Arsenal facing trouble after Liverpool’s league cup win?

Arsenal fans were hoping that the Championship leaders Bournemouth could do us a favour by giving our next Premier League opponents Liverpool a tough time and more misery in their Capital One cup match tonight. But it did not quuite work out that way at all and the Gunners now face a more confident and rejuvenated Liverpool team at Anfield on Sunday.

The home side did not really make it too hard for Brendan Rodgers and his players, with manager Eddie Howe making six changes and his team not really making Liverpool work too hard for a three goal lead. It could have been so different if Wilson had not fluffed a great chance to stun the EPL side in the opening five minutes. And then Kermogant blazed a golden opportunity for an early leveller over the bar.

As it was, slack defending allowed Sterling a free header into an almost open goal. Another mistake at the back let Markovic make it two before the break and it was just what Liverpool needed. Sterling’s goal drought over he then went on to score again and is likely to be sharp against us, assuming Rodgers keeps him up front.

But they did make Liverpool work and put them under pressure in the last half hour after pulling a goal back. Better finishing would have got them back into it and perhaps Arsenal would have seen the extra time we wanted. Those earlier chances and the late spell should be enough to keep lots of doubt in Liverpool minds.

And the Gunners are back in form and confident ourselves and there was plenty to encourage Arsene Wenger in Liverpool’s performance. Despite Bournemouth not being great they still managed to create chances and score against a shaky looking Reds defence. You would imagine that Cazorla, Giroud, Welbeck, Alexis and all will be rubbing their hands at the prospect of facing them, whether they stick with the new back three or revert to four.

They were not that great going forwards either but we will have to be careful not to concede an early goal and help their self belief any more. I reckon they are still pretty fragile and should be there for the taking. Will this result really make much difference?

Tags markovic Sterling

22 Comments

    1. Well they all know what we smoke down here so the merseyside police will be waiting but don’t wory AW has it covered he has a bunch of £1 coins ready in case if we get in trouble 😉

  1. it will boost liverpools confidence leading up to the game against us. But hopefully some of his players are getting tired as well. BR put out a strong XI since he’s desperate to save his job.

    1. wow, and I called AW deluded. Rodgers on a whole different level. Sanchez about to teach BR a lesson this weekend.

  2. I wouldnt worry about that liverpool win today, lets not get carried away after all its bournemouth that they defeated!

  3. Liverpool didn’t face a “top class opposition in the league cup which is bournemouth, so why should we worry about that!

  4. Although we’ve found a little form of late, during which Liverpool have suffered a huge decline in form, I still think we need to be realistic going into this fixture.

    We’ve still got many players missing, it’s an away game, and most importantly…Arsenal have been very poor in the big games for a very long time. Apart from the glorified friendly against Man City, Arsenal have failed to win a single big game domestically this season. I found it funny how so many fans had this renewed optimism after we beat Newcastle at home, when only the game before we got stuffed by Stoke, and recently lost to Swansea and the worst Man Utd team in decades. In fact, the win at home against Dortmund was our only big game victory all season.

    So far in what I consider the games against the big boys, and other tough fixtures domestically such as Everton and Stoke away:

    Everton (a) 2-2
    Man City (h) 2-2
    Tottenham (h) 1-1
    Chelsea (a) 0-2
    Man Utd (h) 1-2
    Stoke (a) 2-3

    It doesn’t make great reading, and you’ll notice we’ve not managed a single clean sheet. It’s a great time to play Liverpool, but I fully expect us to concede, and I won’t be surprised if we lose. Hopefully we’ll get the win though, and it would be a huge confidence boost which may lead to Arsenal going on a much needed undefeated run.

  5. Liverpool (A) QPR (H)
    West Ham (A) Southampton (A)
    If Arsenal has turned the corner
    these games will be won.
    I would gladly take 7 or 8 from 12.

  6. So Spuds spanked New Castle.

    4-0

    And we happy with 4-1, maybe New Castle are on the down so let’s not get ahead of ourselves and expect too much.

    1. Arsenal and spurs may have spanked Newcastle…….. But i’m still grateful to em for what they did to cheLski…….. Something the spuds and Arsenal couldn’t do in countless attempts

  7. When it comes to big matches, does this Arsenal team really believe that they can win. Because even after we bought world class players like Ozil, Sanchez etc who were important part of spanish giants (Real and Barca ), we didn’t have enough to win against other premier league title challengers. Whats it that really holding us back, when it comes to chelsea, manu, mancity, liverpool etc. Is it Money, Is it tactics, Is it players, Is it the style we play our game, Is it the transfer policy, Is it the Manager. How much time should we have to wait to see us winning these games. Will our dreams come true in the near future…How much time should we have to wait…..

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