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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Keep moaning about yesterday lads

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.

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 .

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.

Nobody was suggesting that we should go all out gung-ho attack.

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

.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Plus I haven't got a clue what he says in his interviews. :laughing7:

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

...Maybe they should put up subtitles.

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.

No need - everybody knows we are sub-title.

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

As gunnerblog wrote this morning. We were done by errors rather than strategy

If we played Bayern in the same formation people wouldn’t be moaning about the formation. They are just better than us.

Did spurs play the wrong formation againest Newcastle ? Sometimes you simply don’t win and you have to hold your hands up. If he can beat spurs he’s 3 in 4 and many will have egg on their faces.

3rd, ..... we just need 3rd. Everyone knows we can’t win a title yet

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 !

Is that what you thought when Bayern beat us 10-2 on aggregate with Wenger in charge? "Oh well they're just 8 goals better than us anyway". Give me a break.