Morning all.
Arsenal went toe to toe with one of the in form clubs in football. Jurgen Klopp has built his team/squad over a number of seasons now and they’re hard to beat. Without a clinical striker, hard to score against. But, Arsenal created chances and that’s the positive. As is, the pressure Mikel Arteta’s players put on Liverpool. We wanted the ball more and invariably, and certainly in the first half, we won it.
Two second half goals for Liverpool won the game but any suggestion that it was Klopps excellent game management and changes which made the difference is something I disagree with. In my opinion, they won because Aaron Ramsdale didn’t close the gap between himself and his near post which allowed Jota to squeeze his shot past him. Had Bukayo Saka let the ball got out for a throw in, Firmino would never have scored.
It’s easy to be critical after the event though, especially towards Saka because I suspect in his mind, with the right touch, we’d have been the team on the attack and not Liverpool. Ramsdale will be kicking himself this morning I’m sure because he’ll know he should have done better, he’ll know his positioning should have been better. Yes, it’s frustrating for us as fans but I’m not going to bitch or moan about a player who has been superb since his arrival at the club or another who week after week since his debut does so much for the team.
Martin Odegaard could have done better with his chance when the score was at 0-0, Alex Lacazette should have been more alert on the quick free kick, Gabriel Martinelli should have bent his shot just a little bit more to make it 2-1. A player in a red shirt should have been ready for Martinelli’s cut back after he’d left several Liverpool players with egg on their face. I absolutely loved the nutmeg. Again, it’s easy to be critical or suggest certain players should/could have done better but not for minute do I believe they weren’t trying to.
Bar scoring, I thought Arsenal were very good against a team considered by ‘many footballing people’ to be the best in Europe. Gabriel Martinelli was outstanding and had his shot late in the game, crept inside the far post, it’d been no more than he deserved.
After the match, Mikel Arteta was asked a number of things, two of which are below.
Whether our missed chances decided the game…
Absolutely. I don’t think the result properly reflects the performance of the team, but from box to box I think in many moments we were the better team and we did everything we planned. The way the boys performed showed their courage to play the way that we wanted to play and the intensity and the understanding of the game, they really raised the level today, but unfortunately these games are won in the boxes and that was the critical difference today to not get anything out of this game unfortunately.
Whether that clinical edge showed the difference between us and Liverpool…
It was the difference today. I don’t think there was any other difference apart from that. I think we have closed that gap a lot, but it wasn’t enough because when we went through that door and they went through that door, they scored two goals. I’m not happy with the goals that we conceded, but it’s part of the game and when you have those chances you have to take them to get something out of it.
Have Arsenal closed the huge gap between themselves, City and Liverpool? I certainly think so.
What Arteta said about games being won in the box is so true, both boxes too. Without the errors, we’d have got something from the game, with better finishing, we’d have got something from the game. That imo, was the difference between the two sides. The options on the bench too. Salah and Firmino are ‘different’ to Eddie Nketiah and Nicolas Pepe. All will be addressed in the summer hopefully.
For now though, preparing for Aston Villa on Saturday lunchtime is important thing. Regroup, reenergise and go to Villa Park in a positive frame of mind.
See you in the comments.
Good morning. The numb feeling is still there. We played so, so well and lost by two silly goals.
In answer to Geoff’s question last night , I think that we tried but ultimately lost out . Either for a lack of money or the willingness to spend it or the lack of European football .
Footballers live in the world of instant gain , Fans live in the what might be.
Agree bnsb, so close eh.
If we have another productive summer, I think next season we’ll be chasing down City and Liverpool.
I think so too re a striker in January but what/who they wanted couldn’t happen. Frustrating in some ways but at it shows that just anyone won’t do.
We’re just not quite at Liverpool’s level. The cagey tactics of the 1st half worked well, but we looked a bit sluggish at the start of the 2nd and were punished. Two mistakes, two goals.
I think Cedric was being dragged out of position at the start of the 2nd half and nobody told him to get closer to the central defenders. I’m sure Tomiyasu would have made a difference there.
Lacazette was back to the ineffective version we don’t like. A more powerful centre forward would have pressured their defence more.
Martinelli was our MoM. He gave TAA a hard evening.
With a few upgrades next season we should be on the coattails of Liverpool.
First off I’m happy with last nights performance. Liverpool are a very good team and we are still building ours. We still need 2 more players to get our first 11 sorted and probably 3-4 more players on the bench. Bearing that in mind we shouldn’t expect to beat Liverpool.
It would have been nice though, and the performance we put in was only marginally behind them. A few costly mistakes from younger players, add that into the fact our bench isn’t up to this level, and that cost us the three points.
Last point though, and I’m not creating a pile on. I think Cedric’s part in the second goal is being missed. While Saka makes his mistake on the touchline (as most can see) Cedric is sprinting forwards leaving his position. The same position that Liverpool exploit to score. While Saka is inexperienced and will learn, Cedric is not and is a weak link.
Agree re the need for first team players, midfielder and striker and then on the bench, we need players who’ll either give us a shut up shop option, or something different going forward.
We’ll need a bigger squad in any case for next season.
Cedric certainly didn’t cover himself in glory for the second goal and perhaps even White could have done better.
As you say though Hobart, youngsters will learn.
Good Morning Rico and all
I enjoyed reading the post. even though we lost….its a positive one and that is very refreshing.
We played good game last night, We stood up to Liverpool for big parts of the game and for a better final ball we could have scored at least one goal
The game was decided by two errors. Saka is only 19 and Ramsdale, who has been brilliant all season so much so that we wouldn’t even be in with a shout without himt, is only 24. Between them their age is only 43, just a year older than Ibrahimovic who is still playing in the serie a. All keepers make errors at least once in their lives. even Seaman did. hopefully he will learn from it and move on. We have a game with Villa and Ramsdale needs to be on his best so he can shut Martinez’s account on instagram from gloating against Arsenal like he always does.
Like the first goal, the second one was down to inexperience and ill luck. 99 times out of 100 that ball would have begun a counter attack or gone for a throw in. But it was typical Liverpool and with one of the best front 4 in the world the team were punished.
We are quite obviously are getting better and better but we have to start taking points off these bigger sides more often. we have run city and dippers quite close in both games…..but we need to be more clinical when presented with the chances in front of goal. Teams like city and dippers punish you if you dont, especially with a front line like theirs.
Am I down?? no. dissappointed yes. But, as AW used to say, you pay the price of youth through points. And I am glad that we are paying the price now.
if i am asked who i would like to see as a striker being bought……look no further than Darwin Nunez of benfica. unless we pay Halaands release clause of 75 million. we paid 72 million for Pepe….so why not the same amount for Haaland
the stats show we were close…..we had 49 per cent to their 51. both of the teams had the same total shots…9. we had 2 shots on target to their 3 and off target we had 3 to their 2. both teams had 4 blocked shots.
due to inexperience and lack of clinical finishing we were done again but it felt like we took it to them in the 1st half and start of 2nd. if maybe we had got a goal things might have been different.
am very happy with what i saw but yesterday, like it was against City, was pone of the most encouraging performances from us against a top team. Sometimes you have to face facts and see that currently, those 2 teams are pretty much untouchable.
we have a bright future with this squad
maybe some will laugh at me, or say its impossible…..but I feel that one of Haaland or Gnabry will be at the club next season.
Just a hunch or a feeling. they wont come cheap but one of them will be with us.
Morning Devil.
I was reading about Nunez only the other day. He’d be quite a catch I think.
Perhaps paying £72m for Pepe is a reason we won’t pay over the odds again.
@Potter – I dont think you can use the ‘not enough money spent’ ruse when Arsenal over the past 5 years have the 3rd highest net spend at well over double Liverpool’s, or even Chelsea’s for that matter
@devilgunner – Arsenal played brilliantly but comparing shots on target, don’t forget that 50% of Arsenal’s shots on target were created by Liverpool themselves
I think we will pay……not over the odds certainly, but on the right players. Haaland and Gnabry certainly are right players who have played at the top. the bundesliga is certainly of a higher level than ligue 1.
Morning Rico and All
I hope the player take some positives out of the match, yes we made some Mistakes but we will learn from it and best of all the mistakes were made during a match that we all penciled in for a loss and most importantly we kept then to only 2 goals
Cedric called up for the play-off against Turkey and maybe Italy. (Cancelo and Nelson Semedo are injured).
Nunez 70 ???? Have you seen him play??? Why don’t we try Diogo Jota?
1. There is no shame in that if the answer to Rico’s precious question (Do Arsenal have what it takes to match Liverpool?) the answer was a “No”. At least I’m happy that it wasn’t a “Hell no!” Liverpool is a good team, in fact a better one. We made them fight hard for the points, but they were not merely more clinical in front of goal. The xG was 1.28 : 0.53 to them, so while there wasn’t a clear 2-goal difference between the 2 clubs the defeat was not unfair by any means.
2. I’m not sure about the prolific striker thing. I mean I would love to have a world class striker in our club, but there was only one situation yesterday where a more clinical striker could have scored, and that was Odegaards’s shot (which had a 0.54 xG, meaning Arsenal did ‘threaten’ Allison’s goal only to a .011 xG the rest of the game). We didn’t create many chances – the major issue under Arteta – and a striker couldn’t have helped much by himself. A Haaland/Mbappé kind of guy is the solution if we have a huge xG but fail to convert those chances. This is not the case with our team currently.
3. Haaland will never play for Arsenal. This is not because of the asking price. Even though we could pay 80M for a player, the club would never agree on a 500k weekly salary. And rightfully so. We don’t have the money to begin with, but more importantly that would kill the dressing room unity. When Martinelli, Saka and Smith-Rowe makes 30k and we would like to tie them down by tripling their salary to 90k… a new guy earning 500k would poison the atmosphere and instantly undermine the players’ loyalty to the club. We may go as high as 250k, but that won’t get us a Haaland or Mbappé.
4. It could get a Gnabry though (he makes 115k with Bayern), but I’m not sure he is the clinical striker the club is looking for. He is a great player, don’t get me wrong, but he is first and foremost a winger, of which we have abundance at Arsenal. I would go for PSV’s Gapko, Isak from Real Sociedad or Jonathan David of Lille, as I don’t see Lautaro Martinez or Joao Felix joining. But I did not yet give up on the Lacazette-Nketiah-Balogun trio, albeit this being an unpopular opinion nowadays. And let’s not forget, Edu could always snap up a relatively unknown young forward from Brazil.
Good day Rico and all.
Disappointed but far from disillusioned
What a great headline, almost says it all for me.
It’s obvious to us all that we need a much more aggressive presence in the penalty box, much as I like and admire Lacazette for his spirit and application it’s unarguable that he is failing in his primary function, that of scoring goals. We may well try to sign a summer replacement for him and I’m hopeful that we will but, there is always a but, Arteta’s tutor and mentor has fashioned a team that does not play with a central striker. Yes, they tried to sign Kane last summer, but the so-called chase for his signature was not really pressed and I’m sure that if they were serious, they would have met Levy’s asking price.
So it may be that Arteta will follow Guardiola’s lead and look to get goals from sources other than crosses into the box for a centre forward to nod into the net.
Four games on the trot now without a red card, do we have a team of little angels or has Riley called off his dogs?
Story on world sports that West ham player Kurt Zouma and his brother Yoan have been finally charged for the abuse of his cat.
Geoff,
With a war criminal as head of state, Russia is waging war on Ukrainian civilians, the World is in a fuel crisis as result of Putin’s actions. The fuel shortage is affecting food production and pushing up prices of basic foodstuffs. Global warming, melting ice caps, floods, plagues, storms and looming famine. All that and we learn that a footballer and his brother have been charged with abusing a cat. Where ffs do the world press priorities lie.
Ramsdale, White, Smith-Rowe and Saka have been called up to the national squad.
Sorry Ged, didn’t see you in moderation.
Afternoon Gooners a la Rico, Haaland is a fantastic thought but when you see who his agent is I think you can see the reason why Arsenal are unlikely to be involved in his transfer
Hi Geoff.
Pbarany, what about just before Odegaard shot, Lacazette was in a good position to shoot, what about being alert to the quick free kick or getting in the right place for Martinelli’s cut back? I love Lacca but….
Afternoon Cicero.
Good point re the City way and it wouldn’t surprise me. Wasn’t there a rumour about ESR training to play in the false no9 whatever that means, and Martinelli training as a central player?
Not surprised Devil.
Peter, I think a quality striker would have made a difference, remember when Martinelli skipped past Matic and Arnold, a quality striker would have been on the near post for the flicked finish much as Firmino was for his goal, Laca bless him hasn’t got that burst anymore.
Then there was the Martinelli free kick through to Laca who for a second had switched off, chance gone, a quality striker would have been looking for that pass.
Finally when the ball was accidentally knocked back to Laca with just the keeper to beat, now would a quality striker have scored or have been able to make more of that opportunity?
Those are the small differences the stats don’t show and it was they more than the Ramsdale error etc that cost us that game.
Arteta alluded to it in his post match natter.
any of you all….what do you feel about the Rashford runmours
rumours not runmours. lol
You haven’t read the post again have you Kev? 😜😜
Zilch Devil. 😂
Valid points Rico and Kevin. I hope that a quality striker will indeed make a difference.
I’m just worried that if Lacazette doesn’t qualify for being a quality striker, then I’m not sure if Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Ivan Toney or Ollie Watkins would. I don’t think they are clear improvement over Laca, and even if so, would they be an improvement worth 60M? Vlahovic could have been one, but there are not many young(ish) strikers that are obviously better than Laca, and wouldn’t cost 150M like Mane, Kane, Haaland, Mbappe or Salah.
Kev, good shout on the Raiola. That is also a reason Haaland would never play for us. And when I checked his clientele at TransferMarkt I got depressed as I saw Gravenberch there who is my main candidate for the midfield improvement project. He is young, experienced already, has insane stamina, but I don’t think we should ever have a player that is represented by Mino Raiola or Fernando Felicevich at our club.
Better or different though Pbarany? Who knows who Arteta will go for, I certainly don’t. 😂
Middlesbrough chairman Steve Gibson on Chelsea’s request to play the game behind closed doors:
“I can’t believe it. Sporting integrity and Chelsea do not belong in the same sentence. For 19 years corrupt money has fuelled Chelsea’s success. This is pathetic.
Our fans, our club, our players and our manager have done nothing wrong. If Chelsea were to succeed, and the game be played behind closed doors, does that mean all the Premier League games have to be played behind closed doors? And all the Champions League games? And for what reason? Because of their owner, all the rest of us have to suffer.
This has to be kicked out and [Chelsea chairman] Bruce Buck should be kicked out.
It’s abhorrent. This rotten football club, Chelsea. We pick up the newspapers and read about Abramovich and the way he conducted his life, and we see what’s going on in Ukraine, and it’s beyond comprehension. It really is.”
Chelsea are fast becoming a bunch of cowards who cannot look at anyone in the eyes. not even at themselves in the mirror.
Well said Steve Gibson!
You Busted me Rico ☹️☹️😆
Then again, I was aonly agreeing with you but putting it a slightly different way perhaps? 🤔
Great comments there by Steve Gibson
Cicero I know what is happening with the war and I hate Putin and his supporters as much as everyone else but I thought this site is about football or it’s players,
Arsenal do not seem to be a million miles away but imo need to instruct Martinelli (or ESR) to be more of a striker than a winger – correct ploy against Trent to stymie his game – but instead of dribbling wide like a winger needs to drive in from that side into the striker’s position. With lacazette and Odegaard both trying to be number 10s and Saka’s instincts are not those of a striker but a winger (he can stay wide to stretch the play) there’s not enough bodies in the striker’s position when the ball comes in – that is to say both Marrtinelli and ESR should start wide but be in the number 9 when the ball is there), but you need Sakah as a winger otherwise all creativity is thru Odegaard – there’s a lot of talk above in the thread about names of strikers but Liverpool show the personell adapt to the strategy not the other way around, apart from the splurge funded by Coutinho there was not a single top player bought, with Salah at just 36m – Martinelli will be a better striker than Salah (Salah would just about shade it as a winger). You guys need 2 years, but you should be there before the Mancs despite the money they will throw at the squad in that time, unfortunately for me Lpool will be the ones to drop as Klopp will have retired by then
good morning Rico and all
Ged….good comment with regards the role of Martinelli, ESR and Saka. its just a lack of experience and physiological maturity on their part. they are around 19/20 years old and its a known fact that male bodies are not fully mature before the age of 22. so they are still developing.
last wednesday i had the same feeling when we lost against Barcelona in the champions league final. the feeling of having stood up and played very good against a strong side but only luck and lack of composure in front of goal by our players contrived to lose us the game.
Ged I like it when ESR plays straight down the centre it seems to suite his no nonsense attack style of play. hopefully soon he get more game time.
My biggest surprise has been Xhaka not picking up any yellow or red card in the last few matches.
Geoff….do you feel that ESR can play as a CF himself?? He is young, he scores, has a knack of being in the right place at the right time, knows how to make a run for Odegaard’s, Saka’s or Martinelli’s passes or crosses and through balls. He is our topscorer this season.
Plus he is taller than Lacazette by a full three inches. Its true he does not have the speed of TH14, or TW14 but I feel he can play through the centre in the CF position.
But should he ?
He is in old parlance the perfect inside forward and one that as the world at his feet . Trying to make him something he isnt as a stop gap will be no good for either him or us in the long run.
Potter…I did not mean him as a stop gap. I meant he could make a career in that position. Yes he is the perfect inside forward as you said but with Odegaard in that position do you honestly see him ousting Odegaard? Unless Arteta goes with both Odegaard and ESR together with PArtey in midfield, I feel that ESR will only get to play as a CF or winger…..or rotate with Odegaard, Saka and Martinelli, in which case would be a waste of talent since one of them gets to sit on the bench. Its true that football is a squad game but even now I loathe it when I see he is not in the starting 11.
Where do you play him if Odegaard, Martinelli and Saka are all fit, playing well and creating chances/scoring goals? the only two positions remaining are CF and one of the double pivot in DM. And I cannot see Odegaard and ESR playing so deep besides Partey.
I see your point….but I would love seeing him play game in game out….and with his knack of scoring he would be perfect as a forward since he does create chances, makes assists and knows how to make runs.
Devil I would like to see ESR play the role of a second C F / CM / striker so he has 4 options 1 take a long shot or run into goal 2 pass to the left midfield 3 pass to pass to the right midfield or even a short pass to the say Laca for that quick spin and shoot from the centre of the goal. I recon next season he could replace Laca and Laca play another season for us but of the bench.
Hope That make sense
Laca will go. He has turned down the contract offer he had from Arsenal….that of one year contract with an option of a 2nd year. Arsenal are reluctant to offer anyone over 30 the type offered to Ozil/Auba……and as much as I like Laca and want him to stay because feel he is a top performer for Arsenal and a role model for those around him I am certain that that is the best way forward.
It would be funny if ESR took his place as a CF and ended up playing there for England and benching spuddiekane. Now that would be hilariously rubbing salt into the Spuds wounds
And if that really happened…..ESR replacing Kane it would amount to hearing Anne Robinson say the following, “ESR, you have won the World/Euro cup. Kane you end up with nothing. You were the weakest link. goodbye.”
Oh dear.
Speaking of England’s national team…..it would be so satisfying to see Ramsdale, Saka, ESR and White become regulars for England and winning one of the two top honours.
After Arsenal being pilloried so much because of lack of Englishmen in the team it would be so great to see England win something with four (or more) Arsenal players in the English first 11
Could you image The world cup and one of our young players come of the bench with 5 minutes left and score in the dying seconds to draw the match and then Ramsdale save the last penalty shot to win the Title
Why that scenario Geoff?? I want all our lads to begin the match and win it in normal time. But yes, Ramsdale to save a last minute penalty to deny the opposition a consolation goal. Especially if the opposition player is a spuddie.
Devil I recon more people would remember the day 2 arsenal players won the world cup for England that way.
Not to mention being an Aussie I would want England to win it too easy. LOL
As wel as Odegaard is playing and he is,I argued at the time that we didn’t need him aswe had ESR .However now we do and is a problem to be solved .
Going back years Smith Rowe is a more talented version of Merson . He has an eye for goal and his asset is coming from deep positions and appearing late in the box . I don’t think sticking him up front will do him any good . He would go from being an outstanding attacking international midfielder to a run of the mill striker in my opinion.
@Devilgunner – I think Potter’s correct – he’s good as an inside forward already – to be a CF you need to make your own space – normally through physicality and ESR/ Martinelli will not develop that side as they’re not big guys, you’re then relying on them being quicker on the turn. But as Arsenal develop you’ll face what Lpool faced – defences sitting deeper and denying space
Giving the oppo Centrebacks nothing to do and tying up their fullbacks by staying slightly out wide means you stop their FBs going forward and the CBs with no one to really get tight to then come out to intercept your number 10s, somewhat duplicating their Defensive midfielders – as soon as this happens the likes of Martinelli/ESR have space to move into behind their CBs. Their CBs, being CBs, aren’t adept at deciding to leave the guy they marked, or knowing if their goalie comes off the line to cover or not, and so ESR/Martinelli have space
Harlaand can make his own space in the box through his physicality. ESR / Martinelli cant let the CB dominate them by staying tight – same as in my own team with Salah, Mane, Jota or Diaz – Salah has got massively stronger over the past few years but he still wont out muscle a big CB, and if he’s close to them and they drop deep he wont have space in behind either
Arsenal have got Odegaard thru the middle, something Lpool never really had and we cried out for that – you aint got 2 fullbacks but Tierney is every bit as good as Robertson (Blimey he’s much quicker than I thought – outpaced Mane, Trent and Diaz in our game), so if Saka stays wide and plays like a winger, as he’s not a striker, then he can stretch defences on the right and Tierney needs to be more attack minded down the left – doesn’t need to be totally symmetrical
All of those players mentioned are too young, they need 2 years to be effective at the very top level – but unless you want a massively massively expensive squad you need patience.
It’ll come
I do have one issue with Arsenal – Ramsdale
Talented, but has a touch of the Pickfords about him in that he seems to play to the cameras and gets a bit cocky too often
The talent’s definitely there but for me the focus isn’t
Afternoon guys, I’m all for leaving players to do what they grew up doing and do best. If Arsenal need a striker, which I think we all agree and probably more than one, sign one. Fitting square pegs into round holes seldom works well for anyone imo.
I don’t think Ramsdale is cocky either. He’s just young, enthusiastic and is full of passion.
New post up now