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.

Good post john, agree with a lot of this.

Felt like watershed moment for Lacazette and Pépé late night. Pepes transfer looks a complete disaster now and people will be watching him very closely in the next game.

I don't think we were great defensively last night, even though I thought David Luiz was excellent bar that clearing header for the 3rd goal. He was the only defender calm enough in possession to beat the Liverpool press.

If you add Aouar and Partey to our central midfield then suddenly (on paper at least) we look a yard quicker, stronger and more progressive. Sadly, I think we we will be lucky to get one of them if any.

Hi Bernard,

Nketiah is an old fashioned fox-in-the-box. His work rate is commendable, he's quite quick and he has that uncanny knack of getting into positions to score goals, quite often tap-ins. The downside is that he isn't especially strong with his back to goal thus is hold-up play is not great. As you point out in playing him you gain some things but lose some things as well.

Listening to the Tuesday club, it’s good but I disagree with the sentiment on Leno. Surely Uber critical to criticise his role in the first goal, also I can’t agree with the passing out from the back stuff. In certain moments maybe too hesitant sure fair enough but it didn’t cost us a goal and had nothing to do with our midfield not being good enough to hold on to the ball or Lacazette not being able to hit the net.

I think they made decent points about moving Aubameyang up top, bringing Saka on and the quality of Ceballos when he came on.

My overriding thoughts on this game this morning are we simply need 2 new midfielders and unfortunately a new striker now and not to replace our goalkeeper.

Agree with that. The trouble for us is Nketiah is a finisher of moves, so is Aubameyang and so to some extent is Pépé. All of them like to be on the end of moves, rarely the fulcrum of the move itself. I think that is where Lacazette has the edge on Nketiah and it is more to do with team balance

If you play 3 up top at least one of them needs to have a different skillset and to be a creator as well as chipping in with goals. That should really be Pépé but it hasn't worked for him so far.

I think both foul throws were because Bellerin didn't release the ball from behind his head, it is easy to do when you're trying to do a 'slow' throw in to someone quite close to you.

No way of telling if Jota's was handball because we weren't given the chance to look at the frame by frame VAR review. That is the annoying part, give it the full treatment as every other goal incident has this season and if the ref still can't make a firm decision then let the goal stand, no problem with that, but at least review it.

Yep, get two high quality central midfielders in and the team definitely moves from top 6-8 to potential top 4. It would be great if we could address other issues as well but we'll have to do things in priority order over a period of time on a limited budget, just like Klopp has had to do at Liverpool.

Next season look at a new striker and make a decision on the futures of Nketiah, Holding and Nelson. We will probably also be looking for another CB to replace Luiz (assuming Soktrais, Chambers, Mustafi are all gone by then as well). I also think we could revisit the right back position if teams like PSG are still interested in Bellerin, £20m next year. That Castagne at Leciester looks a great purchase for £25m, he won't be moving to use next year but using it as an example of value in the market for players who just seem suited to the league

I think we will get Aouar. The Lyon president has made enough noise to suggest they will sell but wants a good price. My gut feeling is something around 40 million with add ons will do it but Lyon will drag it out to at least make it look to their fans that they didn't sell too easily.

Partey or another is going to depend on sales. Such a shame we can't find the buyers or permanent deals for Torreira and Guendouzi. That could be enough to buy Partey if we could sell at market rate. You'd hope if Atletico want Torreira that some deal can be struck there.
Also so annoying that Özil is happy to just waste his time and not go and play football somewhere, even if we covered 50% of his wage it would be £9m to add to the transfer pot.

There are sales to be made that could still generate good money

Agree with that. I really want us to get Partey and Aouar, to get us to that next level where we can challenge for the title in the near future, but we can get top 4 even without them. Liverpool and Manchester City will be firmly out of reach for anyone else, but Manchester United aren't all that looking beyond their front three, and Chelsea for all their money spent look dreadful so far. Rode their luck against a Brighton side that outplayed them for big parts of the game, and were crap against Liverpool and WBA. Leicester looking like the biggest threat so far, with Everton as an outsider, but we should definitely be in the fight.

Good post.

We competed far better last night, and gave Liverpool a fright. As both you and Niall mention, we've given them a couple of black eyes recently so they were extremely motivated for this one. They played far far better than they did against Leeds, so the claims that Leeds gave them more of a game are unfair imo. At least it feels like we give enough of a toss now.

We need a bit of patience and give Mikel time, just like Liverpool gave Klopp.

The passing out from the back should be a tactic not a fetish. If you have Aubameyang a few balls over the top would not go astray to keep the Pool defence honest.

Yes, let's not forget Liverpool finished 8th the season Klopp took over as manager, and in the following two seasons they finished 4th. It's going to be a gradual process where we need to strengthen our team and build our way of playing up bit by bit. I think we've seen enough from Arteta to be quite positive that he's the guy to lead us at least, can't say the same for Chelsea, United and Tottenham.

I agree with this. Playing out from the back gets increasingly dodgy the better the opposition is at closing players in possession down. Although there were no errors from that to give a goal away, Liverpool are close to the finished article in closing players down. Hence it was always going to be quite risky last night.

This upcoming international break could be quite well timed for us. Sheffield United at home is definitely a game we should win with our current squad, but then it's two weeks until we're up against City. If we get a signing or two done before the window closes chances are they will be ready to play by then. Leicester looking like an early key fixture.

If this is true Aoua, can go where ever but not to us. I only want people committed to the fight. He'll have a good year and use that as a bargaining chip to eff off to City.

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/footbal ... ews-gossip