or any to their key players. Van Dijk has played 90odd straight games in the prem, salah/Mané/firminho have only missed something like 30 of the last 300 games combined. Trent and Robertson similar.
But I think they are set up to cater for injuries better than any team as well.
I’d still like to see it though, especially when you see us have at least two season ending injuries to an important player every season

I think our recent wins over Liverpool encouraged them to take the game very seriously tonight such was the intensity of their pressing and commitment throughout the entire match.

Can't really complain about the result but that wouldn't be much craic would it?

First up, the referee was a complete homer tonight. Possible red for Mané early on and quite a few blatant fouls not given particularly on counter attacks in the second half. Par for the course at Anfield then, even without the Kop influencing things.

Second, thought Luiz should have got back into position a lot quicker for Liverpool's equaliser after his tussle outside the box. Also think Leno could have done better with the shot.

Finally, I read Ornstein on Twitter tonight saying Roma had made an unacceptable offer for Lacazette. Some of you may remember I wanted us to sell him before last season and I'd be quite happy for Nkietiah to get an opportunity ahead of the Frenchman in the next few weeks. Agreed with the Sky analysis on his first offside effort being lazy and overall I thought he had a poor game and would have hooked him much earlier despite his goal. Wiltord would have buried that chance he had in the second half!!

Overall though to be fair, I thought the team put in a respectable performance against a top side and certainly it was pleasant not to witness a complete farce in the second half as we have seen there before. Ceballos not starting would seem to be the biggest selection regret on the night. Hopefully we will bag these two players before the window closes, a lot of Arsenal fans happiness resting on that but the finances cannot be good at all for us in the current situation.

Although his build up play is decent, I’m struggling to see reasons why we shouldn’t try and sell Lacazette. As I discussed with socrates, he has little pace, gets caught in offside positions a frustratingly high number of times, and his finishing isn’t consistent (in a positive sense anyway).

The trouble is I’m a long way from being convinced about Nketiah. Lightweight and if he doesn’t score, adds very little to the team. Can’t head the ball, a less good work rate than Lacazette, not strong on hold up play, and not blindingly quick either. I know some people love him, like DHD whose opinions I have great respect for. But to use the phrase that Hazuki made about Holding being a mid-table defender, which I agree with him about, at this moment to me Nketiah looks at best a Newcastle or West Ham sort of level player. If that. I hope I’m wrong but we’ll see.

Thought Bellerin was poor defensively. Constantly drifting into the middle and leaving the right exposed to players sneaking around to the back post.

This match was really about Liverpool playing some of their best football. Yes, we could and should have done better but they were at their best. I think this is down to how well we have progressed over the last few months. Klopp took this match very seriously and it was evident. We beat them not too long ago and he was loathe to see that happen again.

I like Holding but he was way out of his depth. He must have had a talking to at half time. He's fine against lower opposition but this was way too much. To be fair, Liverpool were the type of Liverpool that would have been as good or better than Barcelona, Bayern or PSG last night. Holding clearly out of his depth and the same would have happened to Mustafi. Luiz has seen it all so is a bit calmer.

Liverpool's keeper did what a keeper on a side like Liverpool was supposed to do. He wasn't going to have much to do except stop the 2 or 3 great chances of the opposition and he did his job well. That said, in a game like this, the only way to get something out of it, was for your attackers to take advantage of any halfway decent chance at goal. It was going to be one of those types of games where you may only have 3 or 4 good looks at goal and you needed to score on them to win or a couple of them to get something out of the game. We've all seen matches where a team only has 2 or 3 looks and scores on all of them despite not having anything close to meaningful possession and playing in their own half the entire game. This was one of those games. We will have to make a decision on Pépé after this season. It's going to be very difficult to write off part of that 70 million but we may have to make a harsh decision. In hindsight, Zaha would have cost less and been a better fit possibly. Pépé needs a lot of coaching. He needs someone to look at game films with him and identify shortcomings. And he may also need some man managing to work on his mentality.

Liverpool aren't going to play like this every game. Like most teams they get up for the big games and are not as focused on much weaker opposition. The one takeaway from this is that we have Klopp's respect. He was very happy because he has a great deal of respect for Arteta and he has seen a massive change in just a few short months.

Partey and Aouar now look like must buys if we are serious about top 4 and challenging seriously in the upcoming years.
I'm not going to make much out of a game this early in the season away to a team that is possibly the best in the world or very, very close to it.

I think that is because the players ahead of him do not chase back. Willian & Pépé did nothing defensively or offensively. Tierney had M-N doubling up for him but he still struggled. Make no mistake Liverpool put us thru the hoops but I don’t think much of our game plan or the way we used it.

I watched this again and again. The ball was not well hit and bounced 3 times before crossing the line. He was unsighted initially but I would have expected he would have at least moved to try and stop the ball. His reflex’s were too slow- he might not have saved it but the fact he did not move is difficult to defend. But carry on defending him. 2 poor games from him out of 3 in my book. Nibble nibble. Waiting waiting...

I’m putting that comment at the end down that to your personal dislike of Mustafi. He showed before his injury that he’s comfortably better than Holding.

Ridiculous nobody was saving that, it was right in the corner.

He did not move - just watched. Anyway putting aside the third goal - I suggest you list to the Tuesday Club about their views which happen to coincide my own.

Im still thinking we are making a mistake playing Aubameyang and Lacazette in these difficult away games. Aubameyang is good but if your not going to get the ball up to your striker enough your better off playing an industrious type like Willian or Saka on the left instead and pushing Aubameyang up top.

He didn’t move because it’s bang in the corner.

The latest Tuesday club?

Has anybody checked the foul throws, were they they illegal if so why? I noticed watching the kids this weekend the young refs giving foul throw ins and couldn't see a fault. Have the rules changed?

Was Jota's a handball or not?

No sense getting too down-hearted about a good thumping away from home by the current Pool. They're really really good, and we've pulled their tails recently so we were due a poke in the eye.

Agree with John about Pépé. From minute one of his Arsenal career I've thought he has the look of a complete bell-end, and despite obvious talent he hasn't delivered consistently. I think most professional footballers can do the tricks and flicks that he tries to pull off, they just choose not to because its high risk and not what the modern game is about. It's not like he has Mbappe pace to go with it so he never really beats his man. Head down player, rather than head up. 3 more years of that joker too.

Lacazette the same. He's a party-boy and consumer of laughing gas for starters which is a massive red flag, and all-round average Joe with square feet, little pace and patchy scoring record. If Mbappe is keeping you out of the French team then ok, no shame there. If Greizmann is keeping you out then we're entering questionable territory. If OllyG is keeping you from getting in the squad then you're bang average.

For me, Leno, Kieran, Big Lumpinho, Hector, Granit, Dani, The Conservative MP for Arsenal, Saka, Aubameyang, Martinelli, and Willian when he's on it are the players we can say are up to scratch. Big Dave, Shkods, Elneny and Eddie bring a level of ok-ness to proceedings, but the rest either have flaws in their game that they are never gonna fix, havent played enough to make an impression, or probably aren't gonna be good enough. If we could lose Pépé, Lacazette and Özil from the squad that would save us about £35m on wages and lets be real, we are not getting anything approaching value on that outlay at the moment.

So that's where we are, and I think Tets deservers huge credit for getting a decent tune out of this 3 string guitar. Only Saka and Aubameyang wouldn't look out of place in the Invincibles, although I can't fault Martinelli's contributions when he was fit, the boy is a playa, and Kieran also looks mighty fine so far in fairness. We've got a ways to go yet before we really start looking like a contender, but we've got the right guy in charge. I wouldn't change managers with any team in the Prem bar Klopp, and that includes Pep who is a proper mental spanner. So we've fixed the head, lets give the guy a few years to really sort the squad out. We can get Top4 because except for Pool all the rest are flawed or have squads like ours.