A lot of pundits in the last couple of weeks have described what character they expect to see from Arsenal if they truly are capable of being Champions this season. To be fair those talking are well qualified to know what it takes to get over the line.
Gary Neville said the best teams wouldn’t feel sorry for themselves regarding injuries and suspensions, and that the players on the pitch would still believe they could find a way to beat Liverpool at home. Mostly, those who started on Sunday did that. Especially in the first half, we played like a side offended by the overreaction to our only defeat since April. insulted perhaps by the notion that we would be underdogs at our own home against opponents with a poor recent record against the top 6 and who have only ever won 4 times in the League at the Emirates.
Roy Keane though was left questioning our mentality when in the second period we seemed to choose to sit back and try to protect our 2-1 lead. Tactics that essentially gave Slot the initiative. To paraphrase, he suggested the Gunners played like they hoped they wouldn’t concede a 2nd equalizer, not actually believing.
Yet I have often heard previous Premiership winners (including the two mentioned at Sky Sports) who have said the sign of maturity is reading the room and assessing the situation.
That sometimes if it’s not your day, it’s better to dust yourself off and take the draw rather than risk everything and have nothing to show for our efforts.
In his later years, Arsene Wenger would drop points by searching for more goals, leaving his defence exposed despite leading. He never would have parked the bus like Arteta, but who’s to say you don’t equally concede by pushing too many players forward?
There’s pros and cons to both approaches and you can’t base your opinion only when the result suits.
Putting the debate about systems to one side, we ended the match with a makeshift back 4, literally only one of them first choice. Gabriel limping off made an already anxious crowd more nervous, increased when Timber also had to be subbed.
That’s when the man management of Kiwior becomes an issue. The 23-year-old couldn’t have been confident coming on having been a sub subbed at Bournemouth. Our manager also could have trusted the experience of Zinchenko and not a teenager yet to start in the Prem. The latest player washed his hands off.
Salah’s goal came after Trent targeted Skelley being out of position.
Once the 4th goal of the game went in, I would have bitten your hand off for the final whistle. On 85 mins it was felt that Saka and Martinelli had run out of legs, our attack now looking weaker because of how Jesus has been utilized.
The visitors should have had the initiative in the last 15 mins, and we did well to manage out the situation. Some on social media have responded with the usual conspiracy theories that seem to greet us every time we drop points (didn’t VAR just award us a soft pen in the Champions League?)
The only agenda is in the media. The BBC for example on the same day published articles calling us underdogs for this fixture and then stressed this was a better result for Liverpool?
In reality, it might not feel like it now, that’s a decent result given the circumstances.
Previous versions of Arsenal lost that match.
Take the point and live to fight another day
Dan
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The logic is always to defend the lead against an equal or superior opponent. If they continued attacking and conceded as a result the ever knowing pundits, (whose opinions changes faster than a flag on a windy day and who are masters of stating the obvious and pass it as a proffessional opinion) would have questioned why not sit back and protect the lead.
It was a good result considering our current condition and the opponent, too bad our manager will beat Man city and Liverpool and go on to lose to Southampton and Ipswich. We have been there before.
I think if most fans take time to analyse what is happening to our team we should give Arteta more credit that we have only lost a game despite different ordeals in our last 9 games.
For the last 2 seasons Arteta has build his play pattern around Odegard, he has been in the Center of everything the team plays. His telepathic understanding with Saka and White on the right wing frees our left side of the pitch and makes Arsenal unpredictable.
Odegard and Saka has been the creative genius in the way Arsenal plays. Arteta said they would have to adapt new pattern after his injury. If Odegard is playing there is still a chance for Arsenal to win games despite red card.
In his absence the team have only lost one match credits to the Boys. And against Liverpool we should remember apart from Allison their keeper Liverpool had the full complements of their first 11 with fit bench. While Gabriel and Timber left the pitch injured. Let’s caught the coach and players some slack. It takes time to fully adjust in the absence of their Mr dependable skeeper.. At the moment they are doing great at that. I think after Liverpool game we shall see a different Arsenal.
I like Arteta for how he had absolutely transformed Arsenal since he waw appointed. My only critic of him has always been how cautious he can be in games. We never control games for large portions of matches anymore. We always seem to sit back and invite pressure on ourself.
And I do feel that the defensive way we are playing is contributing to the Red cards and injuries we are now experiencing. Because it seems like our players never get that much time to keep possession of the ball in most matches so they are always running after the ball all the time due to our lack of possession, they are tackling, tracking back, jumping for headers etc.. That must be so tiring / taxing on their bodies. It also must be mentally tiring always having to be on the defensive in the majority of the games. We have got to start keeping a bit of possession and stop letting teams have more than 70% of possession for large periods of the game. In big games away we normally average about 38% possession. It must be so gruelling physically and mentally for the players to always be running around defending when we could hold into possession for a bit longer so thar these players can have some respite during these tough games.
I think the super defensive / cautious approach to our games is causing physical and mental fatigue to our players hence why they keep getting red cards and these little niggles / injuries etc..
I might be speculating but why all of a sudden this our players are starting to get injured and are prone to unnecessary / brain fart Red cards?
I don’t know. 🤞🙏