Yay. Joelinton opens the scoring

Yep

1 - Nil.

Shame that.

I keep thinking of him as being Joe Linton.

Tottenham

-0

Injury time 6 minutes! Still 1-0!

I think some people are giving Sokratis a bit too much slack. His attempt to get to the corner for Liverpool’s first was so poor it was laughable, with the amusement being for someone who dislikes Arsenal. Obviously Luiz has drawn attention away from him but as others have said, if Mustafi had made Luiz’ errors for Liverpool’s penalty and third goal, the criticism he’d have got would have been way beyond what Luiz has received.

Moreover, I’d add Sokratis for the first goal to that observation, as well as Koscielny’s performance in the Europa final. I can sort of understand the latter as when he had Mertesacker to look after him, he was a fine player. It was also before the nature of his departure left a bad taste in the mouth. But as a general rule I think many have been too quick to focus on Mustafi’s mistakes while ignoring those of others. Mustafi started well at Arsenal and didn’t give away two early goals like Luiz has in his first three games. It’s frightening to think if Mustafi leaves the initial alternative to Luiz or Sokratis is the overrated (I exclude DHD from that observation) Holding.

One other point is that two of our good chances would surely have been disallowed via VAR. Pépé handled the ball with his first opportunity and Aubameyang was just offside with his second half chance. However, those two players did miss in the initial 45 minutes when I expected more. Aubameyang with his lob when their keeper booted the ball out to him, and Pépé when through outstanding play and pace he gave himself a one on one with the keeper.

Isn't football a great game. own and out yesterday and Spurs lose and belief omes back.

And England sorry Bengland beat the Aussies with na fantastic 135 not out.

So spurs have lost to Newcastle who we beat.

The only way forward for them now is to sack their manager for not getting more out of the players, sack Kane, sack Ericsson, sack levy, get rid of that new ground because there’s no alternative approach that works right.

Keep moaning about yesterday lads

I haven’t seen anyone say he played well though. I was a bit worried how unsure he was. Bit bemused you’re mentioning Mustafi.

I may be jinxing us for the upcoming NLD but I had a feeling that the wheels may come off at Tottenham this season. Its tough to maintain top 4 with 5 other clubs around you and you don't spend, etc.

I expect us to do well against them. Liverpool right now you really have to see as playing Real Madrid, Juve, PSG or Barca. They are on another level and as I have said, 3-1 isnt as bad as it seems considering where we are and where they are right now.

I've always liked Steve Bruce (after looking at the Tottenham game) probably the only Man Utd person I like. I don't like Hughes, hated Fergie but he's warmed on me a wee bit. I've come to respect and even like a wee bit Gary Neville and Roy Keane.

We have seen some amazing Ashes matches over the years, but that surely has to be the most unexpected win of all? I would say Stokes' innings shades the heroics of Botham and Willis back in 1981. I never thought I'd see that comeback bettered.

That was some of the most compelling sport I’ve seen since, well, the cricket World Cup final. Magnificent innings by Stokes and tremendous grit from Leach. What a win.

Compare the criticism Mustafi gets to others who make as many mistakes as him, and at at this point a much higher rate. When people start being fair towards Mustafi, I’ll stop mentioning him. It’s easy.

Or the alternative, you like him because he’s German and his mistakes were actually that bad, that frequent, for that long, for 30 million odd quid.

Potato potato.

We may well end up pining for the glory days of Sylverter.

I wonder whether another rummage through our rivals garbage will yield any more gems like this.

What with his efforts the business end of the WC and now this, Stokes is one hell of a cricketer. Hats off.

He should be ok for the cups and Europa but Holding Sokratis is a far better pair. As both are naturally defensive.

We just don’t spend enough on our defence. I think we are clearing the decks by selling Monreal and Iwobi to generate funds for another centre half of high value.

Yesterday's performance was shite, Top Gun. Absolute shite. We are not Burnley, Watford or Brighton. We are Arsenal. We parked the bus to an embarrassing extent. Nobody was suggesting that we should go all out gung-ho attack. But a team can try to compete with a defensive emphasis. Liverpool have arguably the best fullback pairing in world football. Our tactic was to give them all the time and space they wanted while putting no pressure whatsoever on their midfield. Playing oit from the back to an absurd extent against one of the two best teams in world football at pressing high. If we take that approach in our away games against the rest of the top 6 we will be lucky to get anything. Hopefully, we will see a very different performance next weekend.

It seems your mission in life to deflect any criticism of Unai but is not that one game he is being judged ... ....... the Europa final , shocking displays against Brighton , Palace , Wolves , Leicester last year

That diamond midfield formation played right into Liverpool's hands , not wanting to hoof a ball out of defence got us into all sorts strife .These are obvious Emery instructions

" spanishness " probably influenced Edu and Emery to grab Luiz but with two Chelsea rejects available I'd rather we'd bought Cahill .

I don't want him sacked [ YET ] but going out on a limb I don't think he is the right man for the job .

I will start by saying I am not a Mustafi fan but I think you are correct on this. Every season Mustafi would make some crucial mistakes that were really costly - I estimate about 5-10. Sometimes they were in combination with the other backs. But Luiz has been with us for 3 games and has made 3 mistakes that have cost us a goal directly on each occasion. Plus I notice that his headed clearances out of the area are often very weak and drop about 20 metres out. On a number of occasions they have been directly to the other team and could have cost us. He is not looking like the solution and I don't know what Emery should do for the Spurs game bacause the ranks are very thin in that position.

I couldn’t give a stuff that he’s German. I simply think it’s pathetic to make out he’s as bad as some people try to. Mustafi played well in the first half of last season and going back to the question of the players that improved under Emery, at that point he was one of them. He was dreadfully over priced when we bought him. But the transfer fee isn’t his fault. Wenger must have agreed to pay what Valencia wanted.

I think the players have exactly the same problem as you. They do not believe that tippy tappy and keeping possession at the back will succeed in these games. I thought that Liverpool would let us play a bit more than Burnley did when shutting down the backs - but they didn't and I suspect neither will Spurs or any other team for the rest of the season. We always look like we are panicking when they shut us down. There was Ceba pass yesterday that had sheer panic written all over it and went directly to one of their players about 20 metres out. We will go okay and win a lot of games but we simply don't look good enough at the moment with this tactic.

Let us put it this way top 2 is out of the question and we are only 2 games in. No I didn't expect to finish top 2 but it would be great if we had at least an honourable defeat at Liverpool - see Norwich and Southampton this season. We didn't and played the same failed tactics as the pool games last year - just with some different players

Let’s completely forget about Man. City and Liverpool.
The league that we are in consists of Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelsea and Man.Utd.
We can do it but if the ignorant among our fans keep criticising our boys it will be much more difficult.

We did our best againest Liverpool but our defenders that played simply were not good enough and cost us the game. Individual errors that were not the managers fault.

I'd mused pre game the best form of defence would be go full gung ho attack . Play Aubameyang Lac and Pépé together .

We don't have anyone with real defensive nous in the first place so the way we were set up seems suicidal

This type of crap makes me laugh.

There’s isnt a formation that we can create that wouldn’t get us into strife with that defence !

A wantaway left back about to depart
Kamakiaze brazilian defender
An inexperienced midfielder being forced to play out of position
And a Greek guy running around trying to cover the inadequacies of the other 3

Come on mate.

The scouse full backs were always going to have a field day.

Klopp in programme: “I think this current Arsenal team might just be the best yet [that I’ve faced], in terms of quality, and for that reason I think today pitches two of Europe’s best against each other. I think there is zero doubt Arsenal will be even stronger this season."

"They have recruited amazing talent this season... It's a complete nonsense if you don't view this Arsenal, with this manager, as being one of the best teams in the country."


Arsenal fans : *%^@ off back Basque Country Emery

Another quote from Former Liverpool left back Alan Kennedy

"#Arsenal have great players, they are just bedding in at the minute. The more they work together, the better they will be. I think they are going to do better than people expected this season."



Arsenal fans after first defeat in 3: sack the entire management team !

People who want Emery fired after 3 games are the type of people that have 3 samurai swords on their mantelpiece

Gary Neville on Arsenal's performance today: "It’s the manner of the performance sometimes with Arsenal in the past we’ve been critical of. I’ve not seen that today, they are still going, they’ve not left anything in the changing room, it’s all out there on the pitch."

Meanwhile arsenal fans committing mass suicide and demanding the managers head

Emery should come good in 2020

I don't know. Best chance against liverpool is to try to keep it tight and fluke it. In an open game they are going to outscore you.

Even if you are right, I thing the reasoning would probably be that such an approach might lead to a spectacular rout, of the 8-2 variety. Lose 3-1 at Anfield its "Ok, happens. Move on". A cricket score and the knives are out.

Spurs have had a woeful start. They beat villa but we’re behind and playing badly for long periods and needed a lucky deflection to fall right in to Kane’s path. They got battered at City, replay that game 100 times and city win 99 of them, it was so one-sided, and then get beaten 1-0 at home to what many people think are the worst team in the league.

They still haven’t sorted the Eriksen situation, and also have their two first choice CB bettering the last 1/ months of their deal.
Their full backs, once their biggest strength, now look weak, Ali constantly injured and ndombele trying to hold a central midfield together all by himself.

Next weekend they will of course get their standard penalty that they always get but we must must beat them!

4 teams for 2 champions league places. If City get a ban then maybe even 5th qualifies.
Every time City or Liverpool play one of Chelsea, Man U or spurs I’ll be cheering them to win. Those two will by a long way ahead in 1st and 2nd again. I’ll cheer every dropped point from the other 3 because we’ll drop plenty this year. We obviously need to pick up our away form but must be perfect at home, especially when those others have already dropped points to Leicester, palace and Newcastle at home

To be fair, Southampton played them at home after Liverpool had played a mid-week game with a full strength team against Chelsea.

Norwich was swatted away like an annoying fly - 1-0 down 7 minutes in and 4-0 at half time. I saw that game and at no point during it did Norwich look even remotely like they'd be able to snatch a point.

I think a lot of our success this season depends on Emery being able to find that first choice eleven, whatever it is. Klopp did a fair bit of rotating in his first few years at Liverpool, but now he barely changes anything unless he's forced to, and you can see that when they play.

It was really bad timing to go up to Anfield this early in the season with so much new blood in the team; we have a new defensive leader in central defense (no matter what people think of Luiz, that’s clearly what he’s been signed as), a new creative centrepiece in midfield, and a new wide forward who is probably going to be one of our main attacking threats this season.

Conversely, it looks like an opportune time to face Tottenham. The Eriksen situation is really hanging over them. They looked lost without him against Villa, and only managed to turn it around when he was subbed on. Without him yesterday they looked lost again. Then again, it’s a derby and they’re usually pretty unpredictable.

Good thing about this weekend’s results by our rivals is that at worst after next weekend we’re one point behind Tottenham, Chelsea and United. I think beating Tottenham would be massive for the confidence of the team, but points wise we can survive a loss easily.

Hi Dec,

Exactly as I saw it.

My reservations about Emery go back beyond the abysmal run-in last season. Too many strange team selections and tactics. Plus I haven't got a clue what he says in his interviews.

No, I'm not having that, Ash, nationality has no bearing on this. Mertesacker is german and Bernard readily admitted he was shite.

Both Dec and Kiwi are right, TG, it was an awfully negative approach encompassing an ill-conceived diamond formation against a team who are rampant down both flanks, with two of the best fullbacks and wide forwards in the business.

Anyway, I off to the pub later with my new pool cue, picking up my Jim Davidson tickets on the way.

To be fair, socrates, you can't completely exclude the possibility that he's making a brilliant analytical point.