The trouble is that you and many others on here are assuming Tierney will be the ducks gut. But we simply don’t know. We are placing large expectations on him being really good as a fullback (not attacking) and staying injury free. We have a number of current players who can bomb forward but defensively they can be taken apart Sead K and AMN as examples.

Reference to my earlier post before the game that if the score line gets out of hand, such as 3-0, I will change the channel to Home & Garden TV and it will be more interesting to see what tile the hostess chooses over watching the game.

I thought you kept up with my posts? lol...joking.

I thought we started well. Fact is, Liverpool picked up right where they left off in the CL final and my guess is would be able to compete at the top in any league in Europe right now. I think they look better than City right now. Barcelona would have a devil of a time beating them right now.
Yes, Luiz made a couple crucial mistakes but if it wasn't him it was going to be someone else and he is an improvement (if only slight) over Mustafi. We are not on their level and anyone who thought that we would get a win there must have been had a couple xanax with their wine before the game.
We must be judged against Man Utd, Tottenham and Chelsea not City and LFC. The best we can hope for against those two away is a draw and if its a loss, it be kept to 1 goal difference and a draw at home.
We don't have a good defense and that is going to exploited against the top two sides. So, I'm not particularly upset. No one likes losing but considering where we are as a team to LFC, 3-1 is fair. Its early days, we forget about it, work on a settled XI that knows how to play with each other and see if it takes us into the top 4 and perhaps a cup final.

The big plusses for me is Pépé. His first start and he was immediately dangerous. We have a lot of pace up front now to get behind defenses. Woe to any club that plays a high back line against us. Ceballos looked good. Our achilles heel is obvious. Its our back line. Bellerin comes back will help a little, but it won't be enough. It's just a weakness we'll have to shoulder and hopefully we'll get someone in the January window. In the interim, its Kevin Keegan football perhaps as the best way to stay in contention.

Lastly, we went to Anfield in arguably their best PL side assembled and had decent looks at goal.

Be thankful you didn't watch the whole thing. We kept them scoreless for 40 but apart from a few counters in the first half in which we really should have scored, Liverpool were totally dominant. They looked like scoring at any minute and we never did.

Emery set us up to defend. But we had neither the personnel nor the defensive nous to do that for 90 minutes. Even if we had scored 2 from the counters, I still wouldn't have been confident that we could hold on for a win.

Fair credit to Liverpool though. They were the better team in every department and are a good team to watch even if it is us getting a clobbering.

I would certainly put Liverpool in its present state in the top 3 or 4 in Europe at worst. At this point in the season, early days, lets not get too despondent. We'll probably look like a different side in a 2 months, maybe less.

Morning Gaz,

Letting Monreal go at this juncture is bizarre.

For a start Tierney is some way off being fit and we do not know if he will suffer any kind of recurrence of his injury or setbacks in his rehab. Presumably we aren't intending to just chuck him in and hope he doesn't miss another match all season.

Which leaves us with Kola as the LB option, a player who has proven to be a defensive liability in a back four because his positional sense is awful and he cannot defend one v one.

There always seems to be a sense of inevitability about the result at Anfield. We never seem to catch Liverpool on an off day, I suspect that is partly because they are super concentrated and motivated for a top 6 class (novel thinking) and also because our tactics aren’t always the sort that Liverpool hate playing against.

So our tactics seem to be to defend very narrow with tha back 4, concede the flanks and pack the midfield and leave two guys up top who have pace and skill and can go 2v2 against their CB....And for the first half Liverpool really didn’t create that much in fact the two best chances were ours. The first goal is so crucial, right on the stroke of half time. If Pépé or Aubameyang had scored their chance would the result have been any different? Possibly not, but for a team like ours who seems to fly when we’re confident and cower when things go against us, that first goal could have been crucial for us.

The disappointment for me is continually changing the system, I think we need to decide what formation we play and just tweak the tactics accordingly, small nudges to that formation. 4-2-3-1. Using two of our best players as wide forwards may have given Liverpool’s full backs something to think about. Instead of playing a traditional 10 we play a flat midfield 3 to match up with Liverpool.

To be honest, against Liverpool you can play any tactics and formation but if you can’t match the pace and intensity of their play you’ll be on s hiding to nothing. Staggering how they do it every game and play virtually the same 11, the full backs and front 3 never change, they get through so much work rate without tiring or without injuries. Look at our outfield 10 yesterday and which of those 10 have pace, mobility and intensity in their game? Maybe 3 (Aubameyang, Pépé, amn....and the intensity is questionable for all of them) Willock is fairly quick but very young and shouldn’t be expected to lead this team. The rest of the team lacks pace

Top 2 easily. Their European champions and runners up in the last two years, lost just 1 game in the league last season. It is then and City a long way ahead of the rest in Europe at the moment

As did Norwich, more than us.
And Southampton should have taken a 2-2 from Liverpool if ings taps in a sitter at the end

Morning TG,

Competing for every ball is the very least you would expect from any PL outfit.

I've seen teams at the bottom of the table show more courage and composure on the ball than we did.

Our game plan appeared to consist of parking the bus, giving their fullbacks free reign to send crosses into the box with the misguided assumption that we could deal with them and hoping for the occasional counter. The fact we held out for so long was more to do with the lack of quality on the crosses and final balls than any great backs-to-the wall defensive performance.

I thought David Luiz might be a reasonable acquisition give his ability on the ball but he basically cost us two goals through utter stupidity. If Mustafi had done what he did fans would be wanting him strung up.

My disappointment with yesterday is not that we lost, I expected that, but the manner in which we lost. I had hoped to see more of a equal contest, I hoped to see signs that we had improved and could give anyone a game, home or away. Instead what I witnessed was a park the bus performance filled with panic and indecision and a general lack of courage in possession. The only bright spot was the occasional dribble from Pépé.

Emery failed to change anything until it was too late and I continue to have big concerns over his management.

The other thing I find frustrating is Emery's interviews. He's a bright man but you would have thought after a year working and living in England he would be able to string together a few coherent sentences in english, instead of the incomprehensible stuff he comes out with. I mostly have no clue as to what he is saying or the message he is trying to convey and he seems to overuse words like "protagonists" and "our idea". It's like watching Manuel from Fawlty Towers.

I get the bit where speaking to the press and media in a foreign language is not easy for anyone but he needs some coaching I think to help his media work.

I had the same thoughts about Luiz -v Mustafi. Given his experience I don't think we should cut Luiz much slack. I thought he was responsible for Burnley's goal last week as well. I have real concerns that we have added another dud to the payroll.

I don't think Mustafi will leave without us paying him to do so. I think he still has 2 years on his contract left.

It took me by surprise. I suppose the deal is not done yet but I don't know why we would even contemplate such a deal. If he wants to go how about selling him in January when we know a lot more about Tierney's reliability and abilities. We can then put the money towards a new CB.

I’m not entirely sure why though. What had anyone seen in narrow 1 goal victories over hopeless Newcastle and limited Burnley at home to suggest we’d go toe to toe with Liverpool at Anfield all of a sudden?

3 of our preferred starters are out of our defence and it was the first start for Pépé ever in an Arsenal shirt, away to a dominant Liverpool.


I’m unhappy with the the result but as I said I’m also happy to ignore it and keep improving and wouldn’t be surprised if we beat them at home later in the season.

Bernard (or anyone else), if you went to Anfield I would appreciate your impressions of how the team performed and if you believed there was real effort from our players. I don't know why but even from the TV I had the feeling we (the team) did not believe they could win or get a result. The Luiz pull back was bizarre. It showed an almost don't care attitude.

Missed the game, so I can't comment too much on the performance. Judging from highlights we at least created some really good chances, which hasn't always been the case in these games in recent years. We honestly should've scored 2-3 goals with the chances we had, and in these matchups you can't afford big misses like that. Encouraging to hear about Pepes performance.

A note about the difference in class though; while nobody can deny Liverpool are a class above us, they're also further ahead in their team build. Compare us now to Liverpool in 16/17 and the picture becomes more flattering. They are such a settled side, everybody knows their role and it helps everyone perform better. Squad players coming in know exactly how they should help the team while we still have so many question marks.

Next week's game is huge. Tottenham are a lot closer to our level and it's at home. Need to win that one to build momentum.

I wondered why Luiz wasn’t sent off for the penalty? He denied a clear goalscoring opportunity without a genuine attempt to play the ball. I thought that meant red card? I remember Kos getting one c Bayern at home for exactly this. Perhaps the ref thought salah wasn’t in a clear goalscoring position, which would be strange as he would have had a clear shot at Leno.

Also a strange VAR decision in the Man U game, martial was clearly held as he tried to get his shot away, it was reviewed and not given. Perhaps VAR would hide behind it not being a clear and obvious error - which again seems strange.

Stop trying to rationalise things it’s far easier to throw your toys out the pram and ignore the obvious.

Look it’s always going to be backs to the wall at Anfield but I just think people are ignoring the obvious.

If you took Matip, Robertson and Alexander Arnold all out of that Liverpool defence yesterday do you think it would have affected their performance? Well that’s exactly the situation we find ourselves in with 3 out of the back 4 not available and having to rely on an outbound Monreal and midfielder playing out of position on the other Side.

Liverpool are undefeated at Anfield in the last 42 games. What were people expecting with our critical players missing and others still lacking fitness after their exploits for country this summer.

Emery goes to Anfield and plays attacking line up and loses 5-1 and gets the blame for poor tactics, Emery changes it and puts together a more robust team that does slightly better but still loses and he gets blamed for being too defensive. He can’t win.

By what sprinkle of fairy dust do you think playing out from the back is going to suddenly work? Or that the defensive mindset of the entire team will magically come good?

The shape and tactics are broken and Emery doesn't seem to be able coach either with any kind of pattern or regularity. Switching players every.match and trying some other formation isn't helping at all.

Klopp always had a plan and it could be seen. What is Emery's?

People who want Emery sacked after 3 games are the type of people that dialled 999 when KFC ran out of chicken last year.

Klopps plan is almost 5 years in the making! 14 months into his reign the same questions existed about him that exist about Emery now. Are we holding Emery to account at higher level than Klopp and Guardiola again.

The reason why he’s changing line ups is due to the need to integrate a large number of new players together because of the shod he was left by the previous manager.

What do you mean, that was an emergency.

Gaz has already said that his reaction may have been ott. I didn't say I wanted him sacked either and have previously stated that I think it's reasonable to expect an improvement by Christmas. After 18 months and 3 transfer windows, there should be a visible improvement in how Arsenal play.

Don't get me wrong, I had no illusions about beating Liverpool at Anfield, either yesterday or anytime soon. The problem I have is that I'm not seeing the foundations of any grand vision coming together as repeated and obvious issues keep playing out over and over. At the moment that is too much of a continuance of the Wenger trademarks for my liking.

Who is our best 11? I have no idea because we're not seeing any of them play together for more than a match at a time. Create the identity and then Emery can start pissing around with squad rotation.

Klopp fi ished 8th in his first season. Yes some players played badly but had Pépé taken his chances the game might well have been different. Luiz is shite as a defender and always will be. Holding and Sockratis for me at the back.

Guardian write up quite positive. Says there was little to choose between the two teams and once the new signings settle in we will be a force.

I am sorry but you are operating on unproved assumptions - that Bellerin will return just as good as he was when he got injured - very good probability of this; that Holding is able to be an effective CB - the jury is out on that as we will see whether him and Sokaritis/Luiz can form an effective pairing plus he only had short period to prove his worth and we will see what happens when other managers start looking for his weaknesses ala Chambers; that Tierney is good enough to play in the EPL and he will be injury free. The back 4 yesterday may well be the regulars until Christmas and even beyond. You are trying to find excuses that lack foundation.

He joined Liverpool on 8 October 2015 - has made a Europa Final - matched by Emery, and made 2 CL finals, one of which he won. I await our CL final appearances.

Basically you are suggesting that Monreal is a better full back than Tierney and Maitland Niles is better than Bellerin.

Total cobblers

We lost yesterday because of 2 individual errors from Luiz. That is all. Drop the guy

People who want Emery sacked after 3 games are the type of people who take their own personal pool cue to the pub with them.

Klopp inherited a squad with Firmino, Henderson, Milner , Coutinho, Clyne In it. A stronger base

Emery inherited Bellerin, Lacazette and Aubameyang. He’s going to need more time.

Agree with this 100%. Thought it was one of our big problems last season - that squad wasn't good enough to win the league, but it was good enough to do better than we did. Top four was well within our reach.

Apart from our full backs we now have our starting 11, whatever it is, available. Let's give them a proper run of games without dropping players after one bad performance.

He misplaced too many passes from playing out of defence today. I counted at least 3. And his fumble leading to a throw in was a culmination of his lack of confidence/ composure. His body language indicated that he knew he had a very poor game.

I don’t think he’s dropping players he’s rotating. People are making an assumption he doesn’t know his best 11 when fit.

People are complaining we didn’t play Torreira for example however he had a hectic Copa America that was disrupted with fever and he lost 3 kilos. There’s probably a reason he’s being used sparingly as he should be one of the first names on the team sheet

Well precisely. Misplaced 3 passes doesn’t make him the worst player on the pitch, and even if he we was, my question would be why you are bothering to single him out at all? No one played well. His sharpness, speed and excellence pass won us the game at Newcastle.

If you're an Arsenal fan who called for Emery to be sacked after losing 3-1 to the Champions League winners who finished on 97 points last term you really need to take a look at yourself and perhaps reflect on what being a loyal supporter is all about. And then find another team

I was being conservative. But I wouldn't argue with with that.

People who want Emery sacked after 3 games find Jim Davidson funny

Singling him out just for the Pool game. I think he did very poorly. Ok, maybe Luiz was more culpable. Mind you, I still like him a lot more, than with a few of the Arsenal first teamers.