It was amazing, not to mention a shock, to see Arsenal score three goals against Liverpool in the space of six minutes after our team had only managed the same amount of goals in the previous 400 minutes of Premier League football. But we were probably not as shocked as Jurgen Klopp who saw his team throw away a comfortable lead in those minutes of maddness.
Klopp thinks that the only reason Arsenal were given those chances was because of his own side’s laxity in defence. “We had five minutes where we had obvious, individual problems,” Klopp said. “It was on all of the Arsenal goals. There were misjudgments on all of them. Then, we reacted much better and we deserved the point. That was the minimum we deserved. We played 94 minutes and for 89 minutes, the performance was what we wanted.
“The five minutes, of course, were decisive and difficult to explain. We opened the door for them in these five minutes and they took their chances. It was a strange game. Usually at Arsenal, a point is absolutely OK. But tonight it’s different.”
The German was particularly scathing of Granit Xhaka’s equaliser from a potshot from outside the box which looked like it was going straight at Simon Mignolet. Klopp continued: “Xhaka can shoot a few more times in this life and Simon Mignolet saves these balls in 99.9% of all situations,” Klopp said. “Not tonight.”
Were Arsenal really just lucky for five minutes of the game or did we earn a fair draw?
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We were very lucky that Liverpool’s front line were off form. It may seem strange saying that, considering they scored 3 away from home against a top team, but they missed so many gilt-edged chances. Very similar in the game at Anfield as well. They’ve scored 7 in just 2 games against us this season, but should have easily doubled that.
Our defending is a bad as Sunday league. I don’t say that as a joke, or tongue-in-cheek, it really is shocking! We’re the worst we’ve EVER been defensively under Wenger these days. I can honestly see a team getting double figures against us in just one game, before Wenger leaves us.
Ridiculous comment, look at Man U tonight I guess Maureen will say they were unlucky but that’s the premier league. Goals happen, as teams are set up to attack more than defend.
Spot on and the whole reason is that Wenger does not even accept that proper defence is vitally important. Right now there is not one, NOT ONE, reliable outfield defender at Arsenal; one you can rely on to mark, be in position, have courage to take a hit in the face or body by throwing themselves in front of a shot, Adams, Bould, Keown, Dixon, Winterburn, proper ballsy men style. We have a bunch of pansies , weedy, clueless, the blind leading the blind types in our laughably so called “defence”. It is an outrage that the invisible owner and spineless corrupt board have not sacked this senile, dementia ridden , ridiculous fraud many years ago, let alone not even now. I will be honest and say I wish him A SUDDEN SACKING , TODAY IF POSSIBLE. TEN YEARS AGO WOULD HAVE BEEN FAR BETTER.
Go back a bit further to Rice, Storie, McNab, McLintock and O’Leary, as top Arsenal defensive players Ian Wright played under both George Graham and Arsene Wenger and he has discussed the attention George Graham paid to training for organised team defending and practicing solid defensive techniques, compared to Arsene Wenger’s apparent total disregard for this part of the game.
Arsenal’s attack is not good enough to compensate for the current diabolical defending. Looking at our current defenders, it is not that they are individually poor (apart from Kos who is carrying injury), as many are internationals, but they are not coached to assess danger, cover the threat and defend as a team. This can be laid completely at the feet of Arsene Wenger and Steve Bould!
Pep says his teams don’t prepare defensively, they all work on passing and pressing and shooting. He says they don’t practice tackling. I think it was Pep who said it but it could’ve been one of his players.
It is usually a weakness of a Pep team, but this one seems a bit more solid, Barca was his worst defence.
We should aim to be like that Bayern team before Pep took over. They were a proper team capable of doing it all. They could defend like Italians, they had power and flair through midfield. They could excite with the best of them and be very clinical. That was a great team.
Your comment is ridiculous. Of course Wenger cares about defending. And yes, Arsenal do block shots, look at Mustafi, he blocks them heroically regularly. So does Koscielny, he took one in the groin just a couple games ago.
The reason teams are finding joy recently is because of amateur defensive errors. Mustafi was guilty vs. Man U. but Koscielny has been giving away the ball frequently lately, which is strange and unlike him. There are clearly some jitters.
Needless to say, these players know the level that is expected from them. If Koscielny makes a bad pass or slips on the turf, I don’t know how you can possibly blame that on Wenger, he’ll be as angry as anyone.
Of course, it’s easier for dumb people to simply blame everything on Wenger, he’s the cause of all the problems!! But you could put any manager in his place and it wouldn’t matter, if a player is going to make an amateurish mistake they have to take responsibility, not blame the manager–whoever they are. At a top professional level, you don’t make mistakes like that.
I agree tho many fans who cant read games like those who played it a long time (no offence) but reading a game is half the battle and as someone who played for 25 years tho not the best teams or leagues i still know what its about and have watched 30 years now of ball on tv i can say we are a disgrace at the back how many stray passes Xhaca alone made is a joke i can only hope something changes cause we need it i love us dominating teams but when we got 70% possesion and only 1 shot on target its a joke.sry lad s but enoughs enough Wenger had his day its over now time to move on……………….
Fed up saying it . Our defence is shocking and the positions taken by our centre half’s is amateurish to say the least . You can’t compete for titles if you defend the way we do and these guys are seasoned internationals. It is a sad reflection on wenger and Bould that we haven’t improved in that area in their time in charge together. Christ sake sort it out or get out
Your dead right man my christmas ruined over that 1st half i didnt care what happened after that shocking half i mean ive seen non league teams put up a better display and i blame 1 guy the manager as the tactics were all wrong and whats worse is it didnt change.
Monreal as CB, Niles as LB, Kolsanic and Mustafi on the bench…….NUFF SAID
Our entire squad is made up of average and Mediocre players
Liverpool should have won by a margin of 5 6 goals if they took half the chances they missed and avoided school boy errors.
We have been lucky we have yet to loose in this month because we have been the poorer side 75% of the time and yet managed to escape with points.
If teams did not give us too much respect we would be 10th right now because we are poorest side amongst top 6 no doubt
God. Negative Arsenal fans are so annoying. Nothing but hysterical meltdowns at the drop of a hat. Rather than support the club, you’re going to tell all the players they are shit. No chance of our top players signing again when they have to face attitudes like that. Look at the quality of clubs that are trying to pry our players away. Anyways, top talent come for Wenger, not for you. But have it your way, alienate all the talent. What Wenger built you can tear down. Enjoy being hysterical, weak and despairing all the time. Once you’ve alienated all the talent and the club starts to implode you can pat yourself on the back.
Very well put, it’s time to get behind the players and stop this horrible negativity, it must affect people that receive criticism every day by people that should be thee to support them. They do not make mistakes on purpose nor through lack of effort. Please Support the team.
I wish to all the fans who join the discussions
in this Forum a nice and peaceful Christmas
J.A
we sat back and put them under pressure, making it a little harder for them to play out from the back and once we were in possession/interception it became a very technical and typical arsenal mind set game oppose to a typical vardy goal capitalizing with counter on a defense playing deep. once we scored the three goals we lost focus or to sum it up more accurately sanchez lost possession that lead to there third goal. liverpool seem to have got famous this season with 2 potential victories over arsenal but lets not talk about what could of been. we have won the F.A cup three times in four years and charity shields. liverpool have taken 4 points from us this season and have not changed the date of silverware in 12 years, we are also in the semi final of the carabao cup so lets not obsess over the liverpool draw. arsenal need to paint teams with different brushes, that way they will not paint us with the same brush.
Hi guys, I don’t want you to blame this players too much, I can understand if you get angry at the fact that they commit too much errors which has somehow cost us some points which I think we could have grab. Take a good look at the tactics the team plays at the moment, u’ll see that is where Arsenal’s problem is coming from. The Arsenal I use to know would attack you from the first minute till the last.
Gk
Niles……Kos6……..Mustaffi……..Monrael
Rambo/Will10……Zhaka/Coqulin
Ozil/walcott Sanchez/Iwobi
Lacazette. Giroud/Welbeck
we can use our fullbacks to deliver crosses to the box and we have the likes of Ozil, Iwobi and Sanchez who are capable of coming through the middle. Guys we already have a BIG squad all we need is a change of tactics. we simply cannot play (4-2-3-1) or (3-4-2-1). when you talk about Arsenal, you should be talking about free flowing Attacking football
4-4-2 is our best tactics. Arsenal for life